Emission Characteristics of Carbonaceous Particles from Various Residential Coal-Stoves in China

The use of coal briquettes and improved stoves by Chinese households has been encouraged by the government as a means of reducing air pollution and health impacts. In this study we have shown that these two improvements also relate to climate change. Our experimental measurements indicate that, if all coal were burned as briquettes in improved stoves, particulate matter (PM), organic carbon (OC), and black carbon (BC) could be annually reduced by 63 ( 12%, 61 ( 10%, and 98 ( 1.7%, respectively. Also, the ratio of BC to OC (BC/OC) could be reduced by about 97%, from 0.49 to 0.016, which would make the primary emissions of household coal combustion more optically scattering. Therefore, it is suggested that the government consider the possibility of: (i) phasing out direct burning of bituminous raw-coal-chunks in households; (ii) phasing out simple stoves in households; and, (iii) financially supporting the research, production, and popularization of improved stoves and efficient coal briquettes. These actions may have considerable environmental benefits by reducing emissions and mitigating some of the impacts of household coal burning on the climate. International cooperation is required both technologically and financially to accelerate the emission reduction in the world.

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“…Both designs increased chances of volatile matter in fuels for complete combustion, and hence the emission reduction (especially BC) (11).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deployment of Coal Briquettes and Improved Stoves: Possibly an Option for both Environment and Climate

Zhi

Peng

Chen

et al. 2009

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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“…Since a previous study had demonstrated that EC concentrations were comparable to BC measured by an optical method (Aethalometer AE90) for 11 coal/stove combinations (25), BC was considered as the same mass as EC in this study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurements of Black and Organic Carbon Emission Factors for Household Coal Combustion in China: Implication for Emission Reduction

Chen

Zhi

Feng

et al. 2009

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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141

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Household coal combustion is considered as the greatest emission source for black carbon (BC) and an important source for organic carbon (OC) in China. However, measurements on BC and OC emission factors (EF BC and EF OC ) are still scarce, which result in large uncertainties in emission estimates. In this study, a detailed data set of EF BC and EF OC for household coal burning was presented on the basis of 38 coal/stove combination experiments. These experiments included 13 coals with a wide coverage of geological maturity which were tested in honeycomb-coal-briquette and raw-coal-chunk forms in three typical coal stoves. Averaged values of EF BC are 0.004 and 0.007 g/kg for anthracite in briquette and chunk forms and 0.09 and 3.05 g/kg for bituminous coal, respectively; EF OC are 0.06 and 0.10 g/kg for anthracite and 3.74 and 5.50 g/kg for bituminous coal in both forms, respectively. Coal maturity was found to be the most important influencing factor relative to coal's burning forms and the stove's burning efficiency, and when medium-volatile bituminous coals (MVB) are excluded from use, averaged EF BC and EF OC for bituminous coal decrease by 50% and 30%, respectively. According to these EFs, China's BC and OC emissions from the household sector in 2000 were 94 and 244 gigagrams (Gg), respectively. Compared with previous BC emission estimates for this sector (e.g., 465 Gg by Ohara et al., Atmos. Chem. Phys. 2007, 7, 4419-4444), a dramatic decrease was observed and was mainly attributed to the update of EFs. As suggested by this study, if MVB is prohibited as household fuel together with further promotion of briquettes, BC and OC emissions in this sector will be reduced by 80% and 34%, respectively, and then carbonaceous emissions can be controlled to a large extent in China. IntroductionCarbonaceous aerosols have generated wide concern in recent years due to their significant impacts on global and regional climate changes together with negative effects on the environment and human health (e.g., refs 1-3). Carbonaceous aerosols are mainly derived from incomplete combustion of biomass and fossil fuels, and can be simply divided into black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC) fractions (4). Most concern about BC aerosol is due to its strong solar absorptivity, which contributes to global warming by increasing the top-of-atmosphere radiative forcing and decreasing the surface albedo of snow and ice, etc (5-7). Furthermore, BC aerosols reduce atmospheric visibility, damage the appearance of buildings, and do harm to human health by deeply penetrating into the lungs (3,8,9). OC has the optical property of mainly scattering solar radiation, but its ratio to BC affects the radiative property of BC (10). A large number of studies on OC have focused on their adverse effects on public health, because it contains hundreds of organic compounds and many species are toxic and carcinogenic (11).BC emissions from China have caught great attention since Menon et al. (12) suggested the relationship between the increased BC aero...

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“…That is, BC would exert a more intensive dome effect over rural surface. It should be noted that residential combustion of raw coal and biofuel in a small domestic stove in rural area is responsible for the majority of BC emission in China (Zhi et al, 2008;Li et al, 2017a). More 10 stable PBL and more significant dome effect over rural surface would further favor the formation and accumulation of regional air pollution.…”

Section: A Comparison Of the Dome Effect Over Urban And Rural Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dome effect of black carbon and its key influencing factors: A one-dimensional modelling study

Wang¹,

Huang²,

Ding³

2017

Preprint

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Black carbon (BC) has been identified to play a critical role in aerosol-planet boundary layer (PBL) interaction and further deterioration of near-surface air pollution in megacities, which has been named as its "dome effect". However, the impacts of key factors that influence this effect, such as the vertical distribution and aging processes of BC, and also the underlying land surface, have not been quantitatively explored yet. Here, based on available in-situ measurements of meteorology and 15 atmospheric aerosols together with the meteorology-chemistry online coupled model, WRF-Chem, we conduct a set of parallel simulations to quantify the roles of these factors in influencing the BC's dome effect and surface haze pollution, and discuss the main implications of the results to air pollution mitigation in China. We found that the impact of BC on PBL is very sensitive to the altitude of aerosol layer. The upper level BC, especially those near the capping inversion, is more essential in suppressing the PBL height and weakening the turbulence mixing. The dome effect of BC tends to be significantly intensified 20 as BC aerosol mixed with scattering aerosols during winter haze events, resulting in a decrease of PBL height by more than 25%. In addition, the dome effect is more substantial (up to 15%) in rural areas than that in the urban areas with the same BC loading, indicating an unexpected regional impact of such kind of effect to air quality in countryside. This study suggests that China's regional air pollution would greatly benefit from BC emission reductions, especially those from the elevated sources from the chimneys and also the domestic combustions in rural areas, through weakening the aerosol-boundary layer 25 interactions that triggered by BC.

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Emission Characteristics of Carbonaceous Particles from Various Residential Coal-Stoves in China

Cited by 175 publications

References 23 publications

Deployment of Coal Briquettes and Improved Stoves: Possibly an Option for both Environment and Climate

Deployment of Coal Briquettes and Improved Stoves: Possibly an Option for both Environment and Climate

Measurements of Black and Organic Carbon Emission Factors for Household Coal Combustion in China: Implication for Emission Reduction

Dome effect of black carbon and its key influencing factors: A one-dimensional modelling study

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