Characterization of Primary Organic Aerosol Emissions from Meat Cooking, Trash...

Mohr, C., J. A. Huffman, M. J. Cubison, A. C. Aiken, K. S. Docherty, J. R. Kimmel, I. Ulbrich, M. Hannigan, and J. Jimenez-Palacios (2009), Characterization of Primary Organic Aerosol Emissions from Meat Cooking, Trash Burning, and Motor Vehicles with High-Resolution Aerosol Mass Spectrometry and Comparison with Ambient and Chamber Observations, Environ. Sci. Technol., 43, 2443-2449, doi:10.1021/es8011518.
Abstract: 

Organic aerosol (OA) emissions from motor vehicles, meatcooking and trash burning are analyzed here using a highresolution aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS). High resolution data show that aerosols emitted by combustion engines and plastic burning are dominated by hydrocarbon-like organic compounds. Meat cooking and especially paper burning emissions contain significant fractions of oxygenated organic compounds; however, their unit-resolution mass spectral signatures are very similar to those from ambient hydrocarbon-like OA, and very different from the mass spectra of ambient secondary or oxygenated OA (OOA). Thus, primary OA from these sources is unlikely to be a significant direct source of ambient OOA. There are significant differences in high-resolution tracer m/zs that may be useful for differentiating some of these sources. Unlike in most ambient spectra, all of these sources have low total m/z 44 and this signal is not dominated by the CO2+ ion. All sources have high m/z 57, which is low during high OOA ambient periods. Spectra from paper burning are similar to some types of biomass burning OA, with elevated m/z 60. Meat cooking aerosols also have slightly elevated m/z 60, whereas motor vehicle emissions have very low signal at this m/z.

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Research Program: 
Tropospheric Composition Program (TCP)