Source apportionment of ultrafine particles in urban Europe

There is a body of evidence that ultrafine particles (UFP, those with diameters ≤ 100 nm) might have significant impacts on health. Accordingly, identifying sources of UFP is essential to develop abatement policies. This study focuses on urban Europe, and aims at identifying sources and quantifying their contributions to particle number size distribution (PNSD) using receptor modelling (Positive Matrix Factorization, PMF), and evaluating long-term trends of these source contributions using the non-parametric Theil-Sen's method. Datasets evaluated include 14 urban background (UB), 5 traffic (TR), 4 suburban background (SUB), and 1 regional background (RB) sites, covering 18 European and 1 USA cities, over the period, when available, from 2009 to 2019. Ten factors were identified (4 road traffic factors, photonucleation, urban background, domestic heating, 2 regional factors and long-distance transport), with road traffic being the primary contributor at all UB and TR sites (56-95 %), and photonucleation being also significant in many cities. The trends analyses showed a notable decrease in traffic-related UFP ambient concentrations, with statistically significant decreasing trends for the total traffic-related factors of -5.40 and -2.15 % yr<sup>-1</sup> for the TR and UB sites, respectively. This abatement is most probably due to the implementation of European emissions standards, particularly after the introduction of diesel particle filters (DPFs) in 2011. However, DPFs do not retain nucleated particles generated during the dilution of diesel exhaust semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs). Trends in photonucleation were more diverse, influenced by a reduction in the condensation sink potential facilitating new particle formation (NPF) or by a decrease in the emissions of UFP precursors. The decrease of primary PM emissions and precursors of UFP also contributed to the reduction of urban and regional background sources.

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Journal
Environment International
Published
2024-11-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2024.109149
Citations
30
Primary Topic
Air Quality and Health Impacts
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
9.44

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article

Source apportionment of ultrafine particles in urban Europe

Stergios Vratolis, Barbara Hoffmann, Olivier Favez, Jakub Ondráček et al.
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Source apportionment of ultrafine particles in urban Europe

Stergios Vratolis, Barbara Hoffmann, Olivier Favez, Jakub Ondráček, Christoph Hueglin, N. Mihalopoulos, Francisco J. Gómez‐Moreno, Hanna E. Manninen, Meritxell Garcia-Marlès, Juan Andrés Casquero-Vera, Daniele Contini, Prodip Acharja, Eric Bourrianne, Andrés Alástuey, Andrea Casans, Tamás Weidinger, Roy M. Harrison, Jean Philippe Putaud, Panayiotis Kalkavouras, Aurelio Tobı́as, David C. Green, David C. S. Beddows, Marco Pandolfi, Jean‐Eudes Petit, Anja H. Tremper, Alfred Wiedensohler, Hilkka Timonen, Maik Merkel, Xavier Querol, Imre Salma, Sebastiao Martins Dos Santos, Máté Vörösmarty, Cristina Reche, Noemí Pérez, Janne Lampilahti, Elisabeth Alonso‐Blanco, Marjan Savadkoohi, Hicran Altuğ, Konstantinos Eleftheriadis, Tuukka Petäjä, Sami Harni, Michael Norman, Jarkko V. Niemi, Martine Van Poppel, Naděžda Zíková, Adelaide Dinoi, Philip Karl Hopke, Evangelia Diapouli, Suzanne Crumeyrolle, Georgios Grivas, Rosa Lara, Kay Weinhold, Susanne Bastian, Freja E Dreesen
article en
30 citations

Abstract

There is a body of evidence that ultrafine particles (UFP, those with diameters ≤ 100 nm) might have significant impacts on health. Accordingly, identifying sources of UFP is essential to develop abatement policies. This study focuses on urban Europe, and aims at identifying sources and quantifying their contributions to particle number size distribution (PNSD) using receptor modelling (Positive Matrix Factorization, PMF), and evaluating long-term trends of these source contributions using the non-parametric Theil-Sen's method. Datasets evaluated include 14 urban background (UB), 5 traffic (TR), 4 suburban background (SUB), and 1 regional background (RB) sites, covering 18 European and 1 USA cities, over the period, when available, from 2009 to 2019. Ten factors were identified (4 road traffic factors, photonucleation, urban background, domestic heating, 2 regional factors and long-distance transport), with road traffic being the primary contributor at all UB and TR sites (56-95 %), and photonucleation being also significant in many cities. The trends analyses showed a notable decrease in traffic-related UFP ambient concentrations, with statistically significant decreasing trends for the total traffic-related factors of -5.40 and -2.15 % yr<sup>-1</sup> for the TR and UB sites, respectively. This abatement is most probably due to the implementation of European emissions standards, particularly after the introduction of diesel particle filters (DPFs) in 2011. However, DPFs do not retain nucleated particles generated during the dilution of diesel exhaust semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs). Trends in photonucleation were more diverse, influenced by a reduction in the condensation sink potential facilitating new particle formation (NPF) or by a decrease in the emissions of UFP precursors. The decrease of primary PM emissions and precursors of UFP also contributed to the reduction of urban and regional background sources.

Environment InternationalVol. 194
Eötvös Loránd University (HU), Finnish Meteorological Institute (FI), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Helsinki (FI), Universidad de Granada (ES), King Abdulaziz University (SA), National Centre of Scientific Research "Demokritos" (GR), Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR), Düsseldorf University Hospital (DE), Finnish Food Authority (FI), Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra (ES), Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (IT), NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (GB), Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (DE), Joint Research Centre (IT), National Observatory of Athens (GR), Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals (CZ), Laboratoire d'Optique Atmosphérique (FR), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (FR), Institut national de l'environnement industriel et des risques (FR), CEA Paris-Saclay (FR), Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherche en Environnement Atmosphérique (FR), Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (ES), Flanders Environment Agency (BE), Sächsisches Landesamt für Umwelt, Landwirtschaft und Geologie (DE), National Research Council (IT), Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (ES), Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (DE), Imperial College London (GB), University of Rochester (US), Flemish Institute for Technological Research (BE), Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (CH), University of Birmingham (GB), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (ES), University of the Aegean (GR)
Sight Research UK, European Commission, Generalitat de Catalunya, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Plan Nacional sobre Drogas, Natural Environment Research Council, Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca, Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Sustainable cities and communities
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Air Quality and Health Impacts
9.44
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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