Emission of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons from Indoor Straw Burning and Emission Inventory Updating in China

Abstract

The emission factors for indoor straw combustion are a major data gap for estimating the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emissions in China. The emission factors for open-fire straw burning were borrowed from our previous study and a rough estimate was developed. As one of the most important emission sources in China, the emission factors for indoor straw combustion needed to be determined and revised accurately. In this study, a representative straw in rural China was collected and burned in similar conditions with those used by countryside families. The smoke produced was sampled and the PAH concentrations were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass selective detection (GC-MSD), and much higher emission factors were found. Based on the newly measured emission factors, the emission amount from indoor straw combustion was updated. In addition, recently published emission factors were compiled in a comprehensive database and some new sources were included. Additionally, the emission inventory was extended to cover the period from 1950 to 2005 and upgraded to a scale resolution of one kilometer. In the updated inventory, the total quantity of 16 PAHs emitted from China was 116,000 tons in 2003, with indoor straw and firewood combustions as the most important sources. Although vehicular emission contributed a relatively small percentage of the total emission, it was still one of the major sources in the urban areas of China. The total PAH emission increased continuously for four decades, starting from 1950, but fluctuated since 1990 due to variations in coke production.

Transpacific transport of benzo[a]pyrene emitted from Asia

“…Therefore, the decreasing trend in TPI would continue in the future. Although the energy consumption and PAH emissions are projected to increase in the next several decades (Zhang et al, 2008b), the decreasing TPI would mitigate this increase. The Pacific North American index (PNA) and the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) are indicators for the NorthSouth and East-West atmospheric pressure dipole patterns, respectively, and used to link interannual climate variability with changes in transpacific transport in this study.…”

“…We therefore adopted the emission inventory developed by Zhang et al (2008b) for China. This inventory investigated the interannual variation of PAH emissions from 1948-2007.…”

“…Despite the drastic decrease of PAH emissions in developed countries due to PAH emission reduction efforts (Pacyna et al, 2003), PAH deposition on the ice sheet in Greenland showed the global trend of PAH emission was nearly constant from the beginning of the industrial period to the early 1990s (Masclet et al, 1995). One of the reasons is increasing PAH emission due to rapid economic development and population increases in Asia which compensates for the emission reduction in developed countries (Zhang et al, 2008b). According to a global emission inventory of PAHs, the total emission of sixteen PAH compounds listed in the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) priority control list from Asia was about 290 Gg y −1 , accounting for more than half of total global emissions .…”

Attributing risk burden of PM2.5-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to major emission sources: Case study in Guangzhou, south China

“…As the most energy-consuming country, China has become the largest PAH emitter in the world (Shen et al, 2013;). Up to 116, 000 tons of 16 USEPA priority PAHs was estimated to be released by China in 2003 (Zhang et al, 2008) and the overall population attributable fraction (PAF) for lung cancer caused by inhalation exposure to PAHs was 1.6% in China . Regulating PAH emissions in China is a challenging task in face of stricter National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS, GB 3095-2012) and the lack of emission control standard for coal combustion and biomass burning.…”

Sediment Records of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Continental Shelf of China: Implications for Evolving Anthropogenic Impacts

“…5 Energy consumption continued to rise (Supporting Information (SI) Figure S1a), 5 which consequently caused increased PAH emissions, e.g., from ∼18 000 tons in 1980 to ∼116 000 tons in 2003. 6 Combustionderived PAHs can widely distribute into various environmental media through two major sources, riverine runoff and atmospheric transport. 7,8 In both cases, coastal marine sediments are an important reservoir for terrestrially derived PAHs.…”