Measurement of black carbon concentration as an indicator of air quality benefits of traffic restriction policies within the ecopass zone in Milan, Italy

Invernizzi, Giovanni; Ruprecht, Ario; Mazza, Roberto; Marco, Cinzia De; Močnik, Griša; Sioutas, Constantinos; Westerdahl, Dane

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2011.04.008

Cited by 136 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…5a). The rBC mass concentrations observed in Paris are similar to previously reported values in various European highly populated cities, although different methods were used, i.e., ∼ 3 µg m −3 in Milano (Invernizzi et al, 2011), ∼ 1.7 µg m −3 in Barcelona and ∼ 2 µg m −3 London, urban background (Reche et al, 2011) and ∼ 0.7 µg m −3 in Mexico City (Subramanian et al, 2010).…”

Section: Time Series and Source Apportionmentsupporting

confidence: 70%

“…4e). Several studies have reported similar contribution of BC to PM 10 (total mass of all particles with an aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 µm) in various European highly populated cities, although different methods were used: Milano (10-22 %; Invernizzi et al, 2011) and in London (10-26 %; Reche et al, 2011). However, lower BC mass fractions in PM 10 were observed in urban background sites in Barcelona (5 %; Reche et al, 2011) and in Mexico (∼ 1.5 %; Subramanian et al, 2010;Querol et al, 2008) which may be due to an additional dust source.…”

Section: Fig 7 (A)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Black carbon physical properties and mixing state in the European megacity Paris

et al. 2013

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Aerosol hygroscopicity and refractory black carbon (rBC) properties were characterised during wintertime at a suburban site in Paris, one of the biggest European cities. Hygroscopic growth factor (GF) frequency distributions, characterised by distinct modes of more-hygroscopic background aerosol and non- or slightly hygroscopic aerosol of local (or regional) origin, revealed an increase of the relative contribution of the local sources compared to the background aerosol with decreasing particle size. BC-containing particles in Paris were mainly originating from fresh traffic emissions, whereas biomass burning only gave a minor contribution. The mass size distribution of the rBC cores peaked on average at an rBC core mass equivalent diameter of D_MEV ~ 150 nm. The BC-containing particles were moderately coated (coating thickness Δ_coat ~ 33 nm on average for rBC cores with D_MEV = 180–280 nm) and an average mass absorption coefficient (MAC) of ~ 8.6 m² g⁻¹ at the wavelength λ = 880 nm was observed.

Different time periods were selected to investigate the properties of BC-containing particles as a function of source and air mass type. The traffic emissions were found to be non-hygroscopic (GF ≈ 1.0), and essentially all particles with a dry mobility diameter (D₀) larger than D₀ = 110 nm contained an rBC core. rBC from traffic emissions was further observed to be uncoated within experimental uncertainty (Δ_coat ~ 2 nm ± 10 nm), to have the smallest BC core sizes (maximum of the rBC core mass size distribution at D_MEV ~ 100 nm) and to have the smallest MAC (~ 7.3 m²g⁻¹ at λ = 880 nm).

The biomass burning aerosol was slightly more hygroscopic than the traffic emissions (with a distinct slightly-hygroscopic mode peaking at GF ≈ 1.1–1.2). Furthermore, only a minor fraction (≤ 10%) of the slightly-hygroscopic particles with 1.1 ≤ GF ≤ 1.2 (and D₀ = 265 nm) contained a detectable rBC core. The BC-containing particles from biomass burning were found to have a medium coating thickness as well as slightly larger mean rBC core sizes and MAC values compared to traffic emissions.

The aerosol observed under the influence of aged air masses and air masses from Eastern Continental Europe was dominated by a~more-hygroscopic mode peaking at GF ≈ 1.6. Most particles (95%), in the more-hygroscopic mode at D₀ = 265 nm, did not contain a detectable rBC core. A significant fraction of the BC-containing particles had a substantial coating with non-refractory aerosol components. MAC values of ~ 8.8 m²g⁻¹ and ~ 8.3 m²g⁻¹ at λ = 880 nm and mass mean rBC core diameters of 150 nm and 200 nm were observed for the aged and continental air mass types, respectively. The reason for the larger rBC core sizes compared to the fresh emissions – transp...

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Section: Time Series and Source Apportionmentsupporting

confidence: 70%

Section: Fig 7 (A)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Black carbon physical properties and mixing state in the European megacity Paris

et al. 2013

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“…A high population (3.75 million in the metropolitan area) and the confinement of commercial and industrial activities to a relatively small area (approximately 450 km 2 ), has led to severe environmental degradation. Over the years high loadings of atmospheric pollutants have been documented (Chaloulakou et al, 2005;Eleftheriadis et al, 1998Eleftheriadis et al, , 2014Kalabokas et al, 1999;Theodosi et al, 2011). Combustion processes used for transportation, power generation and other human activities produce a complex mixture of chemical pollutants (Cohen et al, 2004), which at any given location have characteristics depending on the relative contributions of the different sources of pollution and on the effects of the local geo-climatic factors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of wood burning versus fossil fuel contribution to wintertime black carbon and carbon monoxide concentrations in Athens, Greece

et al. 2018

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Abstract. The scope of this study was to estimate the contribution of fossil fuel and wood burning combustion to black carbon (BC) and carbon monoxide (CO) during wintertime, in Athens. For that purpose, in situ measurements of equivalent black carbon (eBC) and CO were simultaneously conducted in a suburban and an urban background monitoring site in Athens during the 3 months of winter 2014-2015. For the deconvolution of eBC into eBC emitted from fossil fuel (BC ff ) and wood burning (BC wb ), a method based on the spectral dependency of the absorption of pure black carbon and brown carbon was used. Thereafter, BC wb and BC ff estimated fractions were used along with measured CO concentrations in a multiple regression analysis, in order to quantify the contribution of each one of the combustion sources to the ambient CO levels. For a comparative analysis of the results, we additionally estimated the wood burning and fossil fuel contribution to CO, calculated on the basis of their CO / NO x emission ratios. The results indicate that during wintertime BC and CO are mainly emitted by local sources within the Athens Metropolitan Area (AMA). Fossil fuel combustion, mainly from road traffic, is found to be the major contributor to both eBC in PM 2.5 and CO ambient concentrations in AMA. However, wintertime wood burning makes a significant contribution to the observed eBC (of about 30 %) and CO concentrations (on average, 11 and 16 % of total CO in the suburban and urban background sites respectively). Both BC and CO from biomass burning (BC wb and CO wb , respectively) present a clear diurnal pattern, with the highest concentrations during night-time, supporting the theory of local domestic heating being their main source.

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“…Numerous studies have characterized the negative effects resulting from exposure to high levels of outdoor air pollutants (25,80). For instance, Invernizzi et al (33) demonstrated that the black carbon concentration is a highly relevant metric of traffic pollution; future studies could investigate how reductions in black carbon emissions improve health. Similar studies have also shown that outdoor air pollution negatively affected the quality of indoor air.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ambient and household air pollution: complex triggers of disease

Farmer

Nelin

Falvo

et al. 2014

American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology

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Measurement of black carbon concentration as an indicator of air quality benefits of traffic restriction policies within the ecopass zone in Milan, Italy

Cited by 136 publications

References 23 publications

Black carbon physical properties and mixing state in the European megacity Paris

Black carbon physical properties and mixing state in the European megacity Paris

Assessment of wood burning versus fossil fuel contribution to wintertime black carbon and carbon monoxide concentrations in Athens, Greece

Ambient and household air pollution: complex triggers of disease

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