Characterisation of particulate matter on the receptor level in a city environment

Airborne particulate matter (PM) has become one of the dominant pollutants with the increasing material and energy demand due to global economic growth. The main objective of this research is to provide a comprehensive receptor level characterisation of the particulate matter collected in a city environment. Particulate matter samples were collected on Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance (TEOM) filters from five monitoring sites over a period of 1 year. An Andersen eight-stage cascade impactor was also used to collect airborne PM samples from three other locations to compare with the samples collected by TEOM. All the samples were then subjected to individual particle morphology and chemical composition analysis by SEM/EDS. Bulk chemical composition of the samples were also analysed through ICP–OES. Based on these analyses, possible sources of the PM samples were identified. The results showed that the monitoring sites in residential environments were dominated by transportation-derived particles and other migratory particulates. Monitoring sites near the city centre were dominant by particles from transportation, with biological particles abundant for the site closer to a river. The monitoring station located close to the industrial area, despite only 200 m away from a motorway, has low contribution of non-exhaust particulates from vehicles. Instead, the particulates collected from this site were dominated by industrial sources. An air dispersion modelling package was also used to model the particulate matter dispersion in the city area for the period of sampling. The results from the model showed that the points of high emissions were around industrial areas.