Ozone pollution in the plate and logistics capital of China: Insight into the formation, source apportionment, and regional transport

Abstract

As the logistics and plate capital of China, the sources and regional transport of O₃ in Linyi are different from those in other cities because of the significant differences in industrial structure and geographical location. Twenty-five ozone pollution episodes (OPEs, 52 days) were identified in 2021, with a daily maximum 8-h moving average O₃ concentration (O_3-MDA8) of 184.5 ± 22.5 μg/m³. Oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) and aromatics were the dominant contributors to ozone formation potential (OFP), with contributions of approximately 23.5-52.7% and 20.0-40.8%, respectively, followed by alkenes, alkanes, and alkynes. Formaldehyde, an OVOC with high concentrations emitted from the plate industry and vehicles, contributed the most to OFP (22.7 ± 5.5%), although formaldehyde concentrations only accounted for 9.4 ± 2.7% of the total non-methane hydrocarbon (NMHC) concentrations. The source apportionment results indicated that the plate industry was the dominant O₃ contributor (27.0%), followed by other sources (21.6%), vehicle-related sources (18.0%), solvent use (16.9%), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)/natural gas (NG) (8.8%), and combustion sources (7.7%). Therefore, there is an urgent need to control the plating industry in Linyi to mitigate O₃ pollution. The backward trajectory, potential source contribution function (PSCF), and concentration weighted trajectory (CWT) models were used to identify the air mass pathways and potential source areas of air pollutants during the OPEs. O₃ pollution was predominantly affected by air masses that originated from eastern and local regions, while trajectories from the south contained the highest O₃ concentrations (207.0 μg/m³). The potential source area was from east and south Linyi during the OPEs. Therefore, it is critical to implement regional joint prevention and control measures to lower O₃ concentrations.

Keywords: China'S plate and logistics capital; Formaldehyde; Ozone formation potential; Ozone pollution; Regional transport; Source apportionment.