Estimating industrial process emission and assessing carbon dioxide equivalent of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and its salts in China

Di Du; Yonglong Lu; Qifeng Li; Yunqiao Zhou; Tianzheng Cao; Haotian Cui; Guoxiang Han

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161507

Estimating industrial process emission and assessing carbon dioxide equivalent of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and its salts in China

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Apr 1:867:161507. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161507. Epub 2023 Jan 13.

Authors

Di Du¹, Yonglong Lu², Qifeng Li³, Yunqiao Zhou⁴, Tianzheng Cao⁵, Haotian Cui⁶, Guoxiang Han⁶

Affiliations

¹ Sino-Danish College, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science and Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Fujian 361102, China; State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China. Electronic address: yllu@rcees.ac.cn.
³ Bureau of Major R&D Programs, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100864, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁵ Sino-Danish College, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Department of Water Environment, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.

PMID: 36642265
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161507

Abstract

Air pollution and climate change are closely linked because many greenhouse gases (GHGs) and air pollutants come from the same source. Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are new pollutants that have received high attention in recent years, as they are not only harmful to human health, but also important contributors to climate change. Therefore, PFCs are the key gases for the coordinated governance of air pollution and climate change. With the geographical shift of fluoropolymer production, the main emitters of perfluorooctanoic acid and its salts (PFOA/PFO) moved from North America, Europe and Japan to emerging Asian economies, especially China. In this study, industrial sources of PFOA/PFO in the Chinese atmosphere were identified, and its atmospheric emissions, carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) emissions and environmental risks were assessed. China released about 38.19 tons PFOA/PFO into the atmosphere through industrial activities in 2019, 97 % of which originated from the production of fluoropolymers. PFOA/PFO showed aggregative emission along the eastern coastal zone, especially in the Yangtze River Delta. Cumulative PFOA/PFO emission from all provinces equaled to 0.28-0.47 million tons CO₂e, of which Jiangsu and Zhejiang took the lead, while Shanghai's CO₂-equivalent emissions intensity of PFOA/PFO in terms of area, population, gross domestic product (GDP), and industrial added value took the first in China. The available monitoring data on atmospheric concentration of PFOA in urban and rural China implied that its distribution pattern was similar to PFOA/PFO emissions, that is, the concentrations in the eastern regions with the highest degree of industrialization were significantly higher than that in the central and western regions, and the PFOA concentrations in urban China were higher than that in the rural, which proved that industrial use was an important source of PFOA pollution and would cause significant risks to the environment.

Keywords: Atmospheric emission; Carbon dioxide equivalent; Environmental risk; Industrial source; PFOA/PFO.