Source Apportionment of PM2.5 and of its Oxidative Potential in an Industrial Suburban Site in South Italy
by
Daniela Cesari 1,*
, Eva Merico 1, Fabio Massimo Grasso 1, Stefano Decesari 2, Franco Belosi 2, Francesco Manarini 2, Paola De Nuntiis 2, Matteo Rinaldi 2, Francesca Volpi 2, Andrea Gambaro 3,4, Elisa Morabito 3,4 and Daniele Contini 1
Daniela Cesari 1,*, Eva Merico 1, Fabio Massimo Grasso 1, Stefano Decesari 2, Franco Belosi 2, Francesco Manarini 2, Paola De Nuntiis 2, Matteo Rinaldi 2, Francesca Volpi 2, Andrea Gambaro 3,4, Elisa Morabito 3,4 and Daniele Contini 1
1
Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, ISAC-CNR, Str. Prv. Lecce-Monteroni km 1.2, 73100 Lecce, Italy
2
Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, ISAC-CNR, Via Piero Gobetti, 101 40129 Bologna, Italy
3
Institute for the Dynamics of Environmental Processes, IDPA-CNR, Via Torino, 155-30172 Venezia Mestre, Italy
4
Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino 155, 30172, Venice, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Atmosphere 2019, 10(12), 758; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10120758
Received: 16 October 2019 / Revised: 26 November 2019 / Accepted: 27 November 2019 / Published: 29 November 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Oxidative Potential of Atmospheric Aerosols)
Some studies suggested a role of the atmospheric particulate matter (PM) and of its oxidative potential (OP) in determining adverse health effects. Several works have focused on characterisation of source contributions to PM OP, mainly using three approaches: correlation between OP and chemical markers of specific sources; use of OP as input variable in source apportionment with receptor models; and multi-linear regression (MLR) between OP and source contributions to PM obtained from receptor models. Up to now, comparison of results obtained with different approaches on the same dataset is scarce. This work aims to perform a OP study of PM2.5 collected in an industrial site, located near a biogas production and combustion plant (in southern Italy), comparing different approaches to investigate the contributions of the different sources to OP. The PM2.5 samples were analysed for determining ions, metals, carbonaceous components, and OP activity with the DTT (dithiotreitol) assay. Results showed that OP normalised in volume (DTTV) is correlated with carbonaceous components and some ions (NO3−, and Ca2+) indicating that PM of combustion, secondary, and crustal origin could contribute to the OP activity. The source apportionment, done with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF5.0) model, identified six sources: secondary sulphate; biomass burning; industrial emissions; crustal; vehicle traffic and secondary nitrate; and sea spray. A MLR analysis between the source’s daily contributions and the daily DTTV values showed a reasonable agreement of the two approaches (PMF and MLR), identifying the biomass burning and the vehicle traffic and secondary nitrate as the main sources contributing to DTTV activity.
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Keywords:
biogas plant; PM oxidative potential; source apportionment; positive matrix factorization; multi-linear regression
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MDPI and ACS Style
Cesari, D.; Merico, E.; Grasso, F.M.; Decesari, S.; Belosi, F.; Manarini, F.; De Nuntiis, P.; Rinaldi, M.; Volpi, F.; Gambaro, A.; Morabito, E.; Contini, D. Source Apportionment of PM2.5 and of its Oxidative Potential in an Industrial Suburban Site in South Italy. Atmosphere 2019, 10, 758.
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