Role of secondary aerosols in haze formation in summer in the Megacity Beijing

A field experiment from 18 August to 8 September 2006 in Beijing, China, was carried out. A hazy day was defined as visibility 〈 10 km and RH（relative humidity） 〈 90%. Four haze episodes, which accounted for ～ 60% of the time during the whole campaign, were characterized by increases of SNA（sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium） and SOA（secondary organic aerosol） concentrations. The average values with standard deviation of SO2-＋4, NO-3, NH4 and SOA were 49.8（± 31.6）, 31.4（±22.3）, 25.8（±16.6） and 8.9（±4.1） μg/m3, respectively, during the haze episodes, which were 4.3, 3.4, 4.1, and 1.7 times those in the non-haze days. The SO2-4,NO-3, NH＋4, and SOA accounted for 15.8%, 8.8%, 7.3%, and 6.0% of the total mass concentration of PM10 during the non-haze days. The respective contributions of SNA species to PM10 rose to about27.2%, 15.9%, and 13.9% during the haze days, while the contributions of SOA maintained the same level with a slight decrease to about 4.9%. The observed mass concentrations of SNA and SOA increased with the increase of PM10 mass concentration, however, the rate of increase of SNA was much faster than that of the SOA. The SOR（sulfur oxidation ratio） and NOR（nitrogen oxidation ratio） increased from non-haze days to hazy days, and increased with the increase of RH. High concentrations of aerosols and water vapor favored the conversion of SO2 to SO2-4and NO2 to NO-3, which accelerated the accumulation of the aerosols and resulted in the formation of haze in Beijing.

On-board measurements of gaseous pollutant emission characteristics under real driving conditions from light-duty diesel vehicles in Chinese cities

A total of 15 light-duty diesel vehicles（LDDVs） were tested with the goal of understanding the emission factors of real-world vehicles by conducting on-board emission measurements. The emission characteristics of hydrocarbons（HC） and nitrogen oxides（NOx） at different speeds, chemical species profiles and ozone formation potential（OFP） of volatile organic compounds（VOCs） emitted from diesel vehicles with different emission standards were analyzed. The results demonstrated that emission reductions of HC and NOxhad been achieved as the control technology became more rigorous from Stage I to Stage IV. It was also found that the HC and NOxemissions and percentage of O2 dropped with the increase of speed, while the percentage of CO2 increased. The abundance of alkanes was significantly higher in diesel vehicle emissions, approximately accounting for 41.1%–45.2%, followed by aromatics and alkenes. The most abundant species were propene,ethane, n-decane, n-undecane, and n-dodecane. The maximum incremental reactivity（MIR）method was adopted to evaluate the contributions of individual VOCs to OFP. The results indicated that the largest contributors to O3 production were alkenes and aromatics, which accounted for 87.7%–91.5%. Propene, ethene, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, 1-butene, and1,2,3-trimethylbenzene were the top five VOC species based on their OFP, and accounted for 54.0%-64.8% of the total OFP. The threshold dilution factor was applied to analyze the possibility of VOC stench pollution. The majority of stench components emitted from vehicle exhaust were aromatics, especially p-diethylbenzene, propylbenzene, m-ethyltoluene, and p-ethyltoluene.