Determination and evaluation of selected organic chemical tracers for wood smoke in airborne particulate matter

Bergauff, Megan; Ward, Tony; Noonan, Curtis W.; Palmer, Christopher P.

doi:10.1080/03067310701809110

Cited by 34 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Analysis of molecular markers is traditionally performed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) technique after organic solvent extraction and derivatization steps (Bergauff et al, 2008). Widely used for the chemical characterization of atmospheric aerosol, this method is also used for the analysis of soil samples Otto et al, 2006).…”

Section: Piot Et Al: Quantification Of Levoglucosan and Its Isomersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantification of levoglucosan and its isomers by High Performance Liquid Chromatography – Electrospray Ionization tandem Mass Spectrometry and its applications to atmospheric and soil samples

et al. 2012

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Abstract. The determination of atmospheric concentrations of levoglucosan and its two isomers, unambiguous tracers of biomass burning emissions, became even more important with the development of wood as renewable energy for domestic heating. Many researches demonstrated the increase during recent years of atmospheric particulate matter load due to domestic biomass combustion in developed countries. Analysis of biomass burning tracers is traditionally performed with Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) technique after derivatization and requires an organic solvent extraction. A simpler and faster technique using Liquid Chromatography -Electrospray Ionisation -tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) was optimized for the analysis of levoglucosan, mannosan and galactosan isomers after an aqueous extraction. This technique allows a good separation between the three compounds in a very reduced time (runtime ∼5 min). LOD and LOQ of this method are 30 µg l −1 and 100 µg l −1 respectively, allowing the use of filters from low-volume sampler (as commonly used in routine campaigns). A comparison of simultaneous levoglucosan measurements by GC-MS and LC-ESI-MS/MS for about 50 samples coming from different types of sampling sites and seasons was realized and shows very good agreement between the two methods. Therefore LC-ESI-MS/MS method can be used as an alternative to GC-MS particularly for measurement campaigns in routine where analysis time is important and detection limit is reduced. This paper shows that this method is also applicable to other environmental sample types like soil.

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Section: Piot Et Al: Quantification Of Levoglucosan and Its Isomersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantification of levoglucosan and its isomers by High Performance Liquid Chromatography – Electrospray Ionization tandem Mass Spectrometry and its applications to atmospheric and soil samples

et al. 2012

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“…Six laboratory blanks were used to calculate an average levoglucosan blank concentration, the standard deviation and 95 % confidence interval for the blank. The levoglucosan limit of detection (LOD) is reported as the average laboratory blank and was found to be 7.7 ng m −3 (Bergauff et al, 2008). Local meteorological data at the DGS were collected using a Davis Vantage Pro II weather station (Davis Instruments Corp. Hayward, California 94545, USA).…”

Section: Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparison of four receptor models used to quantify the boreal wildfire smoke contribution to surface PM<sub>2.5</sub> in Halifax, Nova Scotia during the BORTAS-B experiment

et al. 2015

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Abstract. This paper presents a quantitative comparison of the four most commonly used receptor models, namely absolute principal component scores (APCS), pragmatic mass closure (PMC), chemical mass balance (CMB) and positive matrix factorization (PMF). The models were used to predict the contributions of a wide variety of sources to PM 2.5 mass in Halifax, Nova Scotia during the experiment to quantify the impact of BOReal forest fires on Tropospheric oxidants over the Atlantic using Aircraft and Satellites (BOR-TAS). However, particular emphasis was placed on the capacity of the models to predict the boreal wildfire smoke contributions during the BORTAS experiment. The performance of the four receptor models was assessed on their ability to predict the observed PM 2.5 with an R 2 close to 1, an intercept close to zero, a low bias and low RSME. Using PMF, a new woodsmoke enrichment factor of 52 was estimated for use in the PMC receptor model. The results indicate that the APCS and PMC receptor models were not able to accurately resolve total PM 2.5 mass concentrations below 2 µg m −3 . CMB was better able to resolve these low PM 2.5 concentrations, but it could not be run on 9 of the 45 days of PM 2.5 samples. PMF was found to be the most robust of the four models since it was able to resolve PM 2.5 mass below 2 µg m −3 , predict PM 2.5 mass on all 45 days and utilise an unambiguous woodsmoke chemical tracer. The median woodsmoke relative contributions to PM 2.5 estimated using PMC, APCS, CMB and PMF were found to be 0.08, 0.09, 3.59 and 0.14 µg m −3 respectively. The contribution predicted by the CMB model seemed to be clearly too high based on other observations. The use of levoglucosan as a tracer for woodsmoke was found to be vital for identifying this source.

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“…Levoglucosan, a sugar anhydride from the incomplete combustion of cellulose, has been identified as a selective organic marker of biomass combustion (Schauer et al, 2001;Jordan et al, 2006;Ward et al, 2006a, b;Bergauff et al, 2008;Schmidl et al, 2008;Caseiro et al, 2009). Multiple approaches have been developed for relatively cost-effective and even field-based analysis of the levoglucosan content of PM 2.5 , e.g., (Engling et al, 2006;Jordan et al, 2006;Ward et al, 2006a;Bergauff et al, 2008;Ma et al, 2010;Piazzalunga et al, 2010;Saarnio et al, 2010;Harrison et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison and Evaluation of Methods to Apportion Ambient PM2.5 to Residential Wood Heating in Fairbanks, AK

Busby

Ward

Turner

et al. 2016

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

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Biomass burning for residential heating significantly contributes to ambient PM 2.5 burdens in many areas, making source apportionment to wood heater emissions an important issue. This study compares and evaluates Chemical Mass Balance (CMB), levoglucosan analysis, and 14 C analysis methods for apportionment. Results suggest that the CMB method appears to overestimate the contribution of residential wood heating in Fairbanks, perhaps due to non-representativeness of emissions source profiles. Carbon-14 analysis allows for apportionment to biomass sources, but must be corrected for noncarbon PM 2.5 content. Levoglucosan analysis has the advantage of being relatively inexpensive, but there is considerable uncertainty in determining conversion factors to calculate wood smoke levels from measured levoglucosan concentrations. Conversion factors in the range of 9.1 to 13.3 are calculated from previously published and experimental mass fractions of levoglucosan in wood smoke PM 2.5 . Conversion factors in the range of 10.7 to 12.9 are determined from analysis of independent field measurements of 14 C and levoglucosan in Fairbanks. The calculated and measured conversion factors are consistent and are similar to previously-reported values. The three apportionment methods (focused on residential wood smoke contributions) are complementary and collectively provide a means to evaluate or confirm apportionment results.

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Determination and evaluation of selected organic chemical tracers for wood smoke in airborne particulate matter

Cited by 34 publications

References 26 publications

Quantification of levoglucosan and its isomers by High Performance Liquid Chromatography – Electrospray Ionization tandem Mass Spectrometry and its applications to atmospheric and soil samples

Quantification of levoglucosan and its isomers by High Performance Liquid Chromatography – Electrospray Ionization tandem Mass Spectrometry and its applications to atmospheric and soil samples

A comparison of four receptor models used to quantify the boreal wildfire smoke contribution to surface PM<sub>2.5</sub> in Halifax, Nova Scotia during the BORTAS-B experiment

Comparison and Evaluation of Methods to Apportion Ambient PM2.5 to Residential Wood Heating in Fairbanks, AK

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Determination and evaluation of selected organic chemical tracers for wood smoke in airborne particulate matter

Cited by 34 publications

References 26 publications

Quantification of levoglucosan and its isomers by High Performance Liquid Chromatography – Electrospray Ionization tandem Mass Spectrometry and its applications to atmospheric and soil samples

Quantification of levoglucosan and its isomers by High Performance Liquid Chromatography – Electrospray Ionization tandem Mass Spectrometry and its applications to atmospheric and soil samples

A comparison of four receptor models used to quantify the boreal wildfire smoke contribution to surface PM&lt;sub&gt;2.5&lt;/sub&gt; in Halifax, Nova Scotia during the BORTAS-B experiment

Comparison and Evaluation of Methods to Apportion Ambient PM2.5 to Residential Wood Heating in Fairbanks, AK

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A comparison of four receptor models used to quantify the boreal wildfire smoke contribution to surface PM<sub>2.5</sub> in Halifax, Nova Scotia during the BORTAS-B experiment