Estimation of organic carbon blank values and error structures of the speciation trends network data for source apportionment

Journal Article · Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2005 · Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association

OSTI ID:20647745

Kim, Eugene; Hopke, Philip K; Qin, Youjun ^[1]

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1. Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY (US). Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Because the particulate organic carbon (OC) concentrations reported in U.S. Environment Protection Agency Speciation Trends Network (STN) data were not blank corrected, the OC blank concentrations were estimated using the intercept in particulate matter {lt} 2.5 {mu}m in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5) regression against OC concentrations. The estimated OC blank concentrations ranged from 1 to 2.4 {mu}g/m{sup 3} showing higher values in urban areas for the 13 monitoring sites in the northeastern United States. In the STN data, several different samplers and analyzers are used, and various instruments show different method detection limit (MDL) values, as well as errors. A comprehensive set of error structures that would be used for numerous source apportionment studies of STN data was estimated by comparing a limited set of measured concentrations and their associated uncertainties. To examine the estimated error structures and investigate the appropriate MDL values, PM2.5 samples collected at a STN site in Burlington, VT, were analyzed through the application of the positive matrix factorization. A total of 323 samples that were collected between December 2000 and December 2003 and 49 species based on several variable selection criteria were used, and eight sources were successfully identified in this study with the estimated error structures and min values among different MDL values from the five instruments: secondary sulfate aerosol (41%) identified as the result of emissions from coal-fired power plants, secondary nitrate aerosol (20%), airborne soil (15%), gasoline vehicle emissions (7%), diesel emissions (7%), aged sea salt (4%), copper smelting (3%), and ferrous smelting (2%). Time series plots of contributions from airborne soil indicate that the highly elevated impacts from this source were likely caused primarily by dust storms.

• OSTI ID: 20647745
• Journal Information: Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association, Vol. 55, Issue 8; Other Information: [e-mail]; ISSN 1047-3289
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
02 PETROLEUM
20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
USA
SAMPLING
PARTICULATES
PARTICLE SIZE
CONCENTRATION RATIO
ERRORS
POLLUTION SOURCES
CARBON BLACK
SULFATES
NITRATES
SOILS
GASOLINE
DIESEL FUELS
EXHAUST GASES
SEASONAL VARIATIONS
ROADS
SMELTING
COPPER
IRON
COAL
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS