Relationship between air pollutions and meteorology in Pathumthani Province of Thailand | |
| Author | Kanchanok Noiwimon |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.EV-13-06 |
| Subject(s) | Meteorology--Thailand--Pathum Thani Air--Pollution--Thailand--Pathum Thani |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Environmental Engineering and Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. EV-13-06 |
| Abstract | In many cities in Asia, particulate matter (PM) pollution is a major concern. The carbonaceous particles (EC and OC) are important because they constitute a large fraction of the PM mass in the air. EC or black carbon (BC) which is emitted directly into the atmosphere as a product of incomplete combustion while OC is both emitted directly from sources (primary organic carbon or POC) and formed in photochemical reactions (secondary OC or SOC). OC can be water-soluble organic compound (WSOC) which is thought to be mainly responsible for climatic effects owing to their ability to modify the hygroscopic behavior of aerosol particles. SOC is formed in the photochemical smog reactions hence it is expected that ozone and PM, do have a strong relationship. In this study, the main focus is to analysis the relationship of OC and EC to the emission sources, photochemistry and meteorology. A database of PM concentration and compositions, ozone, and gaseous pollutants available during period 2005 to 2011 the in Rangsit station and in AIT analyzed by SPSS. EC tracer method was used for estimate POC and SOC in PM. During the study period the average of PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 mass concentrations from AIT data were 27 μg/m³ and 20 μg/m³, respectively, hence the average PM10 mass concentration was 47 μg/m³. The range of PM2.5, PM2.5-10 and PM10 was from 0.1-133 μg/m³, 2-94 μg/m³ and 10-144 μg/m³, respectively. The average of EC, OC and WSOC concentrations in wet period (June to September) were 3±2 μg/m³, 5±2 μg/m³ and 5±2 μg/m³. In the dry period (November to March) the average of EC, OC and WSOC concentrations were 6±3 μg/m³, 12±6 μg/m³ and 12±5 μg/m³, respectively The best fit scatter plot diagram between the selected hourly OC and EC datasets in wet and dry period show that in the wet period the EC/OC was lower (0.41) but with a strong correlation (R2=0.70) between OC and EC while in dry period the ratio was higher (0.66) and with a stronger correlation (R2=0.78). The average value for representative [OC/EC] primary ratio for AIT was considered to be 0.41 based on hourly data for the wet season. The average POC concentration was 7±3 μg/m³ with the ranges between 2-17 μg/m³ and the SOC concentration was 0-15 μg/m³ with the average of 4±5 μg/m³. POC was higher than SOC with representative ratio below 2.0 in AIT which, means that AIT area may be dominated by direct OC emission sources (POC) such as vehicle and open biomass burning. Biomass burning is likely to the primary source for OC and WSOC in the PM collected at AIT. The PCA with 15 variables including the daily PM10, daily PM2.5, daily EC, daily OC, daily WSOC, maximum hourly ozone, daily ozone, daily CO, daily NO, daily SO, Wind Speed, daily temperature, maximum temperature, Relative Humidity and Pressure collected over January 2006 to December 2011 in 4 principal component (PC) solution explaining 95% of variance in the raw data set. PM2.5, OC, WSOC and CO are highly loaded on the first component. Thus, the first PC likely represented the primary pollutants which were emitted directly from sources such as biomass burning and transportation. The second PC had high lodings of PM10, EC and maximum temperature hence also mainly indicated the primary pollutants. The third PC was highly loaded by daily and maximum O₃ at Rangsit station. In addition, PM2.5, OC, WSOC and CO had moderate loadings. Thus, this component represented secondary pollutants in relation to the meteorological variables. The fourth PC was shown to link with the primary pollutants which are NOX and SO₂ that may be associated with traffic (diesel) emission. Further studies should be conducted with focus on EC and OC analysis for longer period of time. The dispersion modeling study can be used to produce the POC and SOC concentrations in BMR and verify the result of EC/OC tracer method generated by this study. |
| Year | 2013 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Environmental Engineering and Management (EV) |
| Chairperson(s) | Nguyen, Thi Kim Oanh; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Visvanathan, C.;Preeda Pakpian; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Royal Thai Government Fellowship; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2013 |