Source profile of PM10 emission sources in Western Macedonia, Greece, during 2022

Government energy policy strategies which are intended to encourage the reduction of lignite energy production, has a negative impact on industrial activities in the region of Western Macedonia, leading to important changes of the atmospheric emission profile. Taking into consideration the current situation and the reduction of industrial contribution in PM10 emissions, we attempt to estimate the PM10 source profile and examine the similarities or the differences of specific dust sources at different sites. Each sampling site differed with respect to the location of the site and its meteorological and source characteristics. In order to accomplish that, dust samples were collected for several representative sources in the study area (e.g., unpaved roads, paved roads, vehicular emissions, soil and agricultural soil, fly ash) during 2022. The collected dust samples were resuspended to laboratory generated-dust system in order to create PM10 samples (for each emission source) which were analyzed for a series of elements by the method of Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The database of PM emission profiles developed here will be used in a second stage to assist source apportionment studies for accurate quantification of the air pollution causes and enhance the evaluation of environmental authorities and policy makers to take the proper proactive measures for air quality.