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Extreme weather events are happening more frequently as a result of global climate change. Dust storms broke out in the spring of 2017 in China and drastically impacted the local air quality. In this study, a variety of data, including aerosol vertical profiles, surface particle concentration, meteorological parameters, and MODIS–derived aerosol optical depth, as well as backward trajectory analysis, were employed to analyze two dust events from April to May in Beijing. The dust plumes were mainly concentrated below 0.8 km, with peak PM10 values of 1000 μg·m−3 and 300 μg·m−3 in the two cases. The aerosols showed different vertical distribution characteristics. The pure dust in case 1 from 4 to 5 May 2017 had a longer duration (2 days) and presented a larger aerosol extinction coefficient (2.27 km−1 at 355 nm and 1.25 km−1 at 532 nm) than that of the mixed dust in case 2 on 17 April 2017 (2.01 km−1 at 355 nm and 1.33 km−1 at 532 nm). The particle depolarization ratio (PDR) remained constant (0.24 ± 0.03 in case 1) from the surface to 0.8 km in height. In contrast, the PDR profile in the mixed dust (case 2) layer was split into two regions—large values exceeding 0.15 above 0.6 km and small values of 0.11 ± 0.03 below 0.6 km. The influence of meteorological information on aerosol distribution was also investigated, and wind was predominant through the observing period. The pure dust in case 1 was mainly from Mongolia, with strong northwest winds, while the near-surface mixed pollution was caused by the combination of long-transported sand and local emission. Furthermore, lidar-derived profiles of dust mass concentrations in the two cases were presented. This study reveals the vertical characteristics of dust aerosols in the production and dissipation of localized dust events and confirms the efficacy of thorough observations with multiple approaches from the ground to space to monitor dust events in real time.

There is limited information on contaminations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the water source affected by agricultural activities. The contamination of PFASs was investigated in the sources of agricultural groundwater and nearby surface water from an important vegetable production base supply for Beijing and Tianjin, located in North China. Σ13PFAS concentrations ranged from 0.321 to 8.285 ng/L, with an average concentration of 2.022 ng/L in the groundwater and 19.673 ng/L in the surface water. With the increase in the carbon chain length, the mean concentrations of PFASs in groundwater generally showed a decreasing trend. The dominated congeners of short-chain perfluorobutanesulfonate and perfluorooctanoate acid (PFOA) were detected in all groundwater samples, with mean concentrations of 0.944 and 0.654 ng/L. The difference was that PFOA and perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) were the dominant congeners in nearby surface water, with concentrations of 7.585 and 3.421 ng/L. Thus, the concentrations of PFOA and PFOS in the surface water were about 8.5 times higher than those in the groundwater, indicating that Σ13PFAS concentrations might decrease with the water migration from the overground to the underground. In addition, significant correlations were observed between PFASs and DOC/TN related to agricultural activities, suggesting a certain relationship existed between PFAS conger distributions and organic carbon/nutrients in water. Health risk assessment indicated that the PFAS exposure caused insignificantly immediate harm to residents in the studied area. This survey provided information on the sources, spatial distribution, and potential migration characteristics of PFASs in a typical agricultural area of North China.

A rapid reaction occurs near the exhaust nozzle when vehicle emissions contact the air. Twenty diesel vehicles were studied using a new multipoint sampling system that is suitable for studying the exhaust plume near the exhaust nozzle. The variation characteristics of fine particle matter (PM2.5) and its components in diesel vehicle exhaust plumes were analyzed. The PM2.5 emissions gradually increased with increasing distance from the nozzle in the plume. Elemental carbon emissions remained basically unchanged, organic carbon and total carbon (TC) increased with increasing distance. The concentrations of SO42-, NO3- and NH4+ (SNA) directly emitted by the vehicles were very low but increased rapidly in the exhaust plume. The selective catalytic reduction (SCR) reduced 42.7% TC, 40% NO3- emissions, but increased 104% SO42- and 36% NH4+ emissions, respectively. In summary, the SCR reduced 29% primary PM2.5 emissions for the tested diesel vehicles. The NH4NO3 particle formation maybe more important in the plume, and there maybe other forms of formation of NH4+ (eg. NH4Cl). The generation of secondary organic carbon (SOC) plays a leading role in the generation of secondary PM2.5. The SCR enhanced the formation of SOC and SNA in the plume, but comprehensive analysis shows that the SCR more enhanced the SNA formation in the plume, which is mainly new particles formation process. The inconsistency between secondary organic aerosol (SOA) and primary organic aerosol definitions is one of the important reasons for the difference between SOA simulation and observation.

Environment protection and food safety are two critical issues in the world. In this review, a novel approach which integrates statistical study and subjective discussion was adopted to review recent advances on environment and food safety. Firstly, a scientometric-based statistical study was conducted based on 4904 publications collected from the Web of Science Core Collection database. It was found that the research on environment and food safety was growing steadily from 2001 to 2020. Interestingly, the statistical analysis of most-cited papers, titles, abstracts, keywords, and research areas revealed that the research on environment and food safety was diverse and multidisciplinary. In addition to the scientometric study, strategies to protect environment and ensure food safety were critically discussed, followed by a discussion on the emerging research topics, including emerging contaminates (e.g., microplastics), rapid detection of contaminants (e.g., biosensors), and environment friendly food packaging materials (e.g., biodegradable polymers). Finally, current challenges and future research directions were proposed. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-021-16069-6.

Emissions of agricultural machines during tillage processes played an important role in severe seasonal pollution events in agricultural areas in China and cannot be ignored. In this study, the CO, NOX, HC and PM2.5 emissions of agricultural machines during real-world tillage processes were tested using a portable emission measurement system (PEMS), and their fuel-based and tillage area-based emission factors were calculated. The CO, NOX, HC and PM2.5 emissions were influenced by emission standards, engine rated power, tillage processes and crops. Only the CO, HC and PM2.5 fuel-based emission factors were reduced from China 0 to China II. For China III agricultural machines, the fuel-based emission factors were higher during plowing and tilling than during harvesting. The tillage area-based CO, NOX, HC and PM2.5 emission factors of corn tillage process were 11.85 ± 8.30, 53.21 ± 48.80, 3.46 ± 3.14 and 1.64 ± 1.33 kg/km2, respectively. The tillage area-based CO, NOX, HC and PM2.5 emission factors of wheat tillage process were 19.69 ± 21.50, 79.98 ± 63.22, 3.90 ± 2.96 and 1.61 ± 2.43 kg/km2, respectively. The tillage area-based emission factors of China III agricultural machines during plowing and tilling were higher than those during harvesting. The fuel consumption per unit tillage area can be used to provide a reference for the interconversion of the two emission factors in future studies. By comparing the fuel-based emission factors in this study with those in the Guidelines and other studies, we observed that the CO, HC and PM2.5 emissions of agricultural machines with corresponding emission standards may be overestimated and the NOX emissions may be underestimated in areas where wheat and corn are mainly grown. Moreover, the pollutant emissions of agricultural machines were regionally different. These results could help elucidate the pollution contribution of agricultural machines in China.

China's rapid economic growth over the past few decades has been fueled by the fossil-fuel dominated energy system. In Northern China, coal and biomass are important fuel types for household cooking and heating. The use of coal and biomass not only contributes to CO

Previous studies have indicated that heavy metal levels in milk vary partly depending on environmental metal concentrations. Given the increasing consumption of milk in China, it is essential to pay attention to milk safety. We performed a systematic review of relevant published studies to evaluate the heavy metal levels in milk and dairy products and the associated health risks, discuss environmental sources of heavy metals, and propose future research directions. A literature search was implemented in the Web of Science Core Collection and PubMed using multiple keywords such as "metal," "milk," "dairy products," and "China". A total of 16 published studies that analyzed metal levels in milk and dairy products in 20 provincial administrative regions were included. Most studies detected toxic heavy metals in milk and dairy products samples, including mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium, and arsenic. The lead concentration in milk from these studies did not exceed the Chinese standard for milk. However, three studies detected relatively high lead levels in both commercial and raw milk, exceeding the European Commission standard. The polluted environment surrounding the farm, feed, and packaging materials are likely sources of metals in milk and dairy products. The hazard index for the 11 analyzed metal elements in milk and dairy products was lower than 1, indicating negligible non-carcinogenic health risks from exposure to these metals. Children are at a higher risk than adults. This review illustrates that research in this field is limited to China. More research should be conducted in the future, such as evaluating the contribution of each environmental source of metal in milk and dairy products.

To investigate the structural evolution of vanadate catalysts in the presence of SO2 and its influence on DeNOx behaviors, three typical vanadate catalysts (unsupported Mn2V2O7, Mn2V2O7/TiO2, and sulphated Mn2V2O7/TiO2) were designed for the selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH3. The XRD, Raman, and S 2p XPS spectra and TG results confirmed the SO2-promoted decomposition of supported Mn2V2O7 to form VOx species and MnSO4 on TiO2. The XPS spectra of V 2p and (HR)TEM images further indicated the fusion of the decomposed VOx with TiO2 with increased dispersity for the active V species. The decomposition and sulfation of supported Mn2V2O7 markedly increased the specific surface area with the exposure of more active Mn/V sites, Oα species and acid sites as demonstrated by the XPS spectra of O 2p and BET, NH3-TPD and H2-TPR results. The catalytic test exhibited that the formation of MnSO4 devitalized the Mn-based low-temperature active sites and worsened the low-temperature DeNOx performance below 250 °C, but the decomposition and sulfation of the supported Mn2V2O7 significantly enhanced the catalytic activity and N2 selectivity above 250 °C owing to the exposure of more active V sites, Oα species and acid sites. These research results imply that the vanadate catalysts may be unstable in the presence of SO2 and more suitable for the purification of sulfur-free or pre-desulfurization flue gases in the high temperature range.

Graphs and networks are very common data structure for modelling complex systems that are composed of a number of nodes and topologies, such as social networks, citation networks, biological protein-protein interactions networks, etc. In recent years, machine learning has become an efficient technique to obtain representation of graph for downstream graph analysis tasks, including node classification, link prediction, and community detection. Different with traditional graph analytical models, the representation learning on graph tries to learn low dimensional embeddings by means of machine learning models that could be trained in supervised, unsupervised or semi-supervised manners. Compared with traditional approaches that directly use input node attributes, these embeddings are much more informative and helpful for graph analysis. There are a number of developed models in this respect, that are different in the ways of measuring similarity of vertexes in both original space and feature space. In order to learn more efficient node representation with better generalization property, we propose a task-independent graph representation model, called as graph deconvolutional network (GDN), and corresponding unsupervised learning algorithm in this paper. Different with graph convolution network (GCN) from the scratch, which produces embeddings by convolving input attribute vectors with learned filters, the embeddings of the proposed GDN model are desired to be convolved with filters so that reconstruct the input node attribute vectors as far as possible. The embeddings and filters are alternatively optimized in the learning procedure. The correctness of the proposed GDN model is verified by multiple tasks over several datasets. The experimental results show that the GDN model outperforms existing alternatives with a big margin.

Predicting spatial explicit information of soil nutrients is critical for sustainable soil management and food security under climate change and human disturbance in agricultural land. Digital soil mapping (DSM) techniques can utilize soil-landscape information from remote sensing data to predict the spatial pattern of soil nutrients, and it is important to explore the effects of remote sensing data types on DSM. This research utilized Landsat 8 (LT), Sentinel 2 (ST), and WorldView-2 (WV) remote sensing data and employed partial least squares regression (PLSR), random forest (RF), and support vector machine (SVM) algorithms to characterize the spatial pattern of soil total nitrogen (TN) in smallholder farm settings in Yellow River Basin, China. The overall relationships between TN and spectral indices from LT and ST were stronger than those from WV. Multiple red edge band-based spectral indices from ST and WV were relevant variables for TN, while there were no red band-based spectral indices from ST and WV identified as relevant variables for TN. Soil moisture and vegetation were major driving forces of soil TN spatial distribution in this area. The research also concluded that farmlands of crop rotation had relatively higher TN concentration compared with farmlands of monoculture. The soil prediction models based on WV achieved relatively lower model performance compared with those based on ST and LT. The effects of remote sensing data spectral resolution and spectral range on enhancing soil prediction model performance are higher than the effects of remote sensing data spatial resolution. Soil prediction models based on ST can provide location-specific soil maps, achieve fair model performance, and have low cost. This research suggests DSM research utilizing ST has relatively high prediction accuracy, and can produce soil maps that are fit for the spatial explicit soil management for smallholder farms.

Detailed emission characterization of semivolatile/intermediate-volatility organic compounds (S/IVOCs) originating from nonroad construction machines (NRCMs) remains lacking in China. Twenty-one NRCMs were evaluated with a portable emission measurement system in the working process. Gas phase S/IVOCs were collected by Tenax TA tubes and analyzed via thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS). Particle phase S/IVOCs were collected by quartz filters and analyzed via GC-MS. The average emission factors (EFs) for fuel-based total (gas + particle phase) IVOCs and SVOCs of the assessed NRCMs were 221.45 ± 194.60 and 11.68 ± 10.67 mg/kg fuel, respectively. Compared to excavators, the average IVOC and SVOC EFs of loaders were 1.32 and 1.55 times higher, respectively. Compared to the working mode, the average IVOC EFs under the moving mode (only moving forward or backward) were 1.28 times higher. The IVOC and SVOC EFs for excavators decreased by 69.06% and 38.37%, respectively, from China II to China III. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of emission control regulations. In regard to individual NRCMs, excavators and loaders were affected differently by emission standards. The volatility distribution demonstrated that IVOCs and SVOCs were dominated by gas- and particle-phase compounds, respectively. The mode of operation also affected S/IVOC gas-particle partitioning. Combined with previous studies, the mechanical type significantly affected the volatility distribution of IVOCs. IVOCs from higher volatile fuels are more distributed in the high-volatility interval. The total secondary organic aerosol (SOA) production potential was 104.36 ± 79.67 mg/kg fuel, which originated from VOCs (19.98%), IVOCs (73.87%), and SVOCs (6.15%). IVOCs were a larger SOA precursor than VOCs and SVOCs. In addition, normal (n-) alkanes were suitably correlated with IVOCs, which may represent a backup solution to quantify IVOC EFs. This work provides experimental data support for the refinement of the emission characteristics and emission inventories of S/IVOCs originating from NRCMs.

As one of the largest carbon emitters, China promises to achieve carbon emissions neutrality by 2060. Various industries are developing businesses to reduce carbon emissions. As an important greenhouse gas emissions scenario, the reduction of carbon emissions in the food chain can be achieved by preparing the wastes into biochar. The food chain, as one of the sources of biochar, consists of production, processing and consumption, in which many wastes can be transferred into biochar. However, few studies use the food chain as the system to sort out the raw materials of biochar. A systematic review of the food chain application in serving as raw materials for biochar is helpful for further application of such technique, providing supportive information for the development of biochar preparation and wastes treating. In addition, there are many pollution sources in the food production process, such as agricultural contaminated soil and wastewater from livestock and aquatic, that can be treated on-site to achieve the goal of treating wastes with wastes within the food chain. This study focuses on waste resource utilization and pollution remediation in the food chain, summarizing the sources of biochar in the food chain and analyzing the feasibility of using waste in food chain to treat contaminated sites in the food chain and discussing the impacts of the greenhouse gas emissions. This review provides a reference for the resource utilization of waste and pollution reduction in the food chain.

In-depth exploration of the potential links between instantaneous black carbon (BC) emissions and driving parameters from real-world diesel trucks (DTs) is a key step toward development of a highly flexible vehicle emissions estimation system. In this study, we conducted real-world measurements on 22 DTs with mainstream types and emission standards, and obtained instantaneous data of BC emissions and vehicle driving. Since vehicle specific power (VSP) is an excellent surrogate for engine load, we characterize the instantaneous BC emissions and VSP distributions, and then establish links between VSP and fuel consumption, VSP and BC emission rates, VSP and BC emission factors (EFs), respectively. We find that BC emission rates of China V light-duty DTs installed with diesel particulate filter (DPF) are significantly lower (2 to 3 orders of magnitude) than those with China III and China IV. Frequent acceleration and deceleration of vehicles maybe the main reason leads to high BC emissions. The distribution of VSP is mainly concentrated in the ranges of -30 to 35 kW/t in the scope of this study. We find that VSP and BC EFs did not show a consistent pattern for all tested DTs, and BC EFs present obvious fluctuations with the VSP variation. The average fuel-based BC EFs vary by factors of 2.27-8.25 from the lowest to highest EFs. Through a fitting of the third-order polynomial function, we finally quantify and provide fitting formulas of BC EFs and VSP under more detailed categorization. Our results can provide important data support for accurate quantification of BC EFs, and even emission inventory calculations.

Black carbon (BC), as one of the short-lived climate pollutants, is becoming more prominent contribution from non-road mobile source, especially for agricultural machinery (AM) in China. However, the understanding of BC emissions from AM is still not clear, and the BC emission factors (EFs) are also limited. In this study, we conducted real-world measurements on twenty AM to investigate the instantaneous BC emission characteristics and quantify BC EFs under the whole tillage processes. We find the instantaneous BC emissions and fuel consumptions are obvious differences and present good synchronization under different tillage processes. Multi-type (CO

Non-road construction equipment (NRCE) has become a crucial contributor to urban air pollution. However, the current research on NRCE is still in its infancy, and the understanding of its pollutant emissions is not yet clear. In this study, multi-pollutant (CO, HC, NOx, PM

The rapid reproduction of foodborne bacteria in food packaging threatens the health of consumers, the massive use and waste of packaging also causes serious environmental pollution. In this study, novel biodegradable antibacterial membranes based on silver-modified carboxymethyl chitosan (Ag-CMCS) were prepared. Polylactic acid (PLA) and polybutylene adipate-co-terephthalate (PBAT) were used as the base membrane materials. Characterization of the prepared membranes was performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), atomic force microscope (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), water contact angle, and so on. Especially, the silver on the surface of Ag-CMCS was proved to be metallic silver. For the first cycle of zone of inhibition test, the diameter of inhibition zone could reach up to 17 mm while the mass of silver released was negligible. The prepared antibacterial membranes could kill almost 100% of bacteria under certain conditions and inhibition zone still existed after more than 7 cycles of tests, indicating the prepared antibacterial membranes were effective. This study could provide new ideas for preparing efficient and environment-friendly antibacterial food packaging membranes.

Although ion exchange resins (IERs) have been extensively adopted in water treatment, there are no reports on the application thereof for synthesizing antibacterial materials against pathogenic bacteria. The present study is the first in which the ion exchange characteristic of IERs was utilized to introduce silver ions that possess efficient antibacterial properties. The resulting antibacterial materials were incorporated into polylactic acid (PLA) and/or polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) to prepare antibacterial membranes. XPS spectra revealed the occurrence of in-situ reduction of silver ions to metallic silver, which was preferable since the stability of silver in the materials was improved. EDS mapping analysis indicated that the distribution of silver was consistent with the distribution of sulfur in the membranes, verifying the ion exchange methodology proposed in the present study. To investigate the antibacterial performance of the prepared membranes, zone of inhibition tests and bacteria-killing tests were performed. The results revealed that neither bare polymeric membranes of PLA and PBAT nor IER-incorporated polymeric membranes exhibited noticeable antibacterial activities. In comparison, the antibacterial membranes demonstrated effective and sustainable antibacterial activities against pathogenic bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). The prepared antibacterial membranes exhibited potential in food-related applications such as food packaging to delay food spoilage due to microbial growth.

In China, a large amount of kitchen waste (KW) is generated each year, and the resource utilisation of the KW has become a problem. KW has a high carbon content and can be used as a raw material for biochar. Kitchen waste biochar (KWB) can be used to prepare adsorption materials, soil amendments, energy materials, carbon quantum dots, and electrode materials. However, few studies have used KWB as a raw material for catalytic materials. The application of sulfur (S) and nitrogen (N) doped biochar in the field of catalysis has proved effective and feasible. KWB contained a certain mass percentage of N and S elements, which has good application potential for use in the field of catalysis by KWB. In the process of preparing KWB by KW, keeping S and N as much as possible and converting them into pyridine N and thiophene S benefit the application of catalysis. This review provides a reference for the future application of KWB in China.

Non-road construction equipment (NRCE) has become a vital contributor to urban air pollutants with the rapid urbanization in China. Black carbon (BC), as a key pollutant emitted from NRCE (mainly diesel-fueled), has attracted considerable concerns due to adverse impacts on climate change, visibility, and human health. However, the understanding of its emissions is still unclear based on limited research results. In this study, we conducted real-world measurements on BC emissions from 12 excavators and 9 loaders to characterize the variation and quantify fuel-based emission factors (EFs) by using a synchronous platform based on PEMS (SP-PEMS). We analyzed the impacts of key factors (operation mode, emission standard, and engine rated power) on BC emission comprehensively. High BC emission in working mode may be mainly owing to the increase of fuel consumption and the deterioration of air-fuel ratio. With more stringent emission standards, BC EFs of all tested NRCE present significant decreasing trends. Interestingly, NRCE with high rated power generally exhibits lower BC emissions. Through comparison, we find BC EFs in this study are generally higher than elemental carbon (EC) EFs reported in previous studies, which will lead BC emissions from NRCE to be underestimated while EC EFs are used instead of BC EFs. Furthermore, BC EFs of NRCE with Stage III are significantly higher (1–3 orders of magnitude) than those of on-road diesel trucks with the current mainstream emission standards of China IV and China V, which reinforces the urgency and importance of controlling BC emissions from NRCE in China. Finally, we recommend BC EFs of excavators and loaders under different emission standards and operation modes, and which preliminarily fills the gap in localized BC EFs of typical NRCE to relieve the urgent needs for emission inventory calculation.

Emissions of carbonyl compounds from agricultural machines cannot be ignored. Carbonyl compounds can cause the formation of ozone (O

Heavy metals in agricultural soils not only affect the food security and soil security, but also endanger the human health through the food chain. Based on the incorporation of index analysis, positive matrix factorization (PMF), self-organizing map (SOM), and geostatistical methods, this research performed the assessment of source apportionment and ecological and health risks of soil heavy metals in Hulan River Watershed, Northeastern China. According to the Pollution Load Index (PLI), 83.08% of the soil samples were slightly or mildly polluted, and 1.54% of the soil samples were severely polluted. The ecological risk index (EI) showed that about 80.77% and 60.77% of the soil samples were beyond the low risk level for Hg and Cd, respectively. In this research, the non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk indices for children were higher than adult males and adult females. Four potential sources were revealed based on the PMF and SOM analysis including atmospheric deposition and industrial emission; transportation source; agricultural source; and a combination of agricultural, industrial, and natural sources. Considerable and high ecological risk from Hg existed in the area close to the coal steam-electric plant, and considerable and high ecological risk from Cd existed in the Hulan River estuary area. The eastern part of the study area experienced higher non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks for adults and children than the western part of the study area. The source apportionment and ecological and health risk mapping provide important role in reducing pollution sources. Zonal pollution control and soil restoration measures should be performed in the areas with high ecological and health risks.

Controlling the release of malodorous gas discharged from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) has become an urgent environmental problem in recent years. In this study, a bio-trickling filter (BTF) inoculated with microorganisms acclimated to activated sludge in a WWTP was used as the degradation equipment. A continuous degradation experiment with hydrogen sulfide, styrene, and m-xylene in the BTF lasted for 84 days (12 weeks). The degradation capacities of the BTF for hydrogen sulfide, styrene, and m-xylene were evaluated, and the synergy and inhibition among the substrates during biodegradation are discussed. The results indicated that the degradation efficiencies of the BTF were as high as 99.2% for hydrogen sulfide, 94.6% for styrene, and 100.0% for m-xylene. When the empty bed residence time was 30 s, the maximum elimination capacities (EC) achieved for hydrogen sulfide was 38 g m−3 h−1, for styrene was 200 g m−3 h−1, and for m-xylene was 75 g m−3 h−1. Furthermore, the microbial species and quantity of microorganisms in the middle and top of the BTF were much higher than those at the bottom of the BTF. A variety of microorganisms in the BTF can efficiently degrade the typical and highly toxic malodorous gases released from WWTPs. This study can help increase the understanding of the degradation of a mixture of sulfur-containing substances and aromatic hydrocarbons in BTF degradation and promote the development of technologies for the reduction of a complex mixture of malodorous gas emissions from organic wastewater treatment.

Enantioselectivity of chiral compounds is receiving growing concern. Lactofen, a chiral herbicide widely used in field crops and vegetables to control broadleaf weeds, is still sold as racemate. In this work, the herbicidal activity and metabolism behavior of lactofen were investigated on an enantiomeric level. Two common broadleaf weeds (Eclipta prostrata L. and Portulaca oleracea L.) were used to evaluate the herbicidal activity of rac-/R- and S-lactofen, and their metabolism behavior in loach and rat liver microsomes was explored. Higher herbicidal activity of S-lactofen was observed, with the 20d-EC

Solid fuel consumption and associated emissions from residential use are highly uncertain due to a lack of reliable statistics. In this study, we estimate solid fuel consumption and emissions from the rural residential sector in China by using data collected from a new nationwide field survey. We conducted a field survey in 2010 which covered ∼17,000 rural residential households in 183 counties in China, to obtain data for solid fuel consumption and use patterns. We then developed a Generalized Additive Model (GAM) to establish the relationship between solid fuel consumption and heating degree days (HDD), income, coal production, coal price, and vegetation coverage, respectively. The GAM was used to estimate solid fuel consumption in rural households in China at the county level. We estimated that, in 2010, 179.8Tg of coal were consumed in Chinese rural households for heating and cooking, which is 62% higher than that reported in official energy statistics. We found that large quantities of rural residential coal consumption in the North China Plain were underreported in energy statistics. For instance, estimated coal consumption in rural households in Hebei (one of most polluted provinces in China) was 20.8Tg in 2010, which is twice as high as government statistics indicate. In contrast, modeled national total consumption of crop residues (used as fuels) we found to be ∼50% lower than reported data. Combining the underlying data from the survey, the GAM and emission factors from literature, we estimate emissions from China’s rural residential sector in 2010 to be: 3.3Tg PM2.5, 0.6Tg BC, 1.2Tg OC, 2.1Tg VOC, 2.3Tg SO2, 0.4Tg NOx, 43.6Tg CO and 727.2Tg CO2, contributing to 29%, 35%, 38% and 26% of national total PM2.5, BC, OC, and CO emissions respectively. This work reveals that current emission inventories in China likely underestimate emissions from coal combustion in rural residential households due to missing coal consumption in official statistics, especially for the heavily polluted North China Plain (NCP) region. Per capita income appears to be the driving factor that results in the difference between surveyed data and official data. Residents with high income prefer commercial energy and have a higher per capita fuel consumption than lower income residents. Therefore, rural residential coal combustion may contribute even more to regional air pollution than the large contributions previously identified.

Urban green spaces (UGSs) are often positively associated with the health of urban residents. However, UGSs may also have adverse health effects by releasing biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) and increasing the ambient concentrations of ozone (O

Ion exchange membranes (IEMs) are widely used in water treatment applications such as electrodialysis. However, the exploration of IEMs as effective antibacterial food contact materials (e.g., food packaging membranes) against pathogenic bacteria to ensure food safety has not been reported. Here, we report a simple but effective method to prepare high performance antibacterial membranes via ion exchange coupled with in-situ reduction. The general membrane properties are characterized using SEM, EDS, FTIR, XPS, XRD, DSC, TGA, water uptake, etc. The distribution of silver and copper in the membranes are generally in line with the distribution of sulfur, indicating that the antibacterial ions are introduced into the membranes via ion exchange and are bonded with the sulfonate groups in the membranes. The antibacterial performance is investigated using zone of inhibition tests and continuous bacteria growth inhibition tests. All of the prepared membranes show obvious antibacterial activities compared to the bare cation exchange membranes. The diameters of inhibition zone against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) are all larger than those of Escherichia coli (E. coli), indicating that the prepared membranes are more efficient in inhibiting S. aureus compared to E. coli. Furthermore, the silver-based membrane shows more sustainable antibacterial activities compared to the copper-based membrane. Especially, the results clearly reveal that the silver-based membrane is capable of killing bacteria instead of just inhibiting the growth of bacteria. We have shown for the first time that membranes derived from IEMs have the potential as food contact materials to inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria so as to eliminate the risk of bacterial infections and meanwhile delay food spoilage due to bacteria growth.

In order to make clear the role of intercalated anions in layered double hydroxides (LDHs) for catalytic hydrolysis of COS, the adsorption and reaction characteristics of COS over the simple Mg2Al-Cl-LDH model catalyst were studied by both theoretical and experimental methods. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations by CASTEP found that the chloride ions in LDH function as the key Brønsted-base sites to activate the adsorbed H2O with enlarged bond length and angle, facilitate the dissociative adsorption of intermediates including mono-thiocarbonic acid (MTA) and hydrogen thiocarbonic acid (HTA), and participate in the formation of transient states and subsequent hydrogen transfer process with decreased energy barriers during COS hydrolysis. COS hydrolysis will preferentially go through the dissociated intermediates of mono-thiocarbonates (MT) and hydrogen thiocarbonates (HT) with dramatically decreased energy barriers, and the rate-determining step of COS hydrolysis over Mg2Al-Cl-LDH will be the nucleophilic addition of C=O in COS by H2O (Ea = 1.10 eV). The experimental results further revealed that the apparent activation energy (0.89 eV) of COS hydrolysis over Mg2Al-Cl-LDH is close to theoretical value (1.10 eV), and the accumulated intermediates of MT, HT or carbonate were also observed by FT-IR around 1363 cm-1 on the used Mg2Al-Cl-LDH, which are well in accordance with the theoretical prediction. The demonstrated participation of intercalated chlorine anions in the evolution of intermediates and transient states as Brønsted-base sites during COS hydrolysis will give new insight into the basic sites in LDH materials.

In order to make clear the role of intercalated anions in layered double hydroxides (LDHs) for catalytic hydrolysis of carbonyl sulfide (COS), the adsorption and reaction characteristics of COS over the simple Mg2Al-Cl-LDH model catalyst were studied by both theoretical and experimental methods. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations by CASTEP found that the chloride ions in LDH function as the key Bronsted base sites to activate the adsorbed H2O with enlarged bond length and angle, facilitate the dissociative adsorption of intermediates including mono-thiocarbonic acid (MTA) and hydrogen thiocarbonic acid (HTA), and participate in the formation of transient states and subsequent hydrogen transfer process with decreased energy barriers during COS hydrolysis. COS hydrolysis will preferentially go through the dissociated intermediates of mono-thiocarbonates (MT) and hydrogen thiocarbonates (HT) with dramatically decreased energy barriers, and the rate-determining step of COS hydrolysis over Mg2Al-Cl-LDH will be the nucleophilic addition of C=O in COS by H2O (Ea = 1.10 eV). The experimental results further revealed that the apparent activation energy (0.89 eV) of COS hydrolysis over Mg2Al-Cl-LDH is close to theoretical value (1.10 eV), and the accumulated intermediates of MT, HT, or carbonate were also observed by FT-IR around 1363 cm−1 on the used Mg2Al-Cl-LDH, which are well in accordance with the theoretical prediction. The demonstrated participation of intercalated chlorine anions in the evolution of intermediates and transient states as Bronsted base sites during COS hydrolysis will give new insight into the basic sites in LDH materials.

The chemical oxidation of gaseous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in liquid phase may possess great advantages in its high removal efficiency, mild conditions, good reliability, wide applicability, and little potential secondary pollution, which has aroused extensive research interests in the past decade. This Overview Article summarizes the latest achievements to eliminate VOCs by chemical oxidation in liquid phase including gas-liquid mass transfer, homogeneous/heterogeneous oxidation, electrochemical oxidation, and coupling technologies. Important research contributions are highlighted in terms of mass transfer, catalytic materials, removal/mineralization efficiency, and reaction mechanism to evaluate their potential industrial applications. The current challenges and future strategies are discussed from the viewpoint of the deep degradation of refractory VOC substrates and their intermediates. It is anticipated that this review will attract more attention toward the development and application of chemical oxidation methods to clear complex industrial organic exhaust gas.

Black carbon (BC) as an important part of atmospheric aerosols imposes adverse effects on atmospheric visibility, health, and climate change. Mass absorption cross-section (MACBC) is an essential parameter in BC quantitative and model research, which is of growing concern in recent decades. In this study, we conducted real-world measurements on BC emissions from two major sources of residential biofuel stoves and diesel trucks. BC emissions and MACBC values are quantified based on the photoacoustic and thermo-optical methods. The impacts of typical factors from biofuel stoves (biofuel and stove types) and diesel trucks (vehicle types, emission standards, and driving conditions) on BC/EC, MACBC values, and the relationships between BC and EC, BC/PM2.5 and MACBC are analyzed comprehensively. We find the BC and EC emissions from these two sources present good correlations, and those emissions are almost equal from diesel trucks, while the EC emissions from biofuel burning are slightly higher than BC. The typical factors for analysis may affect the optical properties of BC, and then will affect the mass ratio of BC/EC, indirectly. We have calculated the equivalent MACBC values and compared those with previous studies. Then, we further divided the equivalent MACBC values under several typical factors, which are 5.84 and 2.71 m2/g for improved and simple biofuel stoves, and 5.91 and 4.64 m2/g for light-duty and heavy-duty diesel trucks, respectively. Furthermore, the MACBC and BC/PM2.5 under the main operational metrics generally present good correlations. Our results will help to enhance the understanding of MACBC and provide effective data support for BC quantification and atmospheric model research.

Humans are more likely to be exposed to ultrafine particles (UFPs) emitted by light-duty gasoline vehicles (LDGVs) in urban road traffic, which can cause serious bodily harm. In this study, we conducted on-road measurement of the Particle Number (PN) emissions from 18 China-3, China-4, and China-5 LDGVs on representative roads in Beijing. To clarify the impact of key parameters (standards, driving conditions, and technology) on the PN emissions, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the emission results. We found the PN emission factors (EFs) of port fuel injection (PFI) vehicles have declined considerably under stricter standards. Furthermore, we found the average EF of China-5 LDGVs with gasoline direct injection (GDI) was 10 times that of PFI vehicles, and the PN EFs of PFI vehicles increase as the age of the engine increases (R2 = 0.59). In different operating conditions, the PN EFs of all test vehicles under highway driving conditions were lower than those under non-highway driving conditions (6.5%–82.0%). The PN EFs of PFI LDGVs going uphill are 1.4–2.8 times those when going downhill. The PN EFs of LDGVs under start-up were 18–47% higher than under hot-running. PN emissions were high under positive engine power and increased with vehicle specific power. The dilution ratio has a significant impact on the test results, especially in a higher vehicle specific power interval, indicating that a high dilution ratio may lead to deviation of test values. Further research needs to determine the optimal dilution ratio to minimize test deviation. This study provides important data support for PN emission control. The optimal upper limit of the primary dilution ratio should be further studied and specified as a standard.

Modeling studies have highlighted that accurate simulations of radiative effect of black carbon (BC) require knowledge about the particle size and mixing state of freshly emitted BC from combustion sources. However, the information is absent in China due to lack of available measurements. In this study, we present the particle size and mixing state of fresh BC emitted from diesel vehicles (DV), brick kilns (BK), residential crop residue burnings (CR), and residential firewood burnings (FW) in September-October 2014 at North China Plain by field measurement. The mass median diameters of BC cores (whole particles including cores and coatings) above the limit of measurement (i.e.,70 nm) from these sources are ∼155 (∼194), ∼230 (∼306), ∼250 (∼438) and ∼273 (∼426) nm, respectively, and corresponding size ratios (i.e., mixing state) are ∼1.25, ∼1.33, ∼1.75, and ∼1.56, respectively. Compared with the values commonly used in model based on the laboratory experiments and the field measurements in developed countries, larger particle sizes and higher mixing sate of freshly emitted BC in China may enhance their light absorption and cloud condensation nuclei activities during atmospheric transport. The available data could be used to improve future model development on radiative effect of BC in China.

Medium-flow atmospheric samplers were used to collect particulate (PM2.5) and gaseous samples from the indoor kitchen of each of 35 randomly selected rural houses in North China while a meal was being cooked. The concentrations of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and 9 nitro-PAHs (NPAHs) in the samples were quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This study provided the real PAH and NPAH pollution characteristics and carcinogenic risk produced by cooking in rural indoor kitchens in North China. The mean PAH and NPAH concentrations in air in the indoor kitchens during cooking periods were 4049.1 and 1741.6 ng/m3, respectively. The PAH and NPAH concentrations were lower in the particulate phase than the gaseous phase. The mean PAH and NPAH concentrations were much higher for cooking using coal than for cooking using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or electricity. The PAH and NPAH benzo[a]pyrene toxic equivalent (TEQBaP) concentrations for cooking using coal were 1823.3 and 2760.9 ng/m3, respectively. Lower PAH and NPAH concentrations were found in kitchens with than without range hoods. Range hoods decreased the PAH and NPAH TEQBaP concentrations by 68.8% and 61.9%, respectively. Appropriate fuel and ventilation choice will improve air pollution in indoor kitchens during cooking. The results provide important evidence for changing cooking habits and developing policies for cooking in rural China.

With the expansion of urbanisation, the total amount of solid waste produced by urban residents has been increasing, and the problem of municipal solid waste disposal has also been aggravated. Landfill leachate treatment technologies could be divided into three categories: biological, physical and advanced oxidation treatment technology. Among them, advanced oxidation treatment technology has a good effect on the treatment of landfill leachate with little secondary pollution and has excellent application potential. Three-dimensional (3D) electrode technology, as a new type of advanced oxidation technology, could remove refractory pollutants in water and has attracted considerable attention. This article aims to (1) compare existing landfill leachate treatment technologies, (2) summarise 3D electrode technology application scenarios, (3) discuss the advantages of 3D electrode technology in landfill leachate treatment and (4) look ahead the future directions of 3D electrode technology in landfill leachate treatment. We hope that this article will be helpful to researchers who are interested in the field of landfill leachate treatment.

In order to reduce foodborne diseases caused by bacterial infections, antibacterial membranes have received increasing research interests in recent years. In this study, highly effective antibacterial membranes were prepared using biodegradable polymers, including polylactic acid (PLA), polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT), and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). The cation exchange property of CMC was utilized to introduce silver to prepare antibacterial materials. The presence of silver in the membranes was confirmed by EDS mapping, and the reduction of silver ions to metallic silver was confirmed by the Ag3d XPS spectrum which displayed peaks at 374.46 eV and 368.45 eV, revealing that the oxidation state of silver changed to zero. Two common pathogenic bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli), were used to investigate the antibacterial performance of the prepared membranes. Zone of inhibition and bacteria-killing tests revealed that the antibacterial membranes were efficient in inhibiting the growth of bacteria (diameters of inhibition zone ranged from 16 mm to 19 mm for fresh membranes) and capable of killing 100% of bacteria under suitable conditions. Furthermore, after 10 cycles of continuous zone of inhibition tests, the membranes still showed noticeable antibacterial activities, which disclosed the sustainable antibacterial properties of the membranes.

The real-world exhaust emissions and fuel consumption of on-road diesel vehicles, fueled by waste cooking oil biodiesel blends, were measured using a portable emission measurement system (PEMS). Two light-duty diesel trucks (LDDTs) and two heavy-duty diesel trucks (HDDTs) filled with four mixed fuels with blend ratios of 0% (neat diesel), 5% (B5), 20% (B20), and 100% (B100) (biodiesel in traditional fossil diesel) were tested. The results show that the total fuel consumption (biodiesel + traditional fossil diesel) did not clearly decrease, but blending biodiesel into traditional fossil diesel could clearly decreased the consumption of traditional fossil diesel, reduce the countries' dependence on oil imports. Converting waste cooking oil into biofuel and blending with diesel is a three-win alternative, dealing simultaneously with greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, food security, and energy security. The CO, HC, NOX and PM2.5 emissions for all of the tested vehicles decreased with increasing biodiesel content in the blend, with the exception of PM2.5 and NOX for D3, the NOX emissions showed a decrease with increasing biodiesel content in the blend for most vehicles in this study. The effect of emission reduction for all biodiesel blending proportions under highway (HW) condition is better than that under Non-highway (NHW) condition. The degree of reduction in CO, HC, NOX, and PM2.5 emission increased with increasing biodiesel content in the blend under HW section. Under the NHW section, the emission factors for lower biodiesel blend proportions (below 12.5%) especially for B5 were higher than those for neat diesel. The biodiesel blend reduced CO, HC, NOX and PM2.5 emissions compared with neat diesel under different driving modes except for individual condition (especially for B5 under acceleration mode). Increasing the biodiesel content of the blend lowered the CO, HC, NOX, and PM2.5 emissions for acceleration and deceleration modes.

Diesel vehicle is an important source of black carbon (BC). A portable emission measurement system including a photo-acoustic extinctiometer and SEMTECH-LDV was used to measure the real-world emissions of 14 light-duty and heavy-duty diesel trucks (LDDTs and HDDTs, meeting the China IV and China V standards) in Beijing. BC emission factors and the BC/PM2.5 ratio were obtained, and the effects of the vehicle type, emission standard and driving cycle on emissions were analyzed. The tightening of emission standards and the advancement of vehicle technology have reduced BC emissions from the China II standard to the China V standard. The emission reductions of BC are lower than those of other components of PM2.5 from the China II standard to the China IV standard but higher from the China IV standard to the China V standard. The BC and PM2.5 had the same main sources for the HDDTs and China IV LDDTs but had different sources for the China V LDDTs having diesel particulate filters. The BC/PM2.5 ratios of LDDTs, and HDDTs decreased from the China IV standard to the China V standard by 97.2% and 38.2%, respectively. The BC/PM2.5 ratio for China V LDDTs was 10 to 20 times lower than that for other diesel vehicles. The BC emissions tested under the highway driving cycle were 39.4% ± 16.7% lower than those under the no-highway driving cycle, but the BC/PM2.5 ratios had the opposite tendency. More China V and China VI heavy-duty diesel vehicles equipped with diesel particulate filters need to be tested to obtain more accurate BC/PM2.5 data and to improve the readiness of emission inventory calculations. The findings of this study help clarify the BC emission characteristics of diesel vehicles on actual roads and provide scientific basis for the formulation of emission control strategies for diesel vehicles in China.

Ion exchange membranes (IEMs) are undergoing prosperous development in recent years. More than 30,000 papers which are indexed by Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) have been published on IEMs during the past twenty years (2001-2020). Especially, more than 3000 papers are published in the year of 2020, revealing researchers' great interest in this area. This paper firstly reviews the different types (e.g., cation exchange membrane, anion exchange membrane, proton exchange membrane, bipolar membrane) and electrochemical properties (e.g., permselectivity, electrical resistance/ionic conductivity) of IEMs and the corresponding working principles, followed by membrane synthesis methods, including the common solution casting method. Especially, as a promising future direction, green synthesis is critically discussed. IEMs are extensively applied in various applications, which can be generalized into two big categories, where the water-based category mainly includes electrodialysis, diffusion dialysis and membrane capacitive deionization, while the energy-based category mainly includes reverse electrodialysis, fuel cells, redox flow battery and electrolysis for hydrogen production. These applications are comprehensively discussed in this paper. This review may open new possibilities for the future development of IEMs.

Rural vehicles (RVs) could contribute significantly to on-road vehicle emissions, especially PM2.5 and NOx; This study tested 10 three-wheeled (3-W) RVs and 8 four-wheeled (4-W) RVs on real roads in Hebei Province using a portable emissions measurement system to investigate gaseous concentrations (CO, NOx, and HC) and the carbonaceous composition (EC and OC) of the PM2.5 emitted. The results showed that the tightening emission standards resulted in the CO, HC, and PM2.5 emissions for China II RVs decreasing, but may increasing NOx emission for China II 3-W RVs. The emission level of PM2.5 for China II RVs is between Euro II LDDTs and Euro III LDDTs. The emission factors (EFs) of OC and EC for 3-W RVs were 0.035 ± 0.019 and 0.058 ± 0.055 g km-1, respectively, and for 4-W RVs, they were 0.046 ± 0.018 and 0.031 ± 0.024 g km-1, respectively. The carbonaceous component represents the main fraction of PM2.5 emitted from RVs (84.6% and 87.2% for 3-W and 4-W RVs, respectively), similar to other diesel vehicles. The average distance-based EFs of OC increased with increasing vehicle size (3-W RVs < 4-W RVs). The CO2-based EFs of OC and EC decreased with increasing vehicle mass, consistent with the emission laws of light-, medium-, and heavy-duty diesel trucks. Driving cycles that included more cruise mode and less creep mode resulted in a higher average EC/OC ratio (1.57) for 3-W RVs than for 4-W RVs (0.63), and resulted in the average EC/OC ratios for both types of RV were lower than for highway LDDTs.

Biofuel stoves are an important source of black carbon (BC) emissions, which have adverse effects on the environment and human health, especially in rural areas. However, there have been only limited studies of BC emissions from residential biofuel stoves based on real-time measurements. In this study, a photo-acoustic extinctiometer (PAX)-based real-time measurement system was employed to monitor the emission characteristics of corncobs, corn stalks, cotton stalks and poplar branches in simple or improved stoves (with a total of 16 units) in Hebei Province, China. The real-time and phased emissions of BC, fine particulate matter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) were assessed, and the effects of stove type and fuel on emissions were analyzed. Under the same conditions, polar branches were associated with the highest BC emission factors (EFs) of up to 2.64 ± 0.42 g kg−1, while the EFs for improved stoves were higher than those for simple stoves. During the ignition phase, BC emissions were found to be low, while the later addition of fuel dramatically increased emissions, followed by a gradual decrease until the next fuel addition. The phased results show that the flaming phase had the highest BC emission rate, the fuel addition phase was associated with the highest BC EF. The BC emission rates and EFs for the ignition, fuel addition, flaming and smoldering phases ranged from 0.0014–0.014, 0.11–6.32, 0.18–2.24 and 0.03–0.32 mg s−1, and from 0.04–0.18, 0.38–9.53, 0.45–3.55 and 0.12–1.01 g kg−1, respectively. This study assessed the BC emissions from residential biofuel stoves using a larger sample size than in prior work. The results increase our understanding of the BC emissions process, which is helpful in terms of improving the accuracy of BC EF estimations. The real-time measurement process described herein is also expected to provide new approaches to minimizing BC emissions.

Microorganisms play important roles in the degradation of volatile organic compounds. Aeromonas salmonicida strain (AEP-3) generated from biomass in the citric acid fermentation industry was screened and subjected to denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprinting and 16S rDNA gene sequencing. The growth conditions of AEP-3 in Luria-Bertani broth were optimized at 25 °C and approximately pH 7. AEP-3 was used to degrade ethyl formate, propionic aldehyde, or acetone alone and their mixture. The concentrations of ethyl formate, propionic aldehyde, and acetone were below 7500, 600, and 800 mg L-1, respectively, and their maximum degradation efficiencies were 100%, 92.41%, and 34.75%. AEP-3 first degraded acetone and propionic aldehyde in the mixture, followed by ethyl formate. The degradation pathways of these organic compounds in the mixture and their substrate interactions during degradation were explored. Propionic aldehyde was first converted into propionic acid in the metabolic process and was involved in the subsequent carboxylic acid cycle. By contrast, ethyl formate was first hydrolyzed into formic acid and ethanol. Then, formic acid participated in the cyclic metabolism of carboxylic acid, whereas, ethanol was hydrolyzed into acetaldehyde and acetic acid through alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenase. Additionally, acetone directly interacted with nitrate in the medium under the action of hydrogen ions and produced carbon dioxide, water, and nitrogen. Overall, this study provides a new degrading bacterium biodegradability toward the exhaust gas of citric acid fermentation.

To study the formation process of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) in a vehicle exhaust plume near the exhaust gas discharge outlet, a new multipoint sampling system was established. The system has five sampling heads and includes a particulate matter multi-channel film sampling system, a CO2/CO analyzer system, a volatile organic compound (VOC) sampling system, a particulate matter real-time analyzer system, and sensor interfaces. The vehicle exhaust near the exhaust nozzle can be sampled at multiple locations simultaneously using the new multipoint sampling system. Additionally, the system can be used to measure and analyze variations in the fine particulate matter, including the carbonaceous and ionic components, and organic compounds in the plume near the exhaust nozzle. This paper introduces the construction and application of the multipoint sampling system. The motor vehicle exhaust multipoint sampling system is reliable and can accurately capture the characteristics of the exhaust plume near the discharge outlet area. Changes in the CO2 concentration were used to determine whether exhaust was accurately collected at the sampling points. The relationship between the dilution rate and distance was calculated on the basis of on-road test results using the following equation: DR = 21.4X1.16. This equation can be used for modeling purposes, especially in comparisons of model results and observations and in the evaluation of dispersion models.