Abstract:
Agriculture and vehicles are important ammonia emissions sources in rural and urban areas, respectively. A comparative study of their environmental impacts is of great significance for the scientific formulation of emission reduction strategies. However, there is currently a lack of research on the differential impacts of agricultural and vehicular NH
3 emissions. This study established a NH
3 emission inventory with 1 km resolution for fertilizer, livestock and vehicles based on the emission factor method, and analyzed their spatial and temporal distribution characteristics. Further, WRF-CAMx-PSAT, combined with Brute-Force method was used to simulate the emission reduction scenarios of agricultural and vehicular NH
3 in January and June 2017 to investigate the differential effects of different NH
3 emission sources on atmospheric PM
2.5. Results show that the ammonia emissions from fertilizer, livestock and vehicles in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei were 31.0×10
4 t, 44.7×10
4 t, and 0.8×10
4 t, respectively, in 2017. From the perspective of emission reduction effect, when agricultural and vehicular NH
3 emission was gradient reduced by 10%, 30%, 50%, 70%, and 100%, respectively, NH
4+ showed a nearly linear change, however, SO
42- and NO
3- showed a non-linear decreasing trend. Influenced by emissions, the average change rates (-16.3%, -4.3%, and -37.3%) of NH
4+, SO
42-, and NO
3- concentrations under the agricultural NH
3 reduction scenarios were significantly higher than those (-1.7%, -0.2%, and -4.3%) under the vehicular NH
3 reduction scenarios. However, from the perspective of emission reduction efficiency, the opposite phenomenon was found. To analyze the emission reduction efficiency, the NH
3 emission reduction air quality improvement efficiency index was proposed and defined as the change in PM
2.5 concentration under the unit (10
4 tons) of NH
3 emission reduction. By comparison, it is found that the air quality improvement efficiency of vehicular NH
3 emission reduction was significantly higher than that of agricultural NH
3 emission reduction, with a difference of 1.0-3.2 times and 1.2-2.3 times in January and June, respectively. The results of the study can provide scientific basis for the optimal prevention and control of air pollution.