Honghui Xu

Recent Development of Catalysts for Removal of Volatile Organic Compounds in Flue Gas by Combustion: A Review

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from anthropogenic sources pose direct and indirect hazards to both atmospheric environment and human health due to their contribution to the formation of photochemical smog and potential toxicity including carcinogenicity. Therefore, to abate VOCs emission, the catalytic oxidation process has been extensively studied in laboratories and widely applied in various industries. This report is mainly focused on the benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) with additional discussion about chlorinated VOCs. This review covers the recent developments in catalytic combustion of VOCs over noble metal catalysts, nonnoble metal catalysts, perovskite catalysts, spinel catalysts, and dual functional adsorbent-catalysts. In addition, the effects of supports, coke formation, and water effects have also been discussed. To develop efficient and cost-effective catalysts for VOCs removal, further research in catalytic oxidation might need to be carried out to strengthen the understanding of catalytic mechanisms involved.

Advances on transition metal oxides catalysts for formaldehyde oxidation: A review

ABSTRACT This article highlights recent advances in the development of transition metal-based catalysts for formaldehyde oxidation, particularly the enhancement of their catalytic activity for low-temperature oxidation. Various factors that enhance low-temperature activity are reviewed, such as morphology and tunnel structures, synthesis methods, specific surface area, amount and type of active surface oxygen species, oxidation state, and density of active sites are discussed. In addition, catalyst immobilization for practical air purification, reaction mechanism of formaldehyde oxidation, and the reaction parameters affecting the overall efficiency of the reaction are also reviewed.

Characteristics of Atmospheric Compositions in the Background Area of Yangtze River Delta during Heavy Air Pollution Episode

In order to understand the formation and evolution of recurrent severe haze pollution episodes in Yangtze River Delta, China, a short comparative sampling campaign was conducted at the Lin’an background monitoring station from 25 November 2013 to 14 December 2013. The characteristic concentrations of PM2.5, black carbon, CO2, CO, and CH4 have been systematically recorded at the abovementioned site. Coupled with detailed analysis of air backward trajectories, fire spot distribution surrounding the studied site and meteorological impacts, temporal trend, diurnal variation, and intercorrelation of the aforementioned species have also been comprehensively investigated throughout prehaze, haze, and posthaze periods.

Simultaneous measurement of multiple organic tracers in fine aerosols from biomass burning and fungal spores by HPLC-MS/MS

Three monosaccharide anhydrides (MAs: levoglucosan, mannosan, and galactosan) and sugar alcohols (arabitol and mannitol) are widely used as organic tracers for source identification of aerosols emitted from biomass burning and fungal spores, respectively. In the past, these two types of organic tracer have been measured separately or conjointly using different analytical techniques, with which a number of disadvantages have been experienced during the application to environmental aerosol samples, including organic solvent involved extraction, time-consuming derivatization, or poor separation efficiency due to overlapping peaks, etc. Hence, in this study a more environment-friendly, effective and integrated extraction and analytical method has been developed for simultaneous determination of the above mentioned organic tracers in the same aerosol sample using ultrasonication and high performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). The ultrasonication assisted extraction process using ultrapure water can achieve satisfactory recoveries in the range of 100.3 ± 1.3% to 108.4 ± 1.6% for these tracers. All the parameters related to LC and MS/MS have been optimized to ensure good identification and pronounced intensity for each compound. A series of rigorous validation steps have been conducted. This newly developed analytical method using ultrasonication and HPLC-MS/MS has been successfully applied to environmental aerosol samples of different pollution levels for the simultaneous measurement of the above mentioned five organic tracers from biomass burning and fungal spores.

Characteristics of PM 2.5 mass concentrations and chemical species in urban and background areas of China: emerging results from the CARE-China network

The “Campaign on Atmospheric Aerosol Research” network of China (CARE-China) is a long-term project for the study of the spatio-temporal distributions of physical aerosol characteristics as well as the chemical components and optical properties of aerosols over China. This study presents the first long-term data sets from this project, including 3 years of observations of online PM2.5 mass concentrations (2012–2014) and 1 year of observations of PM2.5 compositions (2012–2013) from the CAREChina network. The average PM2.5 concentration at 20 urban sites is 73.2 μg m−3 (16.8–126.9 μg m−3), which was 3 times higher than the average value from the 12 background sites (11.2–46.5 μg m−3). The PM2.5 concentrations are generally higher in east-central China than in the other parts of the country due to their relatively large particulate matter (PM) emissions and the unfavourable meteorological conditions for pollution dispersion. A distinct seasonal variability in PM2.5 is observed, with highs in the winter and lows during the summer at urban sites. Inconsistent seasonal trends were observed at the background sites. Bimodal and unimodal diurnal variation patterns were identified at both urban and background sites. The chemical compositions of PM2.5 were analysed at six paired urban and background sites located within the most polluted urban agglomerations – North China Plain (NCP), Yangtze River delta (YRD), Pearl River delta (PRD), North-east China region (NECR), South-west China region (SWCR) – and the cleanest region of China – the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). The major PM2.5 constituents across all the urban sites are organic matter (OM, 26.0 %), SO2− 4 (17.7 %), mineral dust (11.8 %), NO−3 (9.8 %), NH + 4 (6.6 %), elemental carbon (EC) (6.0 %), Cl (1.2 %) at 45 % RH and unaccounted matter (20.7 %). Similar chemical compositions of PM2.5 were observed at background sites but were associated with higher fractions of OM (33.2 %) and lower fractions of NO−3 (8.6 %) and EC (4.1 %). Significant variations of the chemical species were observed among the sites. At the urban sites, the OM ranged from 12.6 μg m−3 (Lhasa) to 23.3 μg m−3 (Shenyang), the SO2− 4 ranged from 0.8 μg m−3 (Lhasa) to 19.7 μg m−3 (Chongqing), the NO−3 Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 8850 Z. Liu et al.: Characteristics of PM2.5 mass concentrations and chemical species ranged from 0.5 μg m−3 (Lhasa) to 11.9 μg m−3 (Shanghai) and the EC ranged from 1.4 μg m−3 (Lhasa) to 7.1 μg m−3 (Guangzhou). The PM2.5 chemical species at the background sites exhibited larger spatial heterogeneities than those at urban sites, suggesting different contributions from regional anthropogenic or natural emissions and from long-range transport to background areas. Notable seasonal variations of PM2.5-polluted days were observed, especially for the megacities in east-central China, resulting in frequent heavy pollution episodes occurring during the winter. The evolution of the PM2.5 chemical compositions on polluted days was consistent for the urban and nearby background sites, where the sum of sulfate, nitrate and ammonia typically constituted much higher fractions (31–57 %) of PM2.5 mass, suggesting fine-particle pollution in the most polluted areas of China assumes a regional tendency, and the importance of addressing the emission reduction of secondary aerosol precursors including SO2 and NOx . Furthermore, distinct differences in the evolution of [NO−3 ]/[SO 2− 4 ] ratio and OC/EC ratio on polluted days imply that mobile sources and stationary (coal combustion) sources are likely more important in Guangzhou and Shenyang, respectively, whereas in Beijing it is mobile emission and residential sources. As for Chongqing, the higher oxidation capacity than the other three cities suggested it should pay more attention to the emission reduction of secondary aerosol precursors. This analysis reveals the spatial and seasonal variabilities of the urban and background aerosol concentrations on a national scale and provides insights into their sources, processes and lifetimes.