You are here:
Field-based emission measurements of biomass burning in typical Chinese built-in-place stoves
Citation:
Du, W., X. Zhu, Y. Chen, W. Liu, W. Wang, G. Shen, S. Tao, AND Jim Jetter. Field-based emission measurements of biomass burning in typical Chinese built-in-place stoves. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, 242(Part B):1587-1597, (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2018.07.121
Impact/Purpose:
Household air pollution from solid-fuel stoves is the most significant environmental problem that affects human health worldwide. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is conducting research and activities to address the problem in coordination with a much larger international effort led by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. EPA has conducted a series of workshops to build capacity for characterizing emissions in the field from household energy sources, including solid-fuel stoves. Field-based measurements are important to develop emission inventories that support mitigation efforts. All data included in this publication were generated by the Peking University research team without EPA funding. EPA co-authors Guofeng Shen and Jim Jetter collaborated with the team on the data analysis, data interpretation, and manuscript preparation.
Description:
Residential fuel burning contributes significantly to severe ambient and indoor air pollution in China; however, this pollution source is often overlooked in current national pollution control policies. Few studies, and even fewer field-based investigations, have evaluated pollutant emissions from indoor biomass burning. One significant feature of Chinese household stoves is that many are built on site. In this study, 112 tests were conducted to investigate pollutant emission factors (EFs) and variations for 11 fuel-stove combinations in actual use in the field. Results showed that, compared to those from tests under controlled fuel burning conditions, EFs of methane, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter (PM), and organic carbon (OC) from the field-based tests were higher; however, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and elemental carbon were not significantly different. PM and OC EFs are likely underestimated by a factor of 2-3 for crop residue burning, and by a factor of 3-6 for wood combustion. Controlled burning tests may be unrepresentative of real-world fuel burning. Pollutant emissions from uncontrolled burning tests had much higher variations compared with controlled tests. The typical built-in-place home stoves in China had low efficiencies and high pollutant emissions that were rated as Tier 0 (the worst) or Tier 1 of a four-tier scale according to the International Organization for Standardization, International Workshop Agreement 11-2012. Effective interventions are expected to lower pollutant emissions from residential combustion to improve air quality and to protect human health.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Field-based emission measurements of biomass burning in typical Chinese built-in-place stoves
j.envpol.2018.07.121
Free access through PubMed Central