TY - JOUR
T1 - Insights into PM10 sources in Houston, Texas
T2 - Role of petroleum refineries in enriching lanthanoid metals during episodic emission events
AU - Bozlaker, Ayşe
AU - Buzcu-Güven, Birnur
AU - Fraser, Matthew
AU - Chellam, Shankararaman
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by the Environmental Protection Agency , the State of Texas as part of the program of the Texas Air Research Center, and The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK B.02.1.TBT.0.06.01-219-579-6285). The contents do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the sponsor nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. Steve Paciotti of TCEQ and Ron Sandberg and Wei-Yeong Wang of the Houston Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Air Quality Control assisted with sampling.
Copyright:
Copyright 2013 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2013/4
Y1 - 2013/4
N2 - Petroleum refineries may emit large quantities of pollutants during non-routine operations that include start-ups and shutdowns, planned maintenance, and unplanned equipment failures. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) tracks such events by requiring industries to self-report estimates of these emissions because they often have a detrimental impact on local air quality and potentially, public health. An inventory of non-routine episodic emission events is available via TCEQ's website. However, there is on-going concern that such episodic emissions are sometimes under-reported or even not cataloged. Herein, we present concentrations of 42 main group, transition, and lanthanoid elements in 114 time-resolved (3 or 6 h) samples collected over a 1-month period. We also develop strategies to identify aerosol sources using elemental tracers and compare source apportionment (performed by positive matrix factorization) based on ambient measurements to inventoried non-routine emission events. Through interpretation of key marker elements, five sources impacting concentrations of metals in PM10 were identified and calculated to contribute 73% of the measured PM10 mass. On average, primary emissions from fluidized-bed catalytic cracking (FCC) units negligibly contributed to apportioned PM10 mass. However, 35 samples were identified as impacted by transient PM10 emissions from FCC units because of elevated levels of lanthanoid metals and their ratios. Only 31 of these 35 samples coincided with self-reported non-routine emission events. Further, roughly half of the emission event self-reports detailed only emissions of gaseous pollutants. Based on this, we posit that not all PM10 emission events are reported and even self-reported emission events are incomplete - those that only catalog gaseous pollutants may also include unreported PM emissions.
AB - Petroleum refineries may emit large quantities of pollutants during non-routine operations that include start-ups and shutdowns, planned maintenance, and unplanned equipment failures. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) tracks such events by requiring industries to self-report estimates of these emissions because they often have a detrimental impact on local air quality and potentially, public health. An inventory of non-routine episodic emission events is available via TCEQ's website. However, there is on-going concern that such episodic emissions are sometimes under-reported or even not cataloged. Herein, we present concentrations of 42 main group, transition, and lanthanoid elements in 114 time-resolved (3 or 6 h) samples collected over a 1-month period. We also develop strategies to identify aerosol sources using elemental tracers and compare source apportionment (performed by positive matrix factorization) based on ambient measurements to inventoried non-routine emission events. Through interpretation of key marker elements, five sources impacting concentrations of metals in PM10 were identified and calculated to contribute 73% of the measured PM10 mass. On average, primary emissions from fluidized-bed catalytic cracking (FCC) units negligibly contributed to apportioned PM10 mass. However, 35 samples were identified as impacted by transient PM10 emissions from FCC units because of elevated levels of lanthanoid metals and their ratios. Only 31 of these 35 samples coincided with self-reported non-routine emission events. Further, roughly half of the emission event self-reports detailed only emissions of gaseous pollutants. Based on this, we posit that not all PM10 emission events are reported and even self-reported emission events are incomplete - those that only catalog gaseous pollutants may also include unreported PM emissions.
KW - Non-routine emissions
KW - PM
KW - Petrochemical industries
KW - Positive matrix factorization
KW - Rare earth elements
KW - Trace metals
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U2 - 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2012.11.068
DO - 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2012.11.068
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84872030072
SN - 1352-2310
VL - 69
SP - 109
EP - 117
JO - Atmospheric Environment
JF - Atmospheric Environment
ER -