Abstract
The air quality of Handan, a typical industrial city in China, has been significantly improved through atmospheric pollution control, except for ozone (O3) pollution. We found that, in summer, emissions of anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and NOx decreased yearly in Handan, but the O3 concentration significantly declined yearly during 2013–2015, whereas it experienced worsening O3 pollution after 2015. Therefore, we used the Weather Research and Forecasting Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF–CMAQ) modeling system to simulate the influence of the meteorological conditions and emission changes in Handan during the typical period (June) of O3 pollution in 2013–2018. For benchmarked June 2013, the results showed that the reduction of the O3 concentration in June of 2014–2016 was mainly caused by emission reduction, while in June of 2017–2018, the combined effect of changes in emissions and meteorological conditions led to aggravated O3 pollution. Sensitivity analysis indicated that combined VOCs and NOx emission controls would effectively reduce incremental O3 formation when the abatement ratio of VOCs/NOx should be no less than 0.84, and we found that VOCs reduction would continusouly bring about O3 decreases under various NOx reductions, but its positive sensitivity to O3 would become smaller with NOx reduction. However, the positive influence of NOx reduction on O3 would happen until NOx reduction exceeding 45–60%. The findings will be helpful in formulating emission control strategies for coping with O3 pollution in an industrial city.
Highlights
With the accelerated pace of economic globalization and regional economic integration, urbanization and industrialization in China have substantially progressed, which has led to an increase in anthropogenic emissions and atmospheric contamination from economically developed regions; in particular, regional complex air pollution characterized by fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) has become increasingly prominent [1]
Sensitivity analysis indicated that combined volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission controls would effectively reduce incremental O3 formation when the abatement ratio of VOCs/NOx should be no less than 0.84, and we found that VOCs reduction would continusouly bring about O3 decreases under various NOx reductions, but its positive sensitivity to O3 would become smaller with NOx reduction
We found that emissions of anthropogenic VOC and NOx decreased during June 2013–2018 (VOC emissions increased slightly in June 2018)
Summary
With the accelerated pace of economic globalization and regional economic integration, urbanization and industrialization in China have substantially progressed, which has led to an increase in anthropogenic emissions and atmospheric contamination from economically developed regions; in particular, regional complex air pollution characterized by fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) has become increasingly prominent [1]. Meteorological and pollutant emissions have regional characteristics, in this study, based on the high spatial and temporal resolution emission inventory in the BTH region and the Weather Research and Forecasting Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ) modeling system, the meteorological conditions and emission changes in downtown Handan during the typical period (June) of O3 pollution in 2013–2018 were quantitatively evaluated, and the key factors influencing the O3 concentration evolution and O3 formation sensitivity in downtown Handan were determined based on the model simulation method. The anthropogenic emission data of gaseous pollutants (SO2, NOx, CH4, CO, NH3 and VOCs groups) and particulate matter (organic carbon, elemental carbon, PM2.5 and PM10) of the BTH region for 2013–2018 were based on the research results of this research group, and biogenic emission were calculated from the Model of Emission of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGAN) [27]. More details about model verification can see Appendix A (Tables A2 and A3)
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