Preliminary study of the sources of ambient air pollution in Serpong, Indonesia

There has been increasing interest regarding air pollution in the Serpong area of Indonesia, a region near Jakarta, especially with respect to high concentrations of Pb detected in early 2001. Several studies have been conducted, but the appropriate action needed to control this pollution has not been identified because of inadequate identification of the particulate matter sources. In this study, source investigation was performed using the chemical characteristics of ambient airborne particulate matter samples from several locations in Serpong and its surroundings. Sampling of airborne particulate matter was conducted using a Gent stacked filter unit sampler in Serpong between August and November 2008. Black carbon (BC) was determined by reflectance and elemental analysis were performed using particle induced X–ray emission (PIXE). Al, As, Ba, Br, Ca, Cl, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, I, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Pb, S, Sc, Si, Se, Sr, Ti, V and Zn were determined. The results showed that the higher Pb concentrations in both fine and coarse particulate matter were observed in the industrial area compared to adjacent residential areas. The Pb percentages in the collected PM2.5 mass in the residential and industrial areas were 3.1% and 4.3%, respectively, while for PM2.5–10, Pb represented 1.9% and 6.0% of the PM mass, respectively. The fine fraction data from two residential areas (Setu and EMC) were analyzed using EPA PMF (version 3) for source apportionment. The source apportionment identified 5 factors, i.e., lead industry and road dust (12%), diesel vehicles (30%), oil and power plant (26%), road dust (17%) and biomass burning mixed with road dust (15%).