Primary emissions and secondary aerosol production potential from woodstoves for residential heating: Influence of the stove technology and combustion efficiency. (November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bertrand, Amelie; Stefenelli, Giulia; Bruns, Emily A.; Pieber, Simone M.; Temime-Roussel, Brice; Slowik, Jay G.; Prévôt, André S.H.; Wortham, Henri; El Haddad, Imad; Marchand, Nicolas
• Is Part Of: Atmospheric environment. Volume 169(2017)
• Page Start: 65
• Page End: 79
• Publication Date: 2017-11
• Subjects: Biomass burning -- Secondary organic aerosol -- Stove technology -- Combustion efficiency; Air -- Pollution -- Periodicals; Air -- Pollution -- Meteorological aspects -- Periodicals; 551.51
• DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2017.09.005
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1352-2310

Abstract

Abstract: To reduce the influence of biomass burning on air quality, consumers are encouraged to replace their old woodstove with new and cleaner appliances. While their primary emissions have been extensively investigated, the impact of atmospheric aging on these emissions, including secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation, remains unknown. Here, using an atmospheric smog chamber, we aim at understanding the chemical nature and quantify the emission factors of the primary organic aerosols (POA) from three types of appliances for residential heating, and to assess the influence of aging thereon. Two, old and modern, logwood stoves and one pellet burner were operated under typical conditions. Emissions from an entire burning cycle (past the start-up operation) were injected, including the smoldering and flaming phases, resulting in highly variable emission factors. The stoves emitted a significant fraction of POA (up to 80%) and black carbon. After ageing, the total mass concentration of organic aerosol (OA) increased on average by a factor of 5. For the pellet stove, flaming conditions were maintained throughout the combustion. The aerosol was dominated by black carbon (over 90% of the primary emission) and amounted to the same quantity of primary aerosol emitted by the old logwood stove. However, after ageing, the OA mass was increased by a factor of 1.7 only, thus rendering OA emissions by the pellet stove almost negligible compared to the other two stoves tested. Therefore, the pellet stove was the most reliable and least polluting appliance out of the three stoves tested. The spectral signatures of the POA and aged emissions by a High Resolution – Time of Flight – Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (Electron Ionization (EI) at 70 eV) were also investigated. The m/z 44 (CO2 + ) and high molecular weight fragments (m/z 115 (C9 H7 + ), 137 (C8 H9 O2 + ), 167 (C9 H11 O3 + ) and 181 (C9 H9 O4 +, C14 H13 + )) correlate with the modified combustion efficiency (MCE) allowing us to discriminate further between emissions generated from smoldering vs flaming conditions. Highlights: POA and SOA emissions by 3 woodstoves for residential heating were tested. 5 h of atmospheric aging in a smog chamber was reached for each experiment. With aging, OA increases by a factor of 5 on average for the logwood stoves. The automated pellet stove is the least polluting appliance. HMW fragments allow for the differentiation between smoldering and flaming.