• Energy Research

The Ordos region in the southwestern part of Inner Mongolia experiences frequent PM concentrations in excess of the national PM2.5 air quality standards. In order to determine the key sources of PM2.5 contributing to these pollution episodes, the main sources of PM2.5 OC during elevated PM episodes in the Inner Mongolia were analyzed and compared with non-polluted days. This will provide insight to the main sources of particulate matter pollution during the high-pollution episodes and the effective seasonal strategies to control sources of particulate matter during months and with the highest PM concentrations that need to be controlled. The PMF source contributions to OC demonstrated that the industrial/coal combustion (4762.77 ± 1061.54 versus 2726.49 ± 469.75 ng/m3; p < 0.001) and mobile source factors (4651.14 ± 681.82 versus 2605.55 ± 276.50 ng/m3; p value < 0.001) showed greater contributions to the elevated concentrations during the episode. The spatial analysis of secondary organic carbon (SOC) factors, regional biomass burning, and biogenic sources did not show significant difference in the pollution episodes and the non-polluted months. In addition, the bivariate polar plots and CWT maps of the industrial/coal combustion and mobile illustrated a regional long-range transport patterns from the external sources to the study area, however, adjacent areas were mostly controlling the contributions of these factors during the PM elevated episodes. The SOC sources, regional biomass burning, and biogenic sources illustrated a regional long-range transport with similar locations found during the elevated pollution episodes compared to the normal situations.

The Chinese government implemented a national household energy transition program that replaced residential coal heating stoves with electricity-powered heat pumps for space heating in northern China. As part of a baseline assessment of the program, this study investigated variability in personal air pollution exposures within villages and between villages and evaluated exposure patterns by sociodemographic factors. We randomly recruited 446 participants in 50 villages in four districts in rural Beijing and measured 24 h personal exposures to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and black carbon (BC). The geometric mean personal exposure to PM2.5 and BC was 72 and 2.5 μg/m3, respectively. The variability in PM2.5 and BC exposures was greater within villages than between villages. Study participants who used traditional stoves as their dominant source of space heating were exposed to the highest levels of PM2.5 and BC. Wealthier households tended to burn more coal for space heating, whereas less wealthy households used more biomass. PM2.5 and BC exposures were almost uniformly distributed by socioeconomic status. Future work that combines these results with PM2.5 chemical composition analysis will shed light on whether air pollution source contributors (e.g., industrial, traffic, and household solid fuel burning) follow similar distributions.

The sensitivity of a source apportionment model to mobile source profiles was examined to determine the impact of using non-local mobile source profiles in chemical mass balance (CMB) models. We examined the impact of USA and Chinese mobile source profiles on source apportionment results in St. Louis, Missouri, and Beijing. The results showed that the use of non-local mobile source profiles did not impact the model apportionment results for vegetative detritus and biomass burning, but other primary source contributions were influenced by the use of non-local source profiles. Secondary organic carbon (SOC) contributions estimated by the CMB models with local and non-local profiles were compared to estimate of SOC from the EC tracer method and were found to be consistent with little bias. The results also showed that it is feasible to use the USA mobile profiles in China while model results were biased by using Chinese mobile profiles in the USA. Monthly and annual average concentrations of molecular markers in the source apportionment model showed lower sensitivity to source profiles than daily measurements, which has implications to the design of source apportionment studies.

To the Editor:Childhood blood pressure (BP) is an important predictor of hypertension and cardiovascular risk later in life1; risk factors for elevated BP in children remain mostly unknown. Ambient air pollution is associated with impaired vascular health, oxidative stress, and systemic inflammation

To explore the impacts of household solid fuel use for cooking and heating on diabetes and fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels, we used data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, a national survey including middle-aged and older adults. Multivariable logistic and linear regression models were used to explore the relationship between household solid fuel use (coal, crop residue, and wood) for cooking and heating with diabetes and FBG levels. Subgroup analyses were also performed based on age, sex, region of residence, smoking status, and body mass index to examine potential interactions between the variables and household solid fuel use. Among the 6195 participants, 75.4% and 61.4%, respectively, used solid fuels for heating and cooking. Relative to clean fuel users, solid fuel users had higher odds of diabetes (heating: OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.01-1.44; cooking: OR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.12-1.53) and higher FBG levels (heating: β = 3.23; 95% CI, 1.10-5.36; cooking: β = 2.86; 95% CI, 0.95-4.77). Simultaneous use of solid fuels for cooking/heating was also positively associated with diabetes (OR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.07-1.61) and FBG (β = 4.30; 95% CI, 1.82-6.78). No significant interactions were detected between subgroup variables and the impacts of solid fuel use on diabetes and FBG. Household solid fuel use is positively associated with diabetes and FBG levels. These findings imply that inhibiting household solid fuel use may contribute to decreasing diabetes development in China.

Biomass smoke at higher concentrations is associated with respiratory symptoms and, after years of exposure, increased risk of respiratory disorders in adults, but its effects on cardiovascular diseases are not well characterized, particularly compared with other pollution sources like tobacco smoke or traffic.We conducted a cross-sectional study and enrolled 25 women living in rural Sichuan, China. We measured integrated 24-h personal exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and black carbon, and measured PM2.5 and black carbon in their kitchens. We assessed participants' brachial and central blood pressure and arterial stiffness using pulse wave analysis, and analyzed dried blood spot and buccal cell samples for C-reactive protein and relative telomere length. We also evaluated the difference in these physiological and biomarker measures between individuals with high (≥median) versus low (

Modified activated carbon fibers (ACFs) with a large specific surface area, a relatively large pore network, and abundance of chemical functional groups were prepared by using the steam secondary activation method and tested for ethanol and water adsorption. A micro–mesopore hierarchical porous structure was successfully established on ACF-850. Also, the surface polarity and hydrophilicity were significantly improved. As a result, ACF-850 presented the highest static adsorption capacity (12.59 mmol/g), the lowest activation energy, and the lowest isosteric heats during the adsorption process of ethanol. Furthermore, the dynamic adsorption/desorption performances of ethanol on ACF-850 were carried out under both dry and humid conditions. The results showed that water has a positive effect on the adsorption of ethanol due to the capillary condensation, which can act as a new adsorption site for ethanol adsorption. The highest adsorbed amount of 1.579 mmol/g under a relative humidity of 30% can be attained, which is 1.43 times higher than that under dry conditions. More importantly, ACF-850 possessed excellent regeneration ability, and a 94% adsorption efficiency can be recovered only by purging of nitrogen at room temperature. Thus, ACF-850 would be a promising ethanol adsorbent and can be applied to control ethanol under both wet and dry conditions.

To mitigate health and environmental effects from coal-based home heating, the Beijing Municipality has implemented a programme in 3,700 villages that subsidizes electric heat pumps and electricity, and bans coal. Here, we estimate this programme’s impact on household energy use and expenditure, well-being and indoor environmental quality by comparing treated and untreated villages in three districts that vary in socioeconomic conditions. We find that, under this programme, households in high- and middle-income districts eliminated coal use with benefits to indoor temperature, indoor air pollution and life satisfaction. In a low-income district, the policy had partial effectiveness: coal use was contingent on household wealth, and there were fewer benefits to the indoor environment and negative impacts on well-being. These results suggest that a rapid household energy transition can be effective, but it is essential to appropriately control subsidies and fine-tune supports to limit transitional hardships for the less affluent. The Beijing Municipality has implemented a programme that subsidizes electric heat pumps and electricity, and bans coal. This study estimates the programme’s impact on household energy use and expenditure, well-being and indoor environment quality.

Consecutive measurements of ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from February 2016 to April 2018 have been performed at four representative sites of Beijing to evaluate the impact of "2 + 26" regional strategies implemented in 2017 for air quality improvement in non-heating period (2017NH) and heating period (2017H). The decrease of PM2.5 were significant both in 2017NH (20.2% on average) and 2017H (43.7% on average) compared to 2016NH and 2016H, respectively. Eight sources were resolved at each site from the PMF source apportionment including secondary nitrate, traffic, coal combustion, soil dust, road dust, sulfate, biomass/waste burning and industrial process. The results show that the reductions of industrial process, soil dust, and coal combustion were most effective among all sources at each site after the regional strategies implementation with the large reductions in potential source areas. The decrease of coal combustion in 2017NH were larger than 2017H at all sites while that of soil dust and industrial sources were the opposite. Insignificant reduction of coal combustion contribution at the suburban site in the heating period indicated that rural residential coal burning need further control. The industrial source control in the suburbs were least effective compared with other districts. Traffic was the largest contributer at each site and control of traffic emissions were more effective in 2017H than 2017NH. The local nature and increase of biomass/waste burning contributions emphasized the effect of fireworks and bio-fuel use in rural areas and incinerator emissions in urban districts. Secondary nitrate and sulfate were mainly impacted by the regional transport from southern adjacent areas and favorable meteorological conditions played an important part in the PM2.5 abatements of 2017H. Secondary nitrate became a more major role in the air pollution process because of the larger decrease of sulfate. Finally suggestions for future control are made in this study.