Air pollutant emissions from Chinese households: A major and underappreciated ambient pollution source

TLDR

China’s 12th Five‑Year Plan targets air‑pollution control in key sectors such as power, transport, and industry. This study examines how residential emissions contribute to regional air pollution in eastern China during the heating season and shows that reducing them could markedly improve air quality. The authors employ the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF‑Chem) to simulate the impact of residential emission controls in Beijing and the Beijing‑Tianjin‑Hebei (BTH) region. Removing residential emissions lowered Beijing’s January–February PM₂.₅ by 14 ± 7 µg m⁻³ (≈22 % of baseline) and the BTH region by 28 ± 19 µg m⁻³ (≈40 %), cutting primary PM₂.₅ by 32 % annually—greater than the 5–58 % reductions from transport, power, and industry—and indicating that regional controls in Tianjin and Hebei would also benefit Beijing.

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.