10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Abstract View
Excessive Air Pollution from Carbon-Neutral Fuels
Chunshui Lin, Colin O’Dowd, Darius Ceburnis, JURGITA OVADNEVAITE, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland
Abstract Number: 521 Working Group: Combustion-Generated Aerosols: the Desirable and Undesirable
Abstract Emissions of ambient particulate matter (PM) from the power-generation, transport, and industry sectors have been the main target of most mitigation policies, leading to substantial technological improvements along with pollutant emission reductions. However, residential PM emissions are subject to little control, even in developed countries, and represent a potentially-significant source of PM which should be taken into account in policy making. In this study, we explored PM levels during wintertime in Dublin, Ireland, in the context of peak PM concentrations encountered, frequency of exceedance of the WHO PM2.5 daily limit (25 μg/m3), and the main sources of PM during these exceedance periods. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) with the multi-linear engine (ME-2) has been applied to the organic matrix to quantify the contribution from different sources. We show that under polluted conditions, carbonaceous (organic matter and black carbon) aerosol prevails over historic inorganic species like sulphate and nitrate, contributing from 60% to 90% to the PM1 mass, and, in spite of common believes and expectations, the source apportionment exposed that a staggering 70% of the particulate pollution can arise from <4% consumption of solid fuels (peat and wood), often promoted as ’slow renewable’, ‘low-carbon’ or ‘carbon-neutral’ biomass. Furthermore, our results suggest that even modest increases in consumption of current ‘green’ marketed fuels will have a disproportionate impact on the frequency of extreme pollution events and our endeavours towards cleaner air with the most extreme consequences on developing economies, such as India’s or China’s, due to already existing dependency on biomass as an important energy source.