Characterization of Gaseous and Particulate Phase Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Emitted During Preharvest Burning of Sugar Cane in Different Regions of Kwa‐Zulu Natal, South Africa (original) (raw)
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Abstract Indoor air pollution (IAP) from biomass cook stoves seriously affects human health worldwide. Most of the biomass stoves in use are traditional cook stoves, which produce toxic emissions and consume a lot of fuel. This has prompted the introduction of improved stoves to address the problem. Improved stoves help families meet their household cooking and heating requirements without the risks posed by traditional stoves. The purpose of this study was to investigate the stove performance (in terms of IAP levels and efficiency) of stove A (an improved wood stove) and stove B (an improved charcoal stove) and compare them with traditional three stone and the Kenyan metallic Jiko. The stoves were tested using the water-boiling test (WBT). Particulate and CO and CO2 were monitored using data loggers, which all work, on the principle of light scattering. Results were entered in the WBT data calculation sheet to obtain all the parameters critical in evaluating the stoves performance. Results indicated a 50% decrease in CO emissions in Stove A compared to the three stone fire wood stove and a 60% decrease in charcoal stove B compared to metallic charcoal jiko. All traditional stoves fell below WHO limit of 30ppm over an hour of CO exposure.CO2 decreased by 20% and 6% with stoves A and B compared to three stone and metallic jiko. Charcoal Stove B and Three-stone firewood stoves were above 600ppm, WHO limit. There was an 80% decrease in PM2.5 in stove B, compared to metallic jiko and 17% decrease in stove A compared to three stone firewood stove. All stoves except B exceeded 0.2mg/m3 limit set by WHO for PM2.5 when using biomass fuel. There was a 63% increase in level of efficiency in charcoal stove B compared to the Metallic Jiko while a 64% increase in thermal efficiency in stove A compared to three stone stove. A 73% and 23% decrease in specific fuel consumption was noted in firewood stove A and charcoal stove B compared to the metallic and three stone firewood stove respectively. Objectives of the study were met.
Biomass, 1987
A method is proposed to measure emissions of air pollutants from unrented biomass-burning cookstoves and to incorporate a measure of these emissions in the existing way of rating cookstoves by thermal efficiency. Emission factors for the three metal stoves tested burning Acacia nilotica were found to range between 13 and 68 g kg-I for carbon monoxide and between 1.1 and 3.9 g kg-i for total suspended particulates and to increase with increasing thermal efficiency both within a stove and across stoves. Emissions for a uniform standard task --the proposed performance index --were, however, lower for total suspended particulates for the more efficient stoves but higher for CO, indicating that the increases in efficiency were not able to offset the greatly increased CO emission factors.
Emission factors of wood and charcoal-fired cookstoves
Biomass & Bioenergy, 2002
In the developing countries, energy required for cooking often has the biggest share in the total national energy demand and is normally met mostly by biomass. This paper presents the results of experimental studies on emission conducted on a number of traditional and improved cookstoves collected from di erent Asian countries using wood and charcoal as fuel. The emission factors from this study are comparable to those reported in the literature. In the case of wood combustion, CO2 emission factor is in the range of 1560 -1620 g kg −1 . The emission factors for pollutants CO, CH4, TNMOC and NOx were in the ranges 19 -136, 6 -10, 6 -9 and 0.05 -0:2 g kg −1 , respectively. In the case of charcoal combustion, CO2 emission factor is in the range of 2155 -2567 g kg −1 . The emission factors for pollutants CO, CH4, TNMOC were in the ranges 35 -198, 6.7-7.8, 6 -10 g kg −1 , respectively.
Energy for Sustainable Development, 2010
Improved cooking stove projects in the developing world have the potential to reduce deforestation, improve health, and slow climate change. To meet these requirements, stoves must be carefully designed through thorough testing and verification of performance. The systematic investigation of the heat transfer and combustion efficiency of stove design in the laboratory sheds light on what technologies work best and helps to ensure that stoves being disseminated are truly a significant improvement over traditional cooking methods. Performance of 50 different stove designs was investigated using the 2003 University of California-Berkeley (UCB) revised Water Boiling Test (WBT) Version 3.0 to compare the fuel use, carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter (PM) emissions produced. While these laboratory tests do not necessarily predict field performance for actual cooking, the elimination of variables such as fuel, tending, and moisture content, helps to isolate and compare the technical properties of stove design. Stoves tested fell under 7 main categories: simple stoves without combustion chambers, stoves with rocket-type combustion chambers, gasifier stoves, fan-assisted stoves, charcoal-burning stoves, liquid/gas fuel stoves, and wood-burning stoves with chimneys. A carefully made three-stone fire was also tested for comparison. Results showed that: • Stoves without well-designed combustion chambers may reduce fuel use in comparison to the three-stone fire but do not necessarily decrease and can potentially increase emissions of CO and PM. • Rocket-type stoves can reduce fuel use by 33%, CO emissions by 75%, and PM emissions by 46% on average in comparison to the three-stone fire. • Use of a pot skirt can reduce fuel use and emissions by 25-30%. • When operating well, gasifier stoves can reduce particulate matter substantially, averaging 90% improvement over the three-stone fire. • Five forced air stoves reduced fuel use by an average of 40% and emissions by 90% over the three-stone fire. • Traditional charcoal stoves use about the same amount of energy as the three-stone fire to complete a task (not counting the energy lost in making the charcoal, which can be as much as 70%) and produce up to two times more carbon monoxide and 80% less PM. A rocket-type charcoal stove can reduce this energy consumption by one third and CO emission by at least one half. • Liquid fuels generally exhibit less energy use and emissions. Kerosene can emit higher levels of PM than some improved wood stoves when not operating properly. • Well-designed stoves with chimneys remove smoke from the kitchen while fuel use is generally directly related to how much of the pot is in direct contact with the flames. From this data, it was possible to recommend benchmarks of improved cookstove performance. Benchmarks were suggested at levels that were achievable using known materials and manufacturing techniques, yet still aspirational, ensuring each stove design is carefully tested and optimized for highest efficiencies. It is hoped that these benchmarks can be used as the first step toward international performance standards for cooking stoves. Five of the stoves presented here were also tested at the US EPA, with results agreeing within 20% or better on all fuel and emissions measures, suggesting standard evaluation at various locations is possible.
Effects of selected parameters on performance and emission of biomass-fired cookstoves
Biomass & Bioenergy, 2002
The e ects of di erent parameters on performance and emissions of three biomass-ÿred stoves have been investigated. The parameters considered were moisture content of fuel, size of fuel, size of pot and method of ignition, while the selected stoves were an improved Indian stove, a Vietnamese traditional stove and an improved stove developed by the Royal Thai Forestry Department. It was found that increase in fuel moisture content resulted in decrease in stove e ciency, increase in the emission factor of CO and decrease in the emission factor of NOx; a slight decrease in CO2 emission factor was also observed, while emission of CH4 was not signiÿcantly e ected. The fuel size did not show any signiÿcant in uence on the e ciency of the stove, however, it showed signiÿcant in uence on the emission of CO for the size range investigated. The size of pan did not a ect the e ciency of the stoves tested. Two methods of stove ignition-conventional bottom ignition and top ignition-were investigated. In general, emission of CO and NOx was signiÿcantly less in case of top ignition in comparison with conventional bottom ignition. ?
Environmental science & technology, 2017
Household cooking using solid biomass fuels is a major global health and environmental concern. As part of the Research on Emissions Air quality Climate and Cooking Technologies in Northern Ghana study, we conducted 75 in-field uncontrolled cooking tests designed to assess emissions and efficiency of the Gyapa woodstove, Philips HD4012, threestone fire and coalpot (local charcoal stove). Emission factors (EFs) were calculated for carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO), and particulate matter (PM). Moreover, modified combustion (MCE), heat transfer (HTE) and overall thermal efficiencies (OTE) were calculated across a variety of fuel, stove and meal type combinations. Mixed effect models suggest that compared to traditional stove/fuel combinations, the Philips burning wood or charcoal showed significant fuel and energy based EF differences for CO, but no significant PM changes with wood fuel. MCEs were significantly higher for Philips wood and charcoal-burning stoves compared to th...
International Journal of Applied Science and Engineering, 2019
This paper presents basic statistical model to predict emissions factors of CO, CO2 and PM2.5 from the thermal performance (firepower) using results from an experimental Water Boiling Test with Laboratory Emissions Monitoring System of twelve (12) different traditional and improved charcoal fired cookstoves. The development of improved biomass cookstoves with superior thermal performance and emission characteristics thus has huge environmental and social benefits because of the risks associated with inefficient stoves. A statistical Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was used to determine the degree of linear association of the combustion characteristics with the emissions factors. The models for the evaluation of cookstove emissions from the firepower of a charcoal fired cookstove proved reasonably accurate for the prediction of CO2, CO and PM2.5 without direct measurement using laboratory emissions monitoring systems.
International Journal of Energy Applications and Technologies, 2019
The objectives of the paper were to evaluate particle mass concentrations of PM1 (size <1 µm) and PM2.5 (size <2.5 µm), mass size distributions and CO emissions under standard laboratory conditions obtained from two commercially available modern residential wood stoves with capacity 10 kW and 20 kW. Four combustion batches with minor modification of primary air flows into the combustion chamber for each stove were conducted to evaluate the emission results. Particle mass concentrations and size distributions were measured in real time using an Electrical Low Pressure Impactor Plus (ELPI+) instrument, which measures particles with a fast response time in a wide particle size range from 6 nm to 10 µm aerodynamic diameter. Gaseous concentrations of O2 and CO2 were measured continuously using a Horiba PG-250 analyzer and CO emissions were measured using a Siemens Ultramat 6 gas analyzer. The measurement protocols of each combustion test were conducted according to the European standard EN 13229. The combustion experiments were conducted in a laboratory of a stove manufacturing plant in Belgium. The results showed that PM1 and PM2.5 concentrations of all the batches of both stoves varied from 116 to 327 mg/Nm 3 and 139 to 413 mg/Nm 3 , respectively in the combustion cycle. Particle mass size distribution for all batches from both stoves is very similar showing a maximum in the fine mode at a particle size of around 330 nm to 500 nm. The CO emissions from all the batches varied from 447 to 1184 mg/Nm 3 for the 10 kW stove and 958 to 1545 mg/Nm 3 for the 20 kW stove. The experimental results of PM1, PM2.5 concentrations and CO emissions from combustion measurements could be useful for the improvement of the combustion process as well as the reduction of gaseous and particle mass emissions from these residential biomass combustion appliances.
Particulate pollution from biomass combustion in three cookstoves
International journal of …, 1995
The release of suspended particulate matter (SPM) in the indoor environment from the combustion of fuelwood, agri-residue, dung cakes and a mixture of fuelwood and dung cakes in traditional as well as improved biomass cookstoves is studied. The SPM emission is monitored at two positions in the kitchen and also at the centre of the living room. A comparative performance evaluation of several biofuel-cookstove combinations is undertaken. Some important results are plotted graphically and briefly discussed.