Photochemical air pollution in the Yellow River Delta region: impacts from the oil industry and biomass burning

In recent years, with a fast-increasing trend of oil and gas(O&NG) production in the U.S, a lot of researches in the U.S. have highlighted signification impact of O&NG production in air quality, especially ozone (O₃) and its precursors volatile oxygen compounds (VOCs). However, related research is still lacking in other countries. To investigate the influence of O&NG production on tropospheric ozone and regional air quality in China, two intensive field campaigns were conducted during February-April and June-July 2017 in the Yellow River Delta. Campaign station was located in a rural open area surrounding by oil filed without any other anthropogenic source nearby. A large suite of parameters including O₃, CO, NO, NO₂, NO_y, SO₂, HONO, VOCs, carbonyls, aerosol properties, and meteorological parameters were in-situ observed. Source samples were also collected near oil extraction machines to obtain a source profile of VOCs in China oil field. Very high VOCs concentration was observed in the station and believed to be influenced by the emission of the petrochemical industry and leakage of storage and transportation processes. Severe photochemical pollution was encountered with the continuous impact of VOCs from O&NG extraction emission. The significant impact of biomass combustion was also identified in several specific cases.

In this report, we intend to present the major findings from this study, including the source profile of VOCs for China oil fields, pollution characteristic of O₃ and VOCs, O₃ formation regimes, atmospheric oxidizing capacity, radical cycling, and impacts of oil field emissions on regional air quality.