Comprehensive and high-resolution emission inventory of atmospheric pollutants for the northernmost cities agglomeration of Harbin-Changchun, China: Implications for local atmospheric environment management

Using a bottom-up estimation method, a comprehensive, high-resolution emission inventory of gaseous and particulate atmospheric pollutants for multiple anthropogenic sectors with typical local sources has been developed for the Harbin-Changchun city agglomeration (HCA). The annual emissions for CO, NOx, SO₂, NH₃, VOC_S, PM_2.5, PM₁₀, BC and OC during 2017 in the HCA were estimated to be 5.82 Tg, 0.70 Tg, 0.34 Tg, 0.75 Tg, 0.81Tg, 0.67 Tg, 1.59 Tg, 0.12 Tg and 0.26 Tg, respectively. For PM₁₀ and SO₂, the emissions from industry processes were the dominant contributors representing 54.7% and 49.5%, respectively, of the total emissions, while 95.3% and 44.5% of the total NH₃ and NOx emissions, respectively, were from or associated with agricultural activities and transportation. Spatiotemporal distributions showed that most emissions (except NH₃) occurred in November to March and were concentrated in the central cities of Changchun and Harbin and the surrounding cities. Open burning of straw made an important contribution to PM_2.5 in the central regions of the northeastern plain during autumn and spring, while domestic coal combustion for heating purposes was significant with respect to SO₂ and PM_2.5 emissions during autumn and winter. Furthermore, based on Principal Component Analysis and Multivariable Linear Regression model, air temperature, relative humidity, electricity and energy consumption, and the urban and rural population were optimized to be representative indicators for rapidly assessing the magnitude of regional atmospheric pollutants in the HCA. Such indicators and equations were demonstrated to be useful for local atmospheric environment management.     

Impact of meteorological condition changes on air quality and particulate chemical composition during the COVID-19 lockdown

Stringent quarantine measures during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown period (January 23, 2020 to March 15, 2020) have resulted in a distinct decrease in anthropogenic source emissions in North China Plain compared to the paralleled period of 2019. Particularly, 22.7% decrease in NO₂ and 3.0% increase of O₃ was observed in Tianjin, nonlinear relationship between O₃ generation and NO₂ implied that synergetic control of NO_x and VOCs is needed. Deteriorating meteorological condition during the COVID-19 lockdown obscured the actual PM_2.5 reduction. Fireworks transport in 2020 Spring Festival (SF) triggered regional haze pollution. PM_2.5 during the COVID-19 lockdown only reduced by 5.6% in Tianjin. Here we used the dispersion coefficient to normalize the measured PM_2.5 (DN-PM_2.5), aiming to eliminate the adverse meteorological impact and roughly estimate the actual PM_2.5 reduction, which reduced by 17.7% during the COVID-19 lockdown. In terms of PM_2.5 chemical composition, significant NO₃^? increase was observed during the COVID-19 lockdown. However, as a tracer of atmospheric oxidation capacity, odd oxygen (O_x = NO₂ + O₃) was observed to reduce during the COVID-19 lockdown, whereas relative humidity (RH), specific humidity and aerosol liquid water content (ALWC) were observed with noticeable enhancement. Nitrogen oxidation rate (NOR) was observed to increase at higher specific humidity and ALWC, especially in the haze episode occurred during 2020SF, high air humidity and obvious nitrate generation was observed. Anomalously enhanced air humidity may response for the nitrate increase during the COVID-19 lockdown period.     

Chemical characteristics, oxidative potential, and sources of PM2.5 in wintertime in Lahore and Peshawar, Pakistan

The chemical characteristics, oxidative potential, and sources of PM_2.5 were analyzed at the urban sites of Lahore and Peshawar, Pakistan in February 2019. Carbonaceous species, water soluble ions, and metal elements were measured to investigate the chemical composition and sources of PM_2.5. The dithiothreitol (DTT) consumption rate was measured to evaluate the oxidative potential of PM_2.5. Both cities showed a high exposure risk of PM_2.5 regarding its oxidative potential (DTT_v). Carbonaceous and some of the elemental species of PM_2.5 correlated well with DTT_v in both Lahore and Peshawar. Besides, the DTT_v of PM_2.5 in Lahore showed significant positive correlation with most of the measured water soluble ions, however, ions were DTT-inactive in Peshawar. Due to the higher proportions of carbonaceous species and metal elements, Peshawar showed higher mass-normalized DTT activity of PM_2.5 compared to Lahore although the average PM_2.5 concentration in Peshawar was lower. The high concentrations of toxic metals also posed serious non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks to the residents of both cities. Principle component analysis coupled with multiple linear regression was applied to investigate different source contributions to PM_2.5 and its oxidative potential. Mixed sources of traffic and road dust resuspension and coal combustion, direct vehicle emission, and biomass burning and formation of secondary aerosol were identified as the major sources of PM_2.5 in both cities. The findings of this study provide important data for evaluation of the potential health risks of PM_2.5 and for formulation of efficient control strategies in major cities of Pakistan.     

Fine particle-bound PAHs derivatives at mountain background site (Mount Tai) of the North China: Concentration, source diagnosis and health risk assessment

Ten nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (nPAHs) and 4 oxygenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (oPAHs) in fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) samples from Mount Tai were analyzed during summer (June to August), 2015. During the observation campaign, the mean concentration of total nPAHs and oPAHs was 31.62 pg/m³ and 0.15 ng/m³, respectively. Two of the monitored compounds, namely 9-nitro-anthracene (9N-ANT) (6.86 pg/m³) and 9-fluorenone (9FO) (0.05 ng/m³) were the predominant compounds of nPAHs and oPAHs, respectively. The potential source and long-range transportation of nPAHs and oPAHs were investigated by the positive matrix factorization (PMF) method and the potential source contribution function (PSCF) methods. The results revealed that biomass/coal burning, gasoline vehicle emission, diesel vehicle emission and secondary formation were the dominant sources of nPAHs and oPAHs, which were mainly from Henan province and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and Bohai sea. The incremental life cancer risk (ILCR) values were calculated to evaluate the exposure risk of nPAHs and oPAHs for three group people (infant, children and adult), and the values of ILCR were 7.02 × 10^?10, 3.49 × 10^?9 and 1.41 × 10^?8 for infant, children and adults, respectively. All these values were lower than the standard of EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) (<10^?6), indicating acceptable health risk of nPAHs and oPAHs.     

唐山市基于GIS的PM2.5空间聚集性及分区管控

以ArcGIS软件为平台,采用唐山市206个在线监测点数据,分析了PM_2.5在采暖期、重污染期、非采暖期3个时期的全局和局部空间自相关性,研究其大气污染空间分布特征.结果表明,3个时期均具有一定的空间自相关性,且重污染期的全局空间自相关最强;采暖期和重污染期PM_2.5高值聚类主要发生在中部地区,低值聚类则主要分布在北部山区及沿海少部分区域;非采暖期高值聚类主要分布在丰润区和丰南区,低值聚类发生在遵化市北部地区.通过空间插值模拟全市的PM_2.5分布状况,结果显示唐山市在重污染期PM_2.5均值最高格点值达241μg/m³,而非采暖期最低值只有37μg/m³;基于PM_2.5浓度变化特征和空间分布,将唐山所辖18个区县划分为5个区域,针对各区域提出PM_2.5分区管控措施建议.     

生物活性炭技术在欧洲水处理中的应用研究与发展

介绍了生物活性炭（BAC）技术在欧洲水处理中（包括给水深度的处理，多种工业废水及生活污水处理）的最新应用研究成果及该技术的发展方向。     

Bimodal Cellular Structure Evolution in PBAT Foams Incorporated by Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene Nanosheets

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - Due to extensive concerns of tremendous environment pollutions, particularly microplastic as an emerging pollutant, the development and investigate on...     

Investigation of indole biodegradation by Cupriavidus sp. strain IDO with emphases on downstream biotransformation and indigo production

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Indole, as a typical N-heterocyclic aromatic pollutant, poses risks to living things; however, indole-biotransformation mechanisms remain...     

Assessing economic sustainability and ecological efficiency with genuine progress indicator: a case study of the Yangtze River Delta from 2000 to 2018

To achieve urban sustainability, it is critical to enhance the environment, economy, and society simultaneously. This study adopted the revised genuine progress indicator (GPI) and ecological footprint (EF) to evaluate the ecological efficiency and economic sustainability of the Yangtze River Delta from 2000 to 2018. Spatial analysis was utilized to identify spatial autocorrelation. A total of 27 cities were then partitioned through k-means cluster analysis. The results showed that GPI and ecological efficiency improved rapidly, but economic sustainability showed a downward trend. GPI and GDP had a high degree of spatial correlation, especially in Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou Metropolitan Area. However, no spatial correlation existed between GPI and EF. The city with high GEE can reach 3000 $/gha, indicating the city consumed 1 global hectare to create $3000 of genuine economic growth. Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Taizhou were cities with the highest level of economic sustainability and ecological efficiency. The spatiotemporal characteristics of economic sustainability and ecological efficiency revealed in this study will provide theoretical guidance for alleviating ecological pressure and promoting economic sustainable development.