Chemical Characteristics and Source Apportionment of PM₁₀ Using PMF Receptor Modelling Approach for Western Parts of Indian Industrial Area.

Particulate matter (PM) air pollution is one of India’s biggest issues due to the country’s rapid growth as a result of expanding urbanisation, growing industrialisation, and other related human activities. This means that the PM pollution levels that the Indian population is exposed to are among the highest in the world, increasing the risk of respiratory ailments, hospital admissions, and early deaths. Most of the research on PM conducted in India focused on large cities such as Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, etc. A comprehensive literature review reveals that there are relatively few studies on PM in and around western Indian industrial areas, especially in Gujarat’s Vapi and Ankleshwar. Therefore, in the current study, a comprehensive investigation of the chemical composition of PM containing Elemental Carbon-Organic carbon (EC-OC), Water soluble ions (WSIs), and marker elements is performed for the industrial area of Ankleshwar followed by a source apportionment study using Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) receptor model. For each of the six locations, twenty samples were taken in February 2020. The PM₁₀ mass for the study area is found to be in the range of 100.98 to 225.47 µg/m³, which is higher than the National Ambient Air quality norm of 100 µg/m³ for 24 h. The contribution of EC & OC is between 44 and 48%, WSI’s is 21–26%, and elements are found to be between 29 and 31%. Source apportionment study performed by the PMF receptor model exhibited the influence from various sources as 27.73% from crustal or soil dust, 22.94% from fossil fuel combustion, 17.94% from vehicular emissions, 13.97% from secondary aerosols, 9.10% from biomass burning, and 8.32% from industrial emissions. This investigation shall further help to devise pollution abetment strategies and improve the ambient air quality for the study area. The source that is responsible for higher PM₁₀ or PM_2.5 concentrations shall be given higher priority while devising control strategies for air pollution control.