Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: A Global Map of Feasible Residential Solutions, Emphasizing Stoves with Space Heating Uses
EPA Grant Number: R835423Title: A Global Map of Feasible Residential Solutions, Emphasizing Stoves with Space Heating Uses
Investigators: Bond, Tami C. , Edwards, Rufus D. , Francisco, Paul W , Princevac, Marko , Masera, Omar , Bauer, Susanne
Institution: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign , University of California - Riverside , Columbia University in the City of New York , University of California - Irvine
Current Institution: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign , Columbia University in the City of New York , University of California - Irvine , University of California - Riverside
EPA Project Officer: Keating, Terry
Project Period: March 1, 2014 through February 28, 2017 (Extended to February 28, 2019)
Project Amount: $1,499,998
RFA: Measurements and Modeling for Quantifying Air Quality and Climatic Impacts of Residential Biomass or Coal Combustion for Cooking, Heating, and Lighting (2012) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Air Quality and Air Toxics , Climate Change , Tribal Environmental Health Research , Air
Objective:
1. Produce a global resource-driven map of current emissions and plausible interventions for all residential uses of solid fuel.
2. Improve understanding of emission rates and emissions attributable to space heating by adding measurements to four existing residential-energy projects.
3. Incubate a Regional Testing and Knowledge Center with community presence and demonstrate successive improvement in interventions.
4. Model relationships between emissions, outdoor concentrations, and global radiative forcing.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
Objective 1, Resource-driven map identified needs for cooking, heating, and lighting, which are energy services needed in all households. Each need is satisfied with some type of energy source, such as burning fuel or using electricity, and some of these sources' especially combustion sources' emit health-damaging pollutants. "Resource-driven" means that the choice of energy source depends on the resources accessible to the user. The term "map" invokes the location dependence of users' access to resources; for example, users near roads or with access to electricity have more energy choices.
The outcome of this work was more realistic support for decision-making by incorporating physical and human limitations into emission models. Previously, improved air quality and reduced health impacts due to interventions were assessed with the hypothesis that all polluting sources could be replaced instantly. The current model provides more realistic assumptions and also identifies levers of change.
Outputs of work include the following data sets and papers that describe them (Winijkul et al., 2016a, 2016b; Lam et al., in prep #1):
(1) A map of users' energy needs (heating, cooking, and lighting) in all countries that rely on solid fuels for residential energy. This map was done at coarse resolution (1° x 1°) for all countries and at higher resolution (1 km x 1 km) within India. To estimate heating needs, we also developed a map of heating degree-days assuming different interior temperatures.
(2) A map of energy sources (fuel type, electricity) based on available resources, with similar resolution to the energy-need map. We incorporated road networks, nightlight data sets, and national fuel consumption.
(3) An overall framework that balances supply (energy sources) and demand (energy needs) along with a theory of decision-making.
The structure described above yielded the following findings: (1) Under the assumptions that users near forests will continue to use their free wood supply, clean fuels (like switching to liquefied petroleum gas) provide only a 24% reduction in particulate matter emissions. Improved stoves are necessary to reduce near-forest emissions. (2) Choice of energy source for cooking may be driven by other, higher-quantity demands for energy such as heating or livelihood uses. (3) Replacing household solid-fuel emissions with clean fuels within 25 km of urban areas to account for limitations in distribution networks reduces only 35% of particulate emissions in India.
Objective 2, Improve understanding of emission rates yielded new measurements of about 220 emission events in four locations, and analysis of additional 120 emission events from projects in three other locations. An "emission event" is the period either from ignition to extinction, or capturing a complete burning cycle (e.g. fuel loading to fuel loading). Each event lasted from 2-24 hours. The observations were complemented by fuel-use measurements.
A major outcome of this work was a new understanding of the dominant cause of variability in emission rates from traditional solid-fuel burning stoves (Thompson et al., 2019; Weyant et al., 2019). A common approach to characterizing emissions has been to measure specific stove-fuel combinations. However, the main cause of variability is likely operator practice, including fuel-loading behavior. Only a few environments, such as high altitudes, yield greater particulate emissions outside the range of operator variability (Weyant et al., 2019). Small differences appear in seasonal emissions per fuel attributable to moisture content (Lam et al., in prep #2). The common use of fuel mixtures prevents attribution to particular fuels, and materials used for ignition may not be counted in emission inventories and may increase the actual fuel used by 40-50% for cooking (Thompson et al., 2019). Emissions from continuous space heating have fewer fuel loading events per time, so that overall emissions are lower (Floess et al., in prep).
A second outcome was the continued development of measurement methods and analysis techniques for emissions from small sources. By the end of the project, the group had developed the ability to measure real-time emission rates for 24 hours, unattended and using only battery power.
A specific finding that affects seasonal emissions was the surprising finding that winter fuel consumption attributable to heating uses in Nepal gave only about a 10% increase. A 50% increase in fuel consumption was attributable to animal feeding and water heating (Lam et al., 2017a). Proposed solutions for reducing household energy emissions should cover these uses. Another specific finding was that indoor air quality in Alaska was not affected by replacements with improved heating stoves, but fuel use decreased, thereby decreasing overall emissions (Merrin et al., in prep).
Outputs include journal papers describing the measurement results, but more importantly, documents describing replicable procedures, including surveys, equipment construction and measurement procedures (see Publicly available products).
Objective 3, Incubate Regional Testing and Knowledge Center supported project participants to provide technical assistance to non-profit organizations. With this assistance, Centre for Rural Technology/ Nepal (CRT/N) wrote two successful proposals for support of a Regional Testing and Knowledge Centre (RTKC), one for initiation of that RTKC and another to add black carbon measurements. That RTKC was initiated in 2013 and is currently self-sustaining through testing and certification efforts. The support proposals described did not include field (in-use) emission testing capabilities. In the current work, a field emission device was built for CRT/N and personnel were trained in emission measurements. Field emission device and training were also provided to Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority in Juneau, Alaska. Finally, training in good field emission measurement practices occurred in Beijing, China with Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing University for Chemical Technology. Researchers at Peking University also attended the training.
Outcomes of this work include increased capacity for emission measurements outside of academic institutions. In some cases (Nepal, Alaska) no previous capability had existed, while in others (China) our contribution was to systematize quality control procedures.
Objective 4, Model relationships with emissions sought methods of translating measured emission rates to environmental impact. Pollutant concentrations are usually measured, but there is no way to determine the effect of interventions unless those concentrations are connected to emission rates. In this project, we focused on determining the "neighborhood effect" how nearby emissions elevate concentrations for neighbors within a few houses. These elevated concentrations and their associated health risks are not included in global estimates of health impact, because typical models rely on large-area averages.
The outcome of this work was a method for quantifying how small numbers of emitters affect their neighbors under different environmental and structural conditions. Using a common measure known as intake fraction, we found that a single emitting household in an otherwise clean neighborhood has a disproportionate influence: about twice as great as that of a household in a polluted neighborhood. This finding suggests that whole-community interventions are needed to protect human health. Outputs are journal papers describing the findings (Edwards et al., 2017; Ghasemian et al., in prep).
Journal Articles on this Report : 5 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 14 publications | 10 publications in selected types | All 10 journal articles |
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Conibear L, Butt E, Knote C, Lam N, Arnold S, Tibrewal K, Venkataraman C, Spracklen D, Bond T. A complete transition to clean household energy can save one-quarter of the healthy life lost to particulate matter pollution exposure in India. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2020;15(9). |
R835423 (Final) R835425 (Final) |
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Lam N, Muhwezi G, Isabirye F, Harrison K, Ruiz-Mercado I, Amukoye E, Mokaya T, Wambua M, Bates M. Exposure eductions associated with introduction of solar lamps to kerosene lamp-using households in Busia County, Kenya. INDOOR AIR 2018;28(2):218-227. |
R835423 (Final) |
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Lam N, Goel V, Blasdel M, Xu L, Ruiz-Mercado I, Ozaltun B, Aoudi L, Whitacre J, Bond T. Reduction potentials for particulate emissions from household energy in India. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS 2023;18(5):054009 |
R835423 (Final) |
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Li X, Clark S, Floess E, Baumgartner J, Bond T, Carter E. Personal exposure to PM2.5 of indoor and outdoor origin in two neighboring Chinese communities with contrasting household fuel use patterns. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021;800(149421). |
R835423 (Final) |
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Thompson RJ, Li J, Weyant CL, Edwards R, Lan Q, Rothman M, Hu W, Dang J, Dang A, Smith KR, Bond TC. Field emission measurements of solid fuel stoves in Yunnan, China demonstrate dominant causes of uncertainty in household emission inventories. Environmental Science and Technology 2019;53:3323-3330. |
R835423 (Final) R835036 (Final) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
residential solid fuels, household air pollution, indoor environmentProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.
Project Research Results
- 2017 Progress Report
- 2016 Progress Report
- 2015 Progress Report
- 2014 Progress Report
- Original Abstract
10 journal articles for this project