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Although previous studies report on the effect of street washing on ambient particulate matter levels, there is a lack of studies investigating the results of street washing on the emission strength of road dust. A sampling campaign was conducted in Madrid urban area during July 2009 where road dust samples were collected in two sites, namely Reference site (where the road surface was not washed) and Pelayo site (where street washing was performed daily during night). Following the chemical characterization of the road dust particles the emission sources were resolved by means of Positive Matrix Factorization, PMF (Multilinear Engine scripting) and the mass contribution of each source was calculated for the two sites. Mineral dust, brake wear, tire wear, carbonaceous emissions and construction dust were the main sources of road dust with mineral and construction dust being the major contributors to inhalable road dust load. To evaluate the effectiveness of street washing on the emission sources, the sources mass contributions between the two sites were compared. Although brake wear and tire wear had lower concentrations at the site where street washing was performed, these mass differences were not statistically significant and the temporal variation did not show the expected build-up after dust removal. It was concluded that the washing activities resulted merely in a road dust moistening, without effective removal and that mobilization of particles took place in a few hours between washing and sampling. The results also indicated that it is worth paying attention to the dust dispersed from the construction sites as they affect the emission strength in nearby streets. ©Taiwan Association for Aerosol Research.

Hourly-resolved aerosol chemical speciation data can be a highly powerful tool to determine the source origin of atmospheric pollutants in urban environments. Aerosol mass concentrations of seventeen elements (Na, Mg, Al, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Sr and Pb) were obtained by time (1 h) and size (PM2.5 particulate matter <2.5 μm) resolved aerosol samples analysed by Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) measurements. In the Marie Curie European Union framework of SAPUSS (Solving Aerosol Problems by Using Synergistic Strategies), the approach used is the simultaneous sampling at two monitoring sites in Barcelona (Spain) during September-October 2010: an urban background site (UB) and a street canyon traffic road site (RS). Elements related to primary nonexhaust traffic emission (Fe, Cu), dust resuspension (Ca) and anthropogenic Cl were found enhanced at the RS, whereas industrial related trace metals (Zn, Pb, Mn) were found at higher concentrations at the more ventilated UB site. When receptor modelling was performed with positive matrix factorization (PMF), nine different aerosol sources were identified at both sites: three types of regional aerosols (regional sulphate (S) - 27 %, biomass burning (K) - 5 %, sea salt (Na- Mg) - 17 %), three types of dust aerosols (soil dust (Al-Ti) - 17 %, urban crustal dust (Ca) - 6 %, and primary traffic non-exhaust brake dust (Fe-Cu) - 7 %), and three types of industrial aerosol plumes-like events (shipping oil combustion (V-Ni) - 17 %, industrial smelters (Zn-Mn) - 3 %, and industrial combustion (Pb-Cl) - 5 %, percentages presented are average source contributions to the total elemental mass measured). The validity of the PMF solution of the PIXE data is supported by very good correlations with external single particle mass spectrometry measurements. Some important conclusions can be drawn about the PM2.5 mass fraction simultaneously measured at the UB and RS sites: (1) the regional aerosol sources impact both monitoring sites at similar concentrations regardless their different ventilation conditions; (2) by contrast, local industrial aerosol plumes associated with shipping oil combustion and smelters activities have a higher impact on the more ventilated UB site; (3) a unique source of Pb-Cl (associated with combustion emissions) is found to be the major (82 %) source of fine Cl in the urban agglomerate; (4) the mean diurnal variation of PM 2.5 primary traffic non-exhaust brake dust (Fe-Cu) suggests that this source is mainly emitted and not resuspended, whereas PM2.5 urban dust (Ca) is found mainly resuspended by both traffic vortex and sea breeze; (5) urban dust (Ca) is found the aerosol source most affected by land wetness, reduced by a factor of eight during rainy days and suggesting that wet roads may be a solution for reducing urban dust concentrations. © Author(s) 2013.

A multi-analytical approach to chemical analysis of inhalable urban atmospheric particulate matter (PM), integrating particle induced X-ray emission, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry/atomic emission spectroscopy, chromatography and thermal-optical transmission methods, allows comparison between hourly (Streaker) and 24-h (High volume sampler) data and consequently improved PM chemical characterization and source identification. In a traffic hot spot monitoring site in Madrid (Spain) the hourly data reveal metallic emissions (Zn, Cu, Cr, Fe) and resuspended mineral dust (Ca, Al, Si) to be closely associated with traffic flow. These pollutants build up during the day, emphasizing evening rush hour peaks, but decrease (especially their coarser fraction PM2.5-10) after nocturnal road washing. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis of a large Streaker database additionally reveals two other mineral dust components (siliceous and sodic), marine aerosol, and minor, transient events which we attribute to biomass burning (K-rich) and industrial (incinerator?) Zn, Pb plumes. Chemical data on 24-h filters allows the measurement of secondary inorganic compounds and carbon concentrations and offers PMF analysis based on a limited number of samples but using fuller range of trace elements which, in the case of Madrid, identifies the continuing minor presence of a coal combustion source traced by As, Se, Ge and Organic Carbon. This coal component is more evident in the city air after the change to the winter heating season in November. Trace element data also allow use of discrimination diagrams such as V/Rb vs. La/Ce and ternary plots to illustrate variations in atmospheric chemistry (such as the effect of Ce-emissions from catalytic converters), with Madrid being an example of a city with little industrial pollution, recently reduced coal emissions, but serious atmospheric contamination by traffic emissions. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

The European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) Technical Committee 264 'Air Quality' has recently produced a standard method for the measurements of organic carbon and elemental carbon in PM2.5 within its working group 35 in response to the requirements of European Directive 2008/50/EC. It is expected that this method will be used in future by all Member States making measurements of the carbonaceous content of PM2.5. This paper details the results of a laboratory and field measurement campaign and the statistical analysis performed to validate the standard method, assess its uncertainty and define its working range to provide clarity and confidence in the underpinning science for future users of the method. The statistical analysis showed that the expanded combined uncertainty for transmittance protocol measurements of OC, EC and TC is expected to be below 25%, at the 95% level of confidence, above filter loadings of 2 μg cm-2. An estimation of the detection limit of the method for total carbon was 2 μg cm-2. As a result of the laboratory and field measurement campaign the EUSAAR2 transmittance measurement protocol was chosen as the basis of the standard method EN 16909:2017. © 2017 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Chemicals/CAS: carbon, 7440-44-0