<p>Fired clay brick kiln (FCBK) industry is one of the unorganized and often overlooked sectors in terms of its regional air quality and health impacts. Approximately 87% of the 1.5 trillion clay bricks produced worldwide annually are made in Asia. These bricks are typically fired in small-scale traditional kilns that burn coal or biomass without air pollution controls. Clamp kiln is the most traditional technology of brick manufacturing. It is a batch-style kiln that produces 10,000-200,000 bricks per batch in a time period of two to four weeks. It uses coal as primary and firewood and rice husk as supplementary fuel. There is no chimney, and hence the smoke escapes from the cracks at the top and from the sides of the kiln. Very little information is available on aerosols emitted from these kilns. Therefore, it&#8217;s important to accurately estimate aerosol emissions and their chemical properties from FCBK to understand their impact on regional air quality and climate. This study examines the chemical and optical properties of emitted aerosols during different stages of combustion in clamp kilns. The National Carbonaceous aerosol programme- Carbonaceous aerosol emissions, source apportionment and climate impacts (NCAP-COALESCE) network source emission measurement system was used to measure absorption and scattering properties using the Aethalometer and Integrating Nephelometer, respectively. Measurements were done for clamp kilns of different firing stages, namely ignition, propagation, and end. The combustion efficiency was >97% during the end, propagation and ignition stages. The average BC (SO<sub>2</sub>) concentration measured during the ignition, propagation and end stage was 12.5 (10) 18.5 (9), and 13.3 &#956;g-m<sup>-3</sup>(19 ppm), respectively against background of 2 &#956;g-m<sup>-3 </sup>(0 ppm) . The corresponding values of average AAE<sub>370/660</sub> (AAE<sub>660/880</sub>) during the three combustion phases were 3.6 (1.3), 2.6 (1.1) and 1.8 (1.2), respectively. The relatively high AAEs indicate a strong contribution by brown carbon aerosol, likely emitted from fuelwood and rice husk combustion during the ignition and propagation stages, respectively. This study would help characterise the combustion stage specific emissions. Further analysis is ongoing to understand the potential impacts on regional air quality and climate.&#160;</p> <p><img src="" alt="" /></p> <p>Figure 1: Emission measurement setup and different position of the multi-arm during measurement based on incoming plume</p>
Understanding the climate impact of residential emissions starts with determining the fuel consumption of various household activities. While cooking emissions have been widely studied, non-cooking energy-consumption activities in the residential sector such as heating and lighting, have been overlooked owing to the unavailability of data at national levels. The present study uses data from the Carbonaceous Aerosol Emissions, Source Apportionment and Climate Impacts (COALESCE) project, which consists of residential surveys over 6000 households across 49 districts of India, to understand the energy consumed by non-cooking residential activities. Regression models are developed to estimate information in non-surveyed districts using demographic, housing, and meteorological data as predictors. Energy demand is further quantified and distributed nationally at a 4×4 km resolution. Results show that the annual energy consumption from non-cooking activities is 1106 [201] PJ, which is equal to one-fourth of the cooking energy demand. Freely available biomass is widely used to heat water on traditional stoves, even in the warmer regions of western and southern India across all seasons. Space heating (51%) and water heating (42%) dominate non-cooking energy consumption. In comparison, nighttime heating for security personnel (5%), partly-residential personal heating by guards, dominant in urban centers and kerosene lighting (2%) utilize minimal energy. Biomass fuels account for over 90% of the non-cooking consumption, while charcoal and kerosene make up the rest. Half of the energy consumption occurs during winter months (DJF), while 10% of the consumption occurs during monsoon, when kerosene lighting is the highest. Firewood is the most heavily used fuel source in western India, charcoal in the northern hilly regions, agricultural residues and dung cake in the Indo-Gangetic plains, and kerosene in eastern India. The study shows that ~20% of residential energy consumption is on account of biomass-based heating and kerosene lighting activities.
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