Chemical Speciation and Source Apportionment of Airborne Coarse Particles at Kanpur

The key objective of this study was to unravel the major sources of PM10-2.5 (defined as PM10-PM2.5 or coarse particles) within and near the city of Kanpur. Airborne particulate matter (PM) samples were collected from 1st April to 15th July, 2011. The average mass concentration of coarse particles was found to be 64.3 ± 51.16 µg/m3. In addition to the mass concentrations of coarse particles their black carbon (BC), water soluble inorganic carbon (WSIC), water soluble organic carbon (WSOC), water-soluble ions and elemental composition were also determined. The size-resolved data set was processed via Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) to carefully identify major sources and an attempt was made to quantify their respective source strengths. The contribution of these sources to the coarse PM mass concentration was also assessed. The identified sources and their contributions for the coarse particles were paved road dust (53%), vehicular emission (7%), coal combustion & brick kilns (2.5%), construction activities and incineration (0.5%), crustal dust (32%) and biomass burning and oil combustion (5%).