A method for smoke marker measurements and its potential application for determining the contribution of biomass burning from wildfires and prescribed fires to ambient PM_2.5 organic carbon

Abstract

[1] Biomass burning is an important source of particulate organic carbon (OC) in the atmosphere. Quantifying this contribution in time and space requires a means of routinely apportioning contributions of smoke from biomass burning to OC. Smoke marker (for example, levoglucosan) measurements provide the most common approach for making this determination. A lack of source profiles for wildfires and prescribed fires and the expense and complexity of traditional smoke marker measurement methods have thus far limited routine estimates of these contributions to ambient aerosol concentrations and regional haze. We report here on the collection of source profiles for combustion of numerous wildland fuels and on the development of an inexpensive and robust technique for routine smoke marker measurements. Hi-Volume filter source samples were collected during two studies at the Fire Science Laboratory in Missoula, MT in 2006 and 2007. Levoglucosan (and other carbohydrates) were measured in these samples using high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection. Results of this analysis along with water-soluble potassium, OC, and elemental carbon are presented. The results show that emissions of levoglucosan are fairly correlated with OC with an average ratio of 0.031 mg C/mg C. Further, there was a definite pattern that emerged based on fuel component burned with the typical levoglucosan/OC ratio of branches > straw > needles > leaves. Additionally, this carbohydrate measurement method appears to provide fingerprint information about the type of fuel burned that could help constrain profiles chosen for aerosol source apportionment and lead to a better determination of source contributions from biomass burning.

Properties and evolution of biomass burning organic aerosol from Canadian boreal forest fires

“…In contrast, Gao et al (2003) reported significantly elevated levoglucosan concentrations from smouldering fires in southern Africa, and severe depletion in emissions from flaming fires. Furthermore, Lee et al (2010) reported overall similarity in f 60 across flaming and smouldering phases for open biomass fires carried out in a laboratory setting as part of FLAME II, while the ratio of levoglucosan to total organic carbon in filter samples from the same experiment shows a dependence on the fuel component burned (Sullivan et al, 2008). Although both f 44 and f 60 were more frequently at a maximum during flaming combustion in FLAME II burns (Jolleys et al, 2014), differences between phases were more pronounced for f 44 , with less variation amongst f 60 .…”

“…This threshold is based upon observed background levels of f 60 in OA emissions from urban and biogenic sources where BB influences are absent Aiken et al, 2009;DeCarlo et al, 2008). Levoglucosan and other anhydrous sugars such as mannosan and galactosan have been shown to be strongly associated with primary BB emissions (Simoneit et al, 1999;Iinuma et al, 2007;Sullivan et al, 2008;Lee et al, 2010). All data were also averaged to the temporal resolution of the AMS (∼ 8 second time step on average) to enable direct comparison of different species.…”

Observation of atmospheric peroxides during Wangdu Campaign 2014 at a rural site in the North China Plain

“…Here, we tested the hypothesis by means of the box model and linear regression with the observation data from three events mentioned below during the Phase II. It is well known that CO and K + can be used as the reference for the biomass combustion Reid et al, 2005;Li et al, 2007;Sullivan et al, 2008;Cheng et al, 2013Cheng et al, , 2014J. F. Li et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2015).…”

Review of Recent Advances in Detection of Organic Markers in Fine Particulate Matter and Their Use for Source Apportionment

“…125 A new method has been developed by Collett and co-workers on the basis of high-performance anionexchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection. 126,127 The method has the advantage that the laborious procedures for the GC-MS analysis are avoided. The technique has been used to study the composition of emissions from several burning biomass sources 127 and to identify the contribution of wood smoke to the PM 2.5 present during the winter in Fresno, CA.…”

“…126,127 The method has the advantage that the laborious procedures for the GC-MS analysis are avoided. The technique has been used to study the composition of emissions from several burning biomass sources 127 and to identify the contribution of wood smoke to the PM 2.5 present during the winter in Fresno, CA. 128 The method should be applicable to the determination of other organic tracers that are present in solution as anions.…”