title: Air pollutant emissions from Chinese households: A major and underappreciated ambient pollution source.
abstract: As part of the 12th Five-Year Plan, the Chinese government has developed air pollution prevention and control plans for key regions with a focus on the power, transport, and industrial sectors. Here, we investigate the contribution of residential emissions to regional air pollution in highly polluted eastern China during the heating season, and find that dramatic improvements in air quality would also result from reduction in residential emissions. We use the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry to evaluate potential residential emission controls in Beijing and in the Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei (BTH) region. In January and February 2010, relative to the base case, eliminating residential emissions in Beijing reduced daily average surface PM2.5 (particulate mater with aerodynamic diameter equal or smaller than 2.5 micrometer) concentrations by 14 ± 7 μg⋅m(-3) (22 ± 6% of a baseline concentration of 67 ± 41 μg⋅m(-3); mean ± SD). Eliminating residential emissions in the BTH region reduced concentrations by 28 ± 19 μg⋅m(-3) (40 ± 9% of 67 ± 41 μg⋅m(-3)), 44 ± 27 μg⋅m(-3) (43 ± 10% of 99 ± 54 μg⋅m(-3)), and 25 ± 14 μg⋅m(-3) (35 ± 8% of 70 ± 35 μg⋅m(-3)) in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei provinces, respectively. Annually, elimination of residential sources in the BTH region reduced emissions of primary PM2.5 by 32%, compared with 5%, 6%, and 58% achieved by eliminating emissions from the transportation, power, and industry sectors, respectively. We also find air quality in Beijing would benefit substantially from reductions in residential emissions from regional controls in Tianjin and Hebei, indicating the value of policies at the regional level.
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544; tzhu@pku.edu.cn mauzeral@princeton.edu krksmith@berkeley.edu.
authors.forename: Denise L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Mauzerall
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Center for Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544;
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria;
authors.forename: Zbigniew
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Klimont
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
authors.forename: Xinghua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
authors.forename: Shiqiu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing 100081, China;
authors.forename: Weili
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360; tzhu@pku.edu.cn mauzeral@princeton.edu krksmith@berkeley.edu.
authors.forename: Kirk R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; Beijing Innovation Center for Engineering Science and Advanced Technology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China tzhu@pku.edu.cn mauzeral@princeton.edu krksmith@berkeley.edu.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000397:Air Pollution / Q000032:analysis*; D002681:China; D003031:Coal; D006361:Heating; D006798:Housing; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012906:Smoke / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D003031:Coal; D012906:Smoke
keywords: PM2.5; regional pollution transport; residential emissions; secondary aerosols; source contribution