Important contributions of non-fossil fuel nitrogen oxides emissions

Wei Song, Xue-Yan Liu (), Chao-Chen Hu, Guan-Yi Chen, Xue-Jun Liu, Wendell W. Walters, Greg Michalski and Cong-Qiang Liu
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Wei Song: School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University
Xue-Yan Liu: School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University
Chao-Chen Hu: School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University
Guan-Yi Chen: Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute, Tianjin University
Xue-Jun Liu: College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University
Wendell W. Walters: Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University
Greg Michalski: Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University
Cong-Qiang Liu: School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Since the industrial revolution, it has been assumed that fossil-fuel combustions dominate increasing nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. However, it remains uncertain to the actual contribution of the non-fossil fuel NOx to total NOx emissions. Natural N isotopes of NO3− in precipitation (δ15Nw-NO3−) have been widely employed for tracing atmospheric NOx sources. Here, we compiled global δ15Nw-NO3− observations to evaluate the relative importance of fossil and non-fossil fuel NOx emissions. We found that regional differences in human activities directly influenced spatial-temporal patterns of δ15Nw-NO3− variations. Further, isotope mass-balance and bottom-up calculations suggest that the non-fossil fuel NOx accounts for 55 ± 7% of total NOx emissions, reaching up to 21.6 ± 16.6Mt yr−1 in East Asia, 7.4 ± 5.5Mt yr−1 in Europe, and 21.8 ± 18.5Mt yr−1 in North America, respectively. These results reveal the importance of non-fossil fuel NOx emissions and provide direct evidence for making strategies on mitigating atmospheric NOx pollution.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20356-0

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