Air pollutant emissions from Chinese households: A major and underappreciated ambient pollution source

Abstract

As part of the 12th Five-Year Plan, the Chinese government has developed air pollution prevention and control plans for key regions with a focus on the power, transport, and industrial sectors. Here, we investigate the contribution of residential emissions to regional air pollution in highly polluted eastern China during the heating season, and find that dramatic improvements in air quality would also result from reduction in residential emissions. We use the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry to evaluate potential residential emission controls in Beijing and in the Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei (BTH) region. In January and February 2010, relative to the base case, eliminating residential emissions in Beijing reduced daily average surface PM 2.5 (particulate mater with aerodynamic diameter equal or smaller than 2.5 micrometer) concentrations by 14 ± 7 μg·m −3 (22 ± 6% of a baseline concentration of 67 ± 41 μg·m −3 ; mean ± SD). Eliminating residential emissions in the BTH region reduced concentrations by 28 ± 19 μg·m −3 (40 ± 9% of 67 ± 41 μg·m −3 ), 44 ± 27 μg·m −3 (43 ± 10% of 99 ± 54 μg·m −3 ), and 25 ± 14 μg·m −3 (35 ± 8% of 70 ± 35 μg·m −3 ) in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei provinces, respectively. Annually, elimination of residential sources in the BTH region reduced emissions of primary PM 2.5 by 32%, compared with 5%, 6%, and 58% achieved by eliminating emissions from the transportation, power, and industry sectors, respectively. We also find air quality in Beijing would benefit substantially from reductions in residential emissions from regional controls in Tianjin and Hebei, indicating the value of policies at the regional level.PM 2.5 | secondary aerosols | regional pollution transport | residential emissions | source contribution

Assessment of inter-city transport of particulate matter in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region

“…Moreover, the biases of major PM 2.5 components in the current study fall in a similar range with other studies in the BTH region (Wang et al, , 2011L. T. Wang et al, 2014a;Zhao et al, 2017;Liu et al, 2016) (see details in the Supplement). In conclusion, the biases of simulated meteorological field and PM 2.5 concentrations fall in a reasonable range.…”

Residential emissions in Beijing: About 400 × 10 4 t

“…Liu et al (1) conclude that Chinese households were a major and underappreciated ambient pollution source and the elimination of residential emissions in Beijing alone decreased PM 2.5 concentrations in the city by 22 ± 6%; we accept this idea; however, the residential emissions in Beijing contributed more than 50% during heavy air pollution episodes (Fig. 1).…”

“…The reduction in residential emissions would lead to dramatic air quality improvements, especially in highly polluted areas in Beijing during the heating season, and residential emissions have been relatively overlooked in ambient air pollution control strategies for a long time (1). We further conducted a sample survey in 60 villages and 310 households in Beijing and combined the cottage patch extraction based on the high-resolution remote-sensing images from the satellite named High Score One to calculate the residential emissions in different districts in Beijing (Fig.…”

Global radiative effects of solid fuel cookstove aerosol emissions

“…The possible scope for global climate co-benefits in future Indian cookstove intervention programs warrants further examination and analysis of this region. BC-rich household solid fuel emission plays an important role in affecting regional air quality (ArcherNicholls et al, 2016;Carter et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2016) and influencing global climate change (Bauer et al, 2010;Butt et al, 2016;Venkataraman et al, 2005). The human health consequences of solid fuel combustion are substantial (ArcherNicholls et al, 2016;Ezzati and Kammen, 2002;Lelieveld et al, 2015).…”