Special Issue on 2022 Asian Aerosol Conference (AAC 2022)

Ngoc Tran This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.1, Yusuke Fujii This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.1,2Vinh Xuan Le3,4, Nguyen Doan Thien Chi3,4, Hiroshi Okochi5, To Thi Hien3,4, Norimichi Takenaka1,2 

1 Department of Sustainable System Sciences, Graduate School of Humanities and Sustainable System Sciences, Osaka Prefecture University, Osaka 599-8531, Japan
2 Division of Sustainable System Sciences, Graduate School of Sustainable System Sciences, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka 599-8531, Japan
3 Faculty of Environment, University of Science, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
4 Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
5 School of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan


Received: September 1, 2022
Revised: December 28, 2022
Accepted: February 27, 2023

 Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.


Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.220312  

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Cite this article:

Tran, N., Fujii, Y., Le, V.X., Nguyen, D.T.C., Okochi, H., Thi Hien, T., Takenaka, N. (2023). Annual Variation of PM2.5 Chemical Composition in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Including the COVID-19 Outbreak Period. Aerosol Air Qual. Res. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.220312


HIGHLIGHTS

  • PM2.5 were collected continuously for 1 year in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
  • The effect of socioeconomic suppression by COVID-19 on PM2.5 was evaluated.
  • PM2.5 and chemical species concentrations slumped during the COVID-19 outbreak.
  • Biomass burning, coal combustion, and transportation were main PM2.5 sources.
  • Cooking activities were suggested as one of important PM2.5 emission source in HCMC.
 

ABSTRACT


PM2.5 was continuously collected in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam, during the period from September 2019 to August 2020, which included the period of socioeconomic suppression caused by restrictions imposed in the face of the coronavirus disease of 2019. The concentrations of PM2.5 mass, water-soluble ions (WSIs), organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) were determined to evaluate the seasonal variations in PM2.5, the effect of socioeconomic suppression on PM2.5, and potential PM2.5 sources in HCMC. The PM2.5 mass concentration during the sampling period was 28.44 ± 11.55 μg m−3 (average ± standard deviation). OC, EC, and total WSIs accounted for 30.7 ± 6.6%, 9.7 ± 2.9%, and 24.9 ± 6.6% of the PM2.5 mass, respectively. WSOC contributed 46.4 ± 10.1% to OC mass. NO3, SO42−, and NH4+ were the dominant species in WSIs (72.7 ± 17.7% of the total WSIs’ mass). The concentrations of PM2.5 mass and total WSIs during the rainy season were lower than those during the dry season, whereas the concentrations of carbonaceous species during the rainy season were higher. The concentrations of PM2.5 mass and chemical species during the socioeconomic suppression period significantly decreased by 45%–61% compared to the values before this period. The OC/EC ratio (3.28 ± 0.61) and char-EC/soot-EC (4.88 ± 2.72) suggested that biomass burning, coal combustion, vehicle emissions, cooking activities are major PM2.5 sources in HCMC. Furthermore, the results of a concentration-weighted trajectory analysis suggested that the geological sources of PM2.5 were in the local areas of HCMC and the northeast provinces of Vietnam (where coal-fired power plants are located).


Keywords: PM2.5, Ho Chi Minh City, COVID-19, Vietnam, CWT




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