AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Abstract View
Coal Combustion as a Source to Levoglucosan in PM2.5 in China
CAIQING YAN, Amy P. Sullivan, Guofeng Shen, Yury Desyaterik, Xiaoying Li, Tian Zhou, Shuxiao Wang, Bin Zhao, Orjan Gustafsson, Jeffrey Collett, Mei Zheng, Peking University
Abstract Number: 484 Working Group: Combustion
Abstract Levoglucosan has been traditionally identified as a specific marker for biomass burning sources, and frequently used in estimating biomass burning contributions to atmospheric fine particles all over the world. In this study, residential biomass burning (such as crop straw and wood) and coal combustion have been simulated and tested in the lab, and characteristics of carbonaceous aerosols from these residential emissions were investigated. Saccharides, including anhydrosugars, monosaccharides, disaccharides, and alcohol-sugars, were examined in both source and ambient samples collected in Beijing, China. Interestingly our results show that levoglucosan can be found in the emissions from low temperature residential coal combustion, with emission factors ranging from 0.3 to 15.9 mg per kg of fuel. Ratios of levoglucosan to its isomers (i.e., mannosan and galactosan) differ between coal combustion and biomass burning emissions, and the wintertime ratios in Beijing ambient PM2.5 suggest a significant contribution of levoglucosan from coal combustion. By combining source tests with ambient measurements, our research provides evidence to suggest that levoglucosan cannot be always taken as an unique tracer for biomass burning, at least in the Northern China during wintertime, where coal is still widely used in residential and industrial sectors. Furthermore, influences of burning state, coal quality and coal stoves on levoglucosan emissions are also investigated and discussed.