NO<sub>2</sub> Emissions from Agricultural Burning in São Paulo, Brazil

Oppenheimer, Clive; Tsanev, V.; Allen, Andrew G.; McGonigle, Andrew J. S.; Cardoso, Arnaldo Alves; Wiatr, Antony G.; Paterlini, Willian C.; Dias, Cristine De Mello

doi:10.1021/es0496219

Cited by 32 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Gas emissions to the atmosphere are another aspect of atmospheric pollution associated with sugarcane burning. In sugarcane areas, concentrations of CO and O 3 are commonly high (Kirchoff et al 1991), while nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions reached 25 kg N/ha (Oppenheimer et al 2004). Part of the N lost to the atmosphere during burning of sugarcane fields returns to the Earth's surface via wet and dry deposition.…”

Section: Environmental Consequences Of Sugarcane Burningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expansion of Sugarcane Ethanol Production in Brazil: Environmental and Social Challenges

Martinelli¹,

Filoso

2008

Ecological Applications

354

232

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Several geopolitical factors, aggravated by worries of global warming, have been fueling the search for and production of renewable energy worldwide for the past few years. Such demand for renewable energy is likely to benefit the sugarcane ethanol industry in Brazil, not only because sugarcane ethanol has a positive energetic balance and relatively low production costs, but also because Brazilian ethanol has been successfully produced and used as biofuel in the country since the 1970s. However, environmental and social impacts associated with ethanol production in Brazil can become important obstacles to sustainable biofuel production worldwide. Atmospheric pollution from burning of sugarcane for harvesting, degradation of soils and aquatic systems, and the exploitation of cane cutters are among the issues that deserve immediate attention from the Brazilian government and international societies. The expansion of sugarcane crops to the areas presently cultivated for soybeans also represent an environmental threat, because it may increase deforestation pressure from soybean crops in the Amazon region. In this paper, we discuss environmental and social issues linked to the expansion of sugarcane in Brazil for ethanol production, and we provide recommendations to help policy makers and the Brazilian government establish new initiatives to produce a code for ethanol production that is environmentally sustainable and economically fair. Recommendations include proper planning and environmental risk assessments for the expansion of sugarcane to new regions such as Central Brazil, improvement of land use practices to reduce soil erosion and nitrogen pollution, proper protection of streams and riparian ecosystems, banning of sugarcane burning practices, and fair working conditions for sugarcane cutters. We also support the creation of a more constructive approach for international stakeholders and trade organizations to promote sustainable development for biofuel production in developing countries such as Brazil. Finally, we support the inclusion of environmental values in the price of biofuels in order to discourage excessive replacement of natural ecosystems such as forests, wetlands, and pasture by bioenergy crops.

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Section: Environmental Consequences Of Sugarcane Burningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expansion of Sugarcane Ethanol Production in Brazil: Environmental and Social Challenges

Martinelli¹,

Filoso

2008

Ecological Applications

354

232

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“…Agricultural waste burning, particularly of sugarcane fields, is the main source of fire emissions in agricultural areas in the south of Brazil (Lara et al, 2005). Openheimer et al (2004) observed emission factors for NO 2 of 1.3 g NO 2 kg −1 dry matter for sugarcane burning in São Paolo. Taking a ratio of NO : NO 2 of 85 : 15 as suggested in their paper would imply a NO x emission factor of 5.7 g NO kg −1 dry matter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Satellite observations indicate substantial spatiotemporal variability in biomass burning NO<sub>x</sub> emission factors for South America

Castellanos¹,

Boersma

Werf³

2014

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. Biomass burning is an important contributor to global total emissions of NOx (NO+NO2). Generally bottom-up fire emissions models calculate NOx emissions by multiplying fuel consumption estimates with static biome-specific emission factors, defined in units of grams of NO per kilogram of dry matter consumed. Emission factors are a significant source of uncertainty in bottom-up fire emissions modeling because relatively few observations are available to characterize the large spatial and temporal variability of burning conditions. In this paper we use NO2 tropospheric column observations from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) from the year 2005 over South America to calculate monthly NOx emission factors for four fire types: deforestation, savanna/grassland, woodland, and agricultural waste burning. In general, the spatial patterns in NOx emission factors calculated in this work are consistent with emission factors derived from in situ measurements from the region but are more variable than published biome-specific global average emission factors widely used in bottom-up fire emissions inventories such as the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED). Satellite-based NOx emission factors also indicate substantial temporal variability in burning conditions. Overall, we found that deforestation fires have the lowest NOx emission factors, on average 30% lower than the emission factors used in GFED v3. Agricultural fire NOx emission factors were the highest, on average a factor of 1.8 higher than GFED v3 values. For savanna, woodland, and deforestation fires, early dry season NOx emission factors were a factor of ~1.5–2 higher than late dry season emission factors. A minimum in the NOx emission factor seasonal cycle for deforestation fires occurred in August, the time period of severe drought in South America in 2005, supporting the hypothesis that prolonged dry spells may lead to an increase in the contribution of smoldering combustion from large-diameter fuels, offsetting the higher combustion efficiency of dryer fine fuels. We evaluated the OMI-derived NOx emission factors with SCIAMACHY NO2 tropospheric column observations and found improved model performance in regions dominated by fire emissions.

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“…This knowledge has been updated in more recent studies, such as Christian et al [22] which is concerned with savanna fires, Yokelson et al [23,24] and Soares Neto et al [25,26] which assemble information about fire emissions in tropical vegetation associated with pasture maintenance and deforestation, based on laboratory experiments and field campaigns, and Akagi et al [27] which present emission factors, among other information, for fourteen types of vegetation. Although some studies have treated different aspects of sugarcane straw burning [28][29][30][31][32], specific information about emission factors for species emitted during pre-harvest burning is still scarce, especially specific to Brazil. It is common modeling practice to use the generic emission factors for savanna, pasture or agricultural wastes, such as those provided by Andreae and Merlet [21] and IPCC [33] for the estimation of emissions associated with sugarcane straw burning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-Harvest Sugarcane Burning: Determination of Emission Factors through Laboratory Measurements

et al. 2012

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Sugarcane is an important crop for the Brazilian economy and roughly 50% of its production is used to produce ethanol. However, the common practice of pre-harvest burning of sugarcane straw emits particulate material, greenhouse gases, and tropospheric ozone precursors to the atmosphere. Even with policies to eliminate the practice of pre-harvest sugarcane burning in the near future, there is still significant environmental damage. Thus, the generation of reliable inventories of emissions due to this activity is crucial in order to assess their environmental impact. Nevertheless, the official Brazilian emissions inventory does not presently include the contribution from pre-harvest sugarcane burning. In this context, this work aims to determine sugarcane straw burning emission factors for some trace gases and particulate material smaller than 2.5 μm in the laboratory. Excess mixing ratios for CO 2 , CO, NO X , UHC (unburned hydrocarbons), and PM 2.5 were OPEN ACCESSAtmosphere 2012, 3 165 measured, allowing the estimation of their respective emission factors. Average estimated values for emission factors (g kg −1 of burned dry biomass) were 1,303 ± 218 for CO 2 , 65 ± 14 for CO, 1.5 ± 0.4 for NO X , 16 ± 6 for UHC, and 2.6 ± 1.6 for PM 2.5 . These emission factors can be used to generate more realistic emission inventories and therefore improve the results of air quality models.

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NO₂ Emissions from Agricultural Burning in São Paulo, Brazil

Cited by 32 publications

References 20 publications

Expansion of Sugarcane Ethanol Production in Brazil: Environmental and Social Challenges

Expansion of Sugarcane Ethanol Production in Brazil: Environmental and Social Challenges

Satellite observations indicate substantial spatiotemporal variability in biomass burning NO<sub>x</sub> emission factors for South America

Pre-Harvest Sugarcane Burning: Determination of Emission Factors through Laboratory Measurements

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NO2 Emissions from Agricultural Burning in São Paulo, Brazil

Cited by 32 publications

References 20 publications

Expansion of Sugarcane Ethanol Production in Brazil: Environmental and Social Challenges

Expansion of Sugarcane Ethanol Production in Brazil: Environmental and Social Challenges

Satellite observations indicate substantial spatiotemporal variability in biomass burning NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; emission factors for South America

Pre-Harvest Sugarcane Burning: Determination of Emission Factors through Laboratory Measurements

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Product

Resources

About

NO₂ Emissions from Agricultural Burning in São Paulo, Brazil

Satellite observations indicate substantial spatiotemporal variability in biomass burning NO<sub>x</sub> emission factors for South America