Evaluation of U.S. Residential Wood Burning Emission Estimates and Air Quality Modeling during the 2015 WINTER Campaign

BENJAMIN MURPHY, Havala Pye, Karl Seltzer, Amara Holder, Joseph Martin, Ingrid George, Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz, Amy P. Sullivan, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jose-Luis Jimenez, Madeleine Strum, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

     Abstract Number: 608
     Working Group: Carbonaceous Aerosols

Abstract
Residential wood burning is one of the largest anthropogenic sources of organic carbon particles and vapors to the atmosphere in the United States according to recent U.S. EPA National Emissions Inventory estimates. The impact of these emissions on air quality is substantial, especially in the wintertime when wood is used for heating. However, existing inventories and air quality models typically use outdated emission factors and simplified chemical mechanisms to describe the sources and chemistry of organic particles and vapors. State-of-science analyses of emissions data may use gas/particle partitioning theory and detailed speciation measurements to interpret operationally defined emission factor measurements and connect them to rigorous chemical mechanisms designed to conserve reactive organic carbon (ROC) in multiple phases.

This presentation focuses on the evaluation of new multiphase ROC emission factors and speciation profiles derived from US EPA measurements and existing literature. These inputs drive simulations with the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model employing the new Community Regional Atmospheric Chemistry Multiphase Mechanism (CRACMM). Model results are evaluated with ground and aircraft measurements made during the Wintertime INvestigation of Transport, Emissions, and Reactivity (WINTER) 2015 campaign over the Eastern United States. Levoglucosan measurements and organic particle source attribution analyses are consistent with CMAQ predictions using the new emission data. The study emphasizes the value of such measurements for constraining residential wood burning impacts in areas across the northern U.S. outside the WINTER domain.