Modeling Semivolatile Organic Aerosol Mass Emissions from Combustion Systems

• Published in: Environmental science & technology 2006-04, Vol.40 (8), p.2671-2677
• Main Authors: Shrivastava, Manish K, Lipsky, Eric M, Stanier, Charles O, Robinson, Allen L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerosols; Aerosols - analysis; Air Pollutants - analysis; Applied sciences; Atmospheric pollution; Diesel fuels; Emissions; Exact sciences and technology; Models, Chemical; Organic Chemicals - analysis; Pollutants physicochemistry study: properties, effects, reactions, transport and distribution; Pollution; Smoke; Sorption; Vehicle Emissions; Volatilization; Wood
• ISSN: 0013-936X; 1520-5851
• DOI: 10.1021/es0522231

Experimental measurements of gas-particle partitioning and organic aerosol mass in diluted diesel and wood combustion exhaust are interpreted using a two-component absorptive-partitioning model. The model parameters are determined by fitting the experimental data. The changes in partitioning with dilution of both wood smoke and diesel exhaust can be described by two lumped compounds in roughly equal abundance with effective saturation concentrations of ∼1600 μg m-3 and ∼20 μg m-3. The model is used to investigate gas-particle partitioning of emissions across a wide range of atmospheric conditions. Under the highly dilute conditions found in the atmosphere, the partitioning of the emissions is strongly influenced by the ambient temperature and the background organic aerosol concentration. The model predicts large changes in primary organic aerosol mass with varying atmospheric conditions, indicating that it is not possible to specify a single value for the organic aerosol emissions. Since atmospheric conditions vary in both space and time, air quality models need to treat primary organic aerosol emissions as semivolatile. Dilution samplers provide useful information about organic aerosol emissions; however, the measure ments can be biased relative to atmospheric conditions and constraining predictions of absorptive-partitioning models requires emissions data across the entire range of atmospherically relevant concentrations.