CO2 and air pollutant emissions from bio-coal briquettes

Both particulate matter (PM) and black carbon (BC) impact climate change and human health. Uncertainties in emission inventories of PM and BC are partially due to large variation of measured emission factors (EFs) and lack of EFs from developing countries. Although there is a debate whether thermal-optically measured elemental carbon (EC) may be referred to as BC, EC is often treated as the same mass of BC. In this study, EFs of PM (EF(PM)) and EC (EF(EC)) for 9 crop residues and 5 coals were measured in actual rural cooking and coal stoves using the carbon mass balance method. The dependence of the EFs on fuel properties and combustion conditions was investigated. It was found that the mean EF(PM) were 8.19 ± 4.27 and 3.17 ± 4.67 g/kg and the mean EF(EC) were 1.38 ± 0.70 and 0.23 ± 0.36 g/kg for crop residues and coals, respectively. PM with size less than 10 μm (PM(10)) from crop residues were dominated by particles of aerodynamic size ranging from 0.7 to 2.1 μm, while the most abundant size ranges of PM(10) from coals were either from 0.7 to 2.1 μm or less than 0.7 μm. Of various fuel properties and combustion conditions tested, fuel moisture and modified combustion efficiency (MCE) were the most critical factors affecting EF(PM) and EF(EC) for crop residues. For coal combustion, EF(PM) were primarily affected by MCE and volatile matter, whereas EF(EC) were significantly influenced by ash content, volatile matter, heat value, and MCE. It was also found that EC emissions were significantly correlated with emissions of PM with size less than 0.4 μm. Show more