Major air pollutants in Bursa, Turkey: their levels, temporal changes, interactions, and sources

Abstract

Bursa is one of the largest cities of Turkey and it hosts 17 organized industrial zones. Parallel to the increase in population, rapidly growing energy consumption, and increased numbers of transport vehicles have impacts on the air quality of the city. In this study, regularly calibrated automatic samplers were employed to get the levels of air pollution in Bursa. The concentrations of CH4 and N-CH4 as well as the major air pollutants including PM10, PM2.5, NO, NO2, NOx, SO2, CO, and O3, were determined for 2016 and 2017 calendar years. Their levels were 1641.62 ± 718.25, 33.11 ± 5.45, 42.10 ± 10.09, 26.41 ± 9.01, 19.47 ± 16.51, 46.73 ± 16.56, 66.23 ± 32.265, 7.60 ± 3.43, 659.397 ± 192.73, and 51.92 ± 25.63 µg/m3 for 2016, respectively. Except for O3, seasonal concentrations were higher in winter and autumn for both years. O3, CO, and SO2 had never exceeded the limit values specified in the regulations yet PM10, PM2.5, and NO2 had violated the limits in some days. The ratios of CO/NOx, SO2/NOx, and PM2.5/PM10 were examined to characterize the emission sources. Generally, domestic and industrial emissions were dominated in the fall and winter seasons, yet traffic emissions were effective in spring and summer seasons. As a result of the correlation process between Ox and NOx, it was concluded that the most important source of Ox concentrations in winter was NOx and O3 was in summer.