Determination of buffering capacity of total suspended particle and its source apportionment using the chemical mass balance approach.

The samples of total suspended particle (TSP) from sources and TSP in the ambient atmosphere were collected in 2006 at Tianjin, People's Republic of China and analyzed for 16 chemical elements, two water-soluble ions, total carbon, and organic carbon. On the basis of the chemical mass balance (CMB) model, the contributions of different TSP sources to the ambient TSP were identified. The results showed that resuspended dust has the biggest contributions to the concentration of ambient TSP. The buffering capacity of each TSP source was also determined by an analytical chemistry method, and the result showed that the constructive dust (the dust emitted from construction work) had the strongest buffering capacity among the measured sources, whereas the coal combustion dust had the weakest buffering capacity. A calculation formula of the source of buffering capacity of ambient TSP was developed based on the result of TSP source apportionment and the identification of the buffering capacity of each TSP source in this study. The results of the source apportionment of the buffering capacity of ambient TSP indicated that open sources (including soil dust, resuspended dust, and constructive dust) were the dominant sources of the buffering capacity of the ambient TSP. Acid rain pollution in cities in Northern China might become serious with a decrease of open source pollution without reducing acidic sources. More efforts must be made to evaluate this potential risk, and countermeasures should be proposed as early as possible.