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

Abstract

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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Black carbon in the Arctic: the underestimated role of gas flaring and residential combustion emissions

“…The GAINS methodology to estimate BC emissions from residential combustion draws on Kupiainen and Klimont (2007). The emission factors aim to reflect real world emissions, i.e., incorporate emission measurements of diluted samples, and have been recently updated for Europe Pettersson et al, 2011;Schmidl et al, 2011;Tissari et al, 2008Tissari et al, , 2009, specifically for modern stoves and boilers, and Asia (Cao et al, 2006;Chen et al, 2009;Habib et al, 2008;Li et al, 2009;Parashar et al, 2005;Venkataraman, 2005;Zhi et al, 2008Zhi et al, , 2009. Activity data on solid fuel combustion in the residential sector originates from the International Energy Agency (IEA, 2011), EUROSTAT, national statistics and contacts with national experts, for example during stakeholder consultation within the revision of the European Union National Emission Ceiling Directive (http://ec.…”

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