Aerosol Emissions and Characterization During the Burning Homes and Structural Materials (BHASMA) Project
JAMIE CAST, Kevin Ridgway, Miranda Trujillo, Cristian Medina, Adam Norris, Thomas Borch, Christian L'Orange, Shantanu Jathar,
Colorado State University Abstract Number: 685
Working Group: Combustion
AbstractWith nearly 50 million houses in the US located at the wildland-urban interface (WUI) and wildfire frequency and activity on the rise, there is a growing concern that wildfire-related structural fires might be an important source of air pollutants to the atmosphere. However, air pollutant emissions from structural fires are very poorly understood and what we do understand remains fragmented and incomplete. In this poster, we will report on structural fire experiments performed as part of the Burning Homes and Structural MAterials (BHASMA) project at Colorado State University in the Summer of 2023. A total of 75 experiments were performed on 17 different fuels, representing structural wood (e.g., douglas fir), manufactured wood (e.g., oriented strand board), insulation (e.g., extruded polystyrene), carpet (e.g., polyester), roofing (e.g., asphalt shingles), sheathing (e.g., polyvinyl chloride), and fabric (e.g., cotton), under pyrolysis and flaming conditions. Gas and aerosol emissions were measured using a host of online (e.g., 5-gas analyzer, mass spectrometry) and offline techniques (e.g., filters, sorbent tubes) although only a select set of measurements will be presented in this work. We will describe emissions ratios and emissions factors for PM
2.5, inorganic ions (e.g., sulfate, nitrate), organic aerosol (OA), light-absorbing carbon (e.g., black carbon), and trace metals as a function of fuel and combustion mode. Further, we will contrast emissions for these structural materials against historical data and develop an emission factor database for use in constructing emissions inventories for structural fires. Finally, we will outline ongoing efforts to characterize emissions of hazardous air pollutants that include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), organohalogens, and per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).