Source Apportionment of PM2.5 in Handan City, China Using a Combined Method of Receptor Model and Chemical Transport Model

Abstract

Handan is one of the top polluted cities in China, characterized by high concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). In this paper, a receptor model, i.e., the Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) model, and a chemical transport model, i.e., the Mesoscale Modeling System Generation 5 (MM5) and Models-3/Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, are both applied to apportion the sources of PM2.5 in Handan. It is concluded that regional sources contribute 36.0% of PM2.5, and within local sources, the contributions of major emission sectors are: 22.3% from coal combustion, 10.7% from metal smelting, 7.3% from Zn-OC-B a, 18.5% from industry, 11.3% from transportation, 10.6% from biomass burning, and 19.2% from dust emissions. It indicates that regional joint air pollution controls should be emphasized in the future control strategy, and local source controls on coal combustion and industries are the key points to mitigate the severe PM2.5 pollution in Handan.