EGU21-10670, updated on 30 Aug 2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10670
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Contribution of residential wood burning to wintertime air pollution in an urban area

Christos Kaltsonoudis1, Kalliopi Florou1, John Kodros1, Spiro Jorga3, Christina Vasilakopoulou1,2, Charalampia Baliaka1,2, Andreas Aktypis1,2, Athanasios Nenes1,4, and Spyros Pandis1,2,3
Christos Kaltsonoudis et al.
  • 1Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences, ICE-HT, Patras, 26504, Greece
  • 2Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, 26504, Greece
  • 3Department of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, 15213, USA
  • 4School of Architecture, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland

Τhe composition of wintertime urban air in Patras, Greece was investigated during early 2020 focusing on the role of biomass burning. A high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) and a Proton Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometer (PTR-MS) were deployed. Additionally continuous measurements of the aerosol size distribution from 10 nm to 10 μm were performed, as well as measurements of the size-resolved aerosol composition using a Micro-Orifice Uniform-Deposit Impactor, black carbon (BC) concentrations using an SP2, aerosol absorption, brown carbon concentrations, and reactive oxygen species (ROS). A number of low-cost sensors for particles and vapors was also deployed in the city.

               The PM2.5 concentration peaked during the early evening reaching up to 150 µg m-3. PM1 aerosol (23 µg m-3 on average) was mainly composed of organics (69%) with the rest being BC (11%), sulphate (10%), nitrate (5%), ammonium (4%) and chloride (1%). Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) of the measurements of the AMS indicated that biomass burning due to residential heating was the dominant source of PM1 during the campaign accounting for 53% of the total OA with the rest being the oxygenated organic aerosol (ΟΟΑ) at 25%, the cooking OA (COA) at 12% and the traffic related hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA) at 10%.

               The biomass burning contribution was also evident in several volatile organic compounds (VOCs) detected by the PTR-MS. Biogenic species such as isoprene and the monoterpenes showed clear relation to wood burning, while most of the aromatic compounds were related both to traffic and wood burning. The latter was also true for other gas species measured such as CO, NOx etc. Biomass burning was also a major contributor to the ROS measured as well as the brown carbon.

How to cite: Kaltsonoudis, C., Florou, K., Kodros, J., Jorga, S., Vasilakopoulou, C., Baliaka, C., Aktypis, A., Nenes, A., and Pandis, S.: Contribution of residential wood burning to wintertime air pollution in an urban area, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-10670, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10670, 2021.

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