Levels and Sources of PM2.5-associated PAHs during and after the Wheat Harvest in a Central Rural Area of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) Region

Wheat harvesting and the subsequent straw burning for the planting of maize cause severe PM2.5 and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) pollution. This study collected PM2.5 samples from the central area of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region on the North China Plain between 18 June and 7 July 2019, during and after the wheat harvest (DWH and AWH, respectively) and analyzed them for 18 PAHs. The average PM2.5 concentration DWH, 156 ± 42.5 µg m–3, was twice of that AWH (75.6 ± 31.9 µg m–3), which was attributed to fugitive dust generated by the wheat harvesters. However, the opposite trend, AWH > DWH, was observed for the total concentration of the 18 PM2.5-associated PAHs due to the open burning of wheat straw for maize planting. Four PAH sources, namely, biomass burning (BB), coal combustion (CC), vehicle emission (VE), and industry (IN), were identified by positive matrix factorization (PMF), and the elevated contribution from BB AWH demonstrated the effect of open wheat straw burning. CC accounted for the highest proportion DWH, indicating that residential coal combustion for cooking, due to its low economic cost, has remained a common practice despite the implementation of the Coal Removal Campaign in 2013. The 11.6% contribution of BB DWH also confirmed the use of biomass fuel for indoor cooking in rural areas of China. VE was the largest contributor of PAHs during the whole sampling period, reflecting the operation of wheat harvesters and rotary cultivators, but BB was the main source during three peaks in the PAH concentration, which occurred on 22 June, 28 June, and 2 July. Open BB, which also possessed a second source in air masses transported from northeastern China, was responsible for the high levels of benzo[e]pyrene (BeP) and 5-ring PAHs. Backward trajectory clustering revealed that the adjacent cities of Shijiazhuang and Baoding were the primary IN source.