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Aerosol Emissions from Biogas, LPG, and Wood Cooking in Nepal and the Impact of Fuel Mixes on Overall Pollution Burden
CHERYL WEYANT, Ryan Thompson, Nicholas Lam, Basudev Upadhyay, Prabin Shrestha, Shovana Maharjan, Kaushila Rai, Chija Adhikari, Amod Pokhrel, University of Michigan
Abstract Number: 577
Working Group: Indoor Aerosols
Abstract
Household air pollution from solid fuel cooking causes millions of deaths each year and contributes to climate change. The health burden can be reduced if households transition to cleaner cooking fuels such as LPG or biogas, yet emission measurements during household cooking is limited and the outcomes of using multiple fuels per household is poorly characterized. In this study, 20 households in Nepal were rigorously monitored over three seasons. Measurements included stove use monitoring on all stoves, fuel consumption assessments, and detailed emissions measurements from LPG, biogas, and wood stoves. Emission factors were reported for elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), particulate matter (PM2.5), and carbon monoxide (CO). Biogas cooking emission factors were 7.4 ± 10.9 mgMJ−1 for PM2.5 and 0.2 ± 0.3 mgMJ−1 for EC on a fuel energy basis, and were not significantly different from LPG stoves (9.5 ± 6.8 mgMJ−1 for PM2.5 and 0.3 ± 0.3 mgMJ−1 for EC, p > 0.05). Wood stoves emitted 50 times more PM2.5 than biogas on a fuel energy basis and 230 times more EC. EC emissions were about 3% of total particle emissions from biogas and LPG stoves. Most PM2.5 emissions from gas stoves were attributed to food frying and stove ignition (90%), not the gas fuel (10%), implying that there is a limit to emission reductions that can be achieved with improved fuels. To assess the impact of using multiple fuels in a households, emission factors were integrated with fuel consumption and stove use data to estimate total household emission rates from cooking from all household stoves. This method allows the indoor emissions from different stove/fuel combinations to be quantified and compared. In addition, measurements were conducted to allow for assessments of seasonal trends in household emission rates.