Influence of fuel moisture, charge size, feeding rate and air ventilation conditions on the emissions of PM, OC, EC, parent PAHs, and their derivatives from residential wood combustion

Abstract

Controlled combustion experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of fuel charge size, moisture, air ventilation and feeding rate on the emission factors (EFs) of carbonaceous particulate matter, parent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pPAHs) and their derivatives from residential wood combustion in a typical brick cooking stove. Measured EFs were found to be independent of fuel charge size, but increased with increasing fuel moisture. Pollution emissions from the normal burning under an adequate air supply condition were the lowest for most pollutants, while more pollutants were emitted when an oxygen deficient atmosphere was formed in the stove chamber during fast burning. The impacts of these factors on the size distribution of emitted particles was also studied. Modified combustion efficiency and the four investigated factors explained 68%, 72%, and 64% of total variations in EFs of PM, organic carbon, and oxygenated PAHs, respectively, but only 36%, 38% and 42% of the total variations in EFs of elemental carbon, pPAHs and nitro-PAHs, respectively.