Particulate and trace gas emissions from prescribed burns in southeastern U.S. fuel types: Summary of a 5-year project

Abstract

a b s t r a c tManagement of smoke from prescribed fires requires knowledge of fuel quantity and the amount and composition of the smoke produced by the fire to minimize adverse impacts on human health. A five-year study produced new emissions information for more than 100 trace gases and particulate matter in smoke for fuel types found in the southern United States of America using state-of-the-art instrumentation in both laboratory and field experiments. Emission factors for flaming, smoldering, and residual smoldering were developed. Agreement between laboratory and field-derived emission factors was generally good in most cases. Reference spectra of over 50 wildland fire gas-phase smoke components were added to a publicly-available database to support identification via infrared spectroscopy. Fuel loading for the field experiments was similar to previously measured fuels. This article summarizes the results of a five-year study to better understand the composition of smoke during all phases of burning for such forests.

Identification of gas-phase pyrolysis products in a prescribed fire: first detections using infrared spectroscopy for naphthalene, methyl nitrite, allene, acrolein and acetaldehyde

“…In early May 2018, seven prescribed fires were conducted in pine forests at U.S. Army Garrison Fort Jackson, adjacent to Columbia, South Carolina, at sites not far from previous smoke emission studies (Akagi et al, 2013;Weise et al, 2015). The forest overstory was primarily longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.)…”

Analyzing Wildland Fire Smoke Emissions Data Using Compositional Data Techniques

“…Each of the 65 observations comprised a vector x i = [ x 1 … x 18 ] i where parts x 1 … x 18 were the measured emission factors for CO 2 , CO, CH 4 , C 2 H 2 , C 2 H 4 , C 3 H 6 , CH 3 OH, HCOOH, CH 3 COOH, HCHO, C 4 H 4 O, NH 3 , NO, NO 2 , HONO, HCN, HCl, and SO 2 , respectively. In actuality, these 18 gases were a subcomposition of a much larger composition of gaseous and solid emissions sampled from these experimental fires by a variety of methods and instruments described elsewhere (Burling et al, ; Chang‐Graham et al, ; Gilman et al, ; Hosseini et al, , ; Roberts et al, ; Veres et al, ; Warneke et al, ; Weise et al, ; Yokelson et al, ). The full composition for this experiment consisted of over 100 parts.…”

Dynamic Infrared Gas Analysis from Longleaf Pine Fuelbeds Burned in a Wind Tunnel: Observation of Phenol in Pyrolysis and Combustion Phases

“…Adhesion losses were minimized in the present experiments by a) measuring the gas parcel directly without storage and b) heating transfer lines and gas cell to ~55 °C. (Yokelson, 2013;Scharko, 2019b, Weise et al 2015).…”