American Association for Aerosol Research - Abstract Submission

AAAR 36th Annual Conference
October 16 - October 20, 2017
Raleigh Convention Center
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

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A Comparative Study on Aerosol Emission Factors from Residential Biomass Cookstoves and Wildland Fires

APOORVA PANDEY, Sameer Patel, Benjamin Sumlin, Shamsh Pervez, Suresh Tiwari, Gautam Yadama, Judith Chow, John Watson, Pratim Biswas, Rajan Chakrabarty, Washington University in St Louis

     Abstract Number: 554
     Working Group: Carbonaceous Aerosols in the Atmosphere

Abstract
Biomass burning contributes nearly a third of the global carbonaceous aerosol emissions, and therefore impacts the earth’s radiative budget and human health. The term ‘biomass burning’ encompasses combustion of biomass fuels for energy use (e.g. cooking, heating), agricultural open burning and wild and peatland fires; different types of biomass burning are significant at different regional scales. Estimates of radiative impact of biomass burning aerosol emissions are highly uncertain because of underlying uncertainties in aerosol mass concentration distributions and optical properties. Mass emission rates for biomass burning aerosols are necessary for better estimating their climate and health effects. We present here emission factors of particles with aerodynamic diameters less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5), elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC) from biomass cookstoves, ponderosa pine burning and Indonesian peat burning. Cookstove emissions were characterized in a field study in a rural household in central India. Emissions from common types of biomass fuels—fuel-wood, agricultural residue and cow dung — from different regions of India were sampled while typical meals were prepared in a household kitchen. Smoldering and flaming of Ponderosa pine and smoldering of Indonesian peat were simulated in a laboratory combustion chamber. In both field and lab studies, particles were collected on Teflon and quartz fiber filters for gravimetric and thermo-optical analyses, respectively. Emission factors per unit fuel mass were calculated using the carbon balance method. Thermal fractions of the total carbon content of cookstove, pine and peat burning emissions are compared. The links between carbonaceous aerosol profiles (OC- to-EC mass ratios and thermal carbon fractions) and aerosol optical properties are explored.