10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Abstract View
An Investigation of the Optical Properties of Particulate Matter Emitted by Residential Biomass Hydronic Heaters
JAKE LINDBERG, Patricia Fritz, Nicole Vitillo, Brian P. Frank, David Guerrieri, Marilyn Wurth, Gil H. LaDuke, Shida Tang, Thomas Wainman, Nathan Walz, Todd Crawford, New York State Dept. of Health
Abstract Number: 1605 Working Group: Combustion-Generated Aerosols: the Desirable and Undesirable
Abstract Combustion from commercial scale and residential heating contributes to ambient Particulate Matter ( PM) pollution. Interest in the use of fuels such as wood, pellet, and chips for hot water heating in home and businesses is increasing because it can be domestically sourced, and is viewed as sustainable fuel options. We conducted a laboratory study of the flue exhaust from biomass-fueled water heating appliances using a 7-wavelength aethalometer (Magee AE33), a 3-wavelength aethalometer (Brechtel TAP), and a nephelometer (Thermo pDR-1500) to measure the relative emission of black carbon (BC) and Brown Carbon (BrC) emitted from these appliances under different operating (firing) conditions. Differences in the optical properties of ambient PM have been used as a tool to apportion PM contributions from wood combustion. During a combustion cycle we measured a wide range of Delta-C and angstrom exponent values which indicate BC and BrC emission are highly dependent on boiler operating conditions. The data we collected show that light-scattering measurements of woodsmoke particulate matter can be misleading when used as a metric of combustion efficiency without accounting for differences across burn-phase conditions.