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Mutagenicity- and pollutant-emission factors of pellet-fueled gasifier cookstoves: Comparison with other combustion sources, Oct 2020
Citation:
Champion, W., S. Warren, I. Kooter, W. Preston, Todd Krantz, D. DeMarini, AND J. Jetter. Mutagenicity- and pollutant-emission factors of pellet-fueled gasifier cookstoves: Comparison with other combustion sources, Oct 2020. American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) 38th Annual Conference, NA, Virtual, October 05 - 09, 2020.
Impact/Purpose:
Household air pollution from solid-fuel stoves is the most significant environmental problem that affects human health worldwide. The WHO (World Health Organization) estimates that 3-4 million premature deaths annually are caused by household air pollution, mainly from emissions from cookstoves in the developing world. Additionally, solid fuel use for household energy contributes significantly to ambient black carbon, and transboundary transport of pollutants from millions of stoves in Asia affects ambient air quality in the western U.S. The EPA ORD (Office of Research and Development) is conducting research and activities to address the problem in coordination with a much larger international effort led by the Clean Cooking Alliance. This abstract provides an overview of a mutagenicity potential assessment of emissions from pellet-fueled cookstoves.
Description:
Emissions from solid-fuel burning cookstoves are associated with premature mortality and climate effects. Pellet-fueled gasifier stoves have emission factors (EFs) approaching those of gas-fueled (liquid petroleum gas) stoves. However, their emissions have not been evaluated for biological effects. Here we use a new International Organization for Standardization (ISO) testing protocol to determine pollutant- and mutagenicity-EFs for a stove designed for pellet fuel—the Mimi Moto—and for two forced-draft stoves, Xunda and Philips HD4012, burning pellets of hardwood or peanut hulls. The Salmonella assay-based mutagenicity-EFs (revertants/megajouledelivered) spans three orders of magnitude and correlates positively (r=0.99; n=5) to the sum of thirty-two polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) EFs. Compared with data published previously for the Philips stove burning hardwood, the Mimi Moto/hardwood pellet combination shows total-PAH- and mutagenicity-EFs that are 99.2 and 96.6% lower, respectively and 100 and 99.8% lower, respectively, compared with those of a wood-fueled three-stone fire. The Xunda stove burning peanut hull pellets shows the highest fuel energy-based mutagenicity-EF (revertants/megajoulethermal). It is greater than that of diesel exhaust, a known human carcinogen, and between that of the open burning of oil and a wood-fueled, three-stone fire. Although the Mimi Moto burning hardwood pellets had the lowest fuel energy-based mutagenicity-EF, this value is between that of utility coal and utility wood boilers. This advanced stove/fuel combination has the potential to greatly reduce emissions in contrast to a traditional stove, but adequate ventilation is required to approach acceptable levels of indoor air quality.