The contribution of residential wood combustion to the PM2.5 concentrations in the Helsinki metropolitan area

Abstract

This article has investigated the contribution of residential wood combustion (RWC) to the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations in the Helsinki metropolitan area (HMA) for 6 years, from 2009 to 2014. We have used the PM2.5 concentrations measured at eight air quality measurement stations. The dispersion of emissions on an urban scale was evaluated with multiple-source Gaussian dispersion models, UDM-FMI (urban dispersion model of the Finnish Meteorological Institute) and CAR-FMI (Contaminants in the Air from a Road model of the Finnish Meteorological Institute), and on a regional scale using the chemical transport model SILAM (System for Integrated modeLling of Atmospheric coMposition). The overall agreement of the predicted concentrations with measurements of PM2.5 was good or fairly good for all stations and years; e.g. at the permanent residential station the daily average values of the index of agreement ranged from 0.69 to 0.81, and the fractional bias values ranged from -0.08 to 0.11, for the considered 6 years. Both the measured and predicted daily averaged concentrations showed increasing trends towards the lower-temperature values. The highest predicted annual averaged concentrations in the region occurred in the vicinity of major roads and streets and in the suburban residential areas to the northwest, north, and northeast of the city centre. The average concentrations of PM2.5 attributed to RWC in winter were up to 10- or 15-fold, compared to the corresponding concentrations in summer. During the considered 6-yearly period, the spatially highest predicted fractions of RWC of the annual PM2.5 concentrations ranged from 12% to 14%. In winter, the corresponding contributions ranged from 16% to 21%. The RWC contribution was higher than the corresponding urban vehicular traffic contribution at all the residential stations during all years. The study has highlighted new research needs for the future, in particular (i) the modelling of the RWC emissions that would be explicitly based on the actual ambient temperatures and (ii) the modelling of the impacts of the most important holiday periods on the emissions from RWC.