Pros and cons of wood and pellet stoves for residential heating from an emissions perspective

Abstract

Biomass burning is a growing alternative to fossil fuels for power generation. Small-scale residential wood combustion introduces air pollutants to local populated areas compared to remote, large-scale facilities. Pellet fuel...

Volatility Measurements of Oxygenated Volatile Organics from Fresh and Aged Residential Wood Burning Emissions

“…40,41 Although necessary for accurately representing these appliances in emission inventories, we did not capture an "average" wood emission but instead sampled during two characteristic burning periods, namely, at periods of high and low modified combustion efficiency (MCE). 34 FIGAERO sampling periods for the wood experiments are shown in Figure 1. The temperature ramp time was 30 min, and to minimize potential memory effects, an additional 15 min soak time was added.…”

“…A full description of ancillary measurements can be found elsewhere. 34 CO 2 (Rosemount Analytical XSTREAM), CO (Rosemount Analytical XSTREAM), O 2 (M&C PMA10), and total hydrocarbons (THC, JUM FID VE5) were measured in the flue stack. A scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS; EC 3080, DMA 3081) and condensation particle counter (CPC 3010, TSI Inc.) were used to measure particle number and particle mobility diameters (0.01−0.40 μm) and were also used to derive online particle mass measurements.…”

“…FIGAERO-ToF-CIMS , and its use in these experiments have been described elsewhere. , Shortly, the particles were collected on a filter, while gases were analyzed by the CIMS. Periodically, the filter was moved to the inlet and a heated nitrogen stream flowed over the filter.…”

“…High particle mass loadings (10 2 –10 3 μg/m 3 ) required short sampling periods of 5 min collection time to deposit 20–50 μg on the filter. This short sampling time is representative of emissions for the pellet stove as they are constant, but it is not representative of an entire wood burning cycle (typically 50 min) from the wood-burning stove. , Although necessary for accurately representing these appliances in emission inventories, we did not capture an “average” wood emission but instead sampled during two characteristic burning periods, namely, at periods of high and low modified combustion efficiency (MCE) . FIGAERO sampling periods for the wood experiments are shown in Figure .…”

“…The sensitivity of the FIGAERO-ToF-CIMS for individual organic compounds was calibrated using the voltage scanning methodology , detailed elsewhere, which relates the energy required for declustering iodide adducts to the instrument sensitivity. The declustering of the iodide adduct is induced by altering selected voltages in the ion optics between the IMR and the TOF-MS.…”