Citation:

Pouliot, G., J. Vukovich, AND V. Rao. Improvements to the National Emission Inventory: Crop Residue Burning. 2019 International Emissions Inventory Conference, Dallas, TX, July 29 - August 02, 2019.

Impact/Purpose:

Since Biomass burning has been identified as an important contributor to the degradation of air quality, having an accurate emission inventory of this emission source is important. The key research goal is the identification of prescribed fires that occur over rangeland areas, agricultural areas and natural areas. We plan to use the results of the research to improve the quality of the fire detections that are used as a basis for future emission inventories of biomass burning over the United States.

Description:

Biomass burning from grasslands, rangelands, and crop residue is an important contributor to the degradation of air quality because of its impact on ozone and particulate matter. We will summarize improvements to the 2017 National Emission Inventory (NEI) for grasslands, rangelands, and crop residue emission sources. In addition, some of these improvements will be incorporated into the 2016 modeling platform currently being developed by EPA and the states. For the 2017 NEI, prescribed burning in the tall grass prairies of the Kansas Flint Hills region (which extends into Oklahoma) will have a unique source classification code and the area burned will be based on a collaboration with the Kansas Department of Health & Environment. In addition, for the 2017 NEI, emission factors for hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) will be harmonized with volatile organic compound (VOC) speciation to ensure that the criteria air pollutants (CAP) and HAP emission inventories provide a consistent estimate of all VOCs. A new VOC profile for sugarcane burning has also been incorporated into the inventory development process. Finally, we will use state specific information to improve the classification of fires within the fire inventory.

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