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THE PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE EMISSIONS FROM A RESIDENTIAL OIL BOILER
Citation:
HAYS, M. D., L. BECK, P. M. BARFIELD, R. LAVRICH, Y. DONG, AND R. L. VANDER WAL. THE PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE EMISSIONS FROM A RESIDENTIAL OIL BOILER. 10.1021/es071598e , J. Schnoor (ed.), ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 42(7):2496-2502, (2008).
Impact/Purpose:
Journal article
Description:
The toxicity of emissions from the combustion of home heating oil and the use of residential oil boilers (ROB) is an important health concern. Yet scant physical and chemical information about the emissions from this source are available for dispersion, climate, and source-receptor modeling and for improving our understanding of aerosol-related human health effects. To address this deficiency, the gas and particle phase emissions from a currently in-use, but well maintained, ROB firing No. 2 distillate fuel oil were evaluated. The ROB was a significant source of ultrafine sulfate aerosol and light adsorbing elemental carbon. The aerosol emissions lacked many of the semivolatile organic markers typically used for developing source-receptor models. Surprisingly, the particle size distributions of trace n-alcanes differed substantially from those of the sulfate and PM mass, and showed beginning evidence of a relationship between peak position and carbon chain length.High resolution-transmission electron microscopy indicated the presence of highly ordered primary particle nanostructure embedded in large aggregates. This set the ROB soot apart from other types of combustion soot. The testing of a well-maintained ROB showed that its contributions to a regional-level anthropogenic emissions inventory for VOCs, PM2.5 and SO2 mass were relatively low.
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THE PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE EMISSIONS FROM A RESIDENTIAL OIL BOILER