China Source Profile Shared Service (CSPSS): The Chinese PM2.5 Database for Source Profiles

China Source Profile Shared Service (CSPSS, www.speciate.org.cn), a new database of emission source profiles for particulate matter (PM), has been developed by researchers from Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES). The first release of CSPSS 1.0 consists of comprehensive data from China that reveals the emission profiles of different sources in selected regions. Related source categories include coal-fired boiler, industrial process, fugitive dust, vehicle exhaust emissions, biomass burning and cooking. Compositing methodology and data quality control were applied to create high quality composite profiles of each source category. Statistical measures of correlation coefficient, t-test and and distribution of weighted differences can be used to compare the similarities and differences among individual and composite profiles. In addition, differences between data of SPECIATE and CSPSS were compared. The chemical composition shows special characteristics in different source categories. For example, SO42– and OC mark coal-fired bolier; Ca and Ca2+ are the most abundant elements in cement production and construction dust emissions; Cl–, K+ and K mark biomass burning; several metals such as V, Zn Sn and Pb could be used as tracers for paved road dust while Sr, Ba and Pb marked industrial emissions. The highest abundances of organic matter are observed in cooking emissions. Toxic species such as Cr and As are enriched in PM2.5 from coal combustion. Distinguished features of source profiles between SPECIATE and CSPSS indicate that the knowledge of local source profiles are needed for further research. This database should better reflect the emission profiles observed in Chinese environment. Sensitivity tests have been conducted to examine the impact of sub-composite source profiles usually used to establish the composite ones. The result shows that the use of sub-composite source profiles of coal combustion dose not impact the apportionment results for biomass burning, but other sources are varying influenced.