Coal not only powers the household, social and global economy development but also emits large pollutants. Natural gas and electricity can be promising solutions to the energy supply and environmental pollution dilemma in Hebei Province of China. Currently, this coal‐dependent province has launched the Hebei Air Pollution Prevention and Control Program to curb air pollution by replacing residential coal consumption with natural gas and electricity for space heating in winter. Approximately 2.53 million households have completed the switch from coal‐burning stoves to natural gas or electricity stoves in rural areas surrounding Beijing and Tianjin since 2017. However, the contribution of this clean heating replacement on provincial emission reduction remains unclear. This study aimed to determine emission factors, energy efficiency, and economic profits of traditional coal‐burning stoves, as well as cleaner natural gas and electricity stoves by laboratory simulation and field tests. The results indicated a significant reduction after clean replacement for PM2.5, CO, CO2, NOX, SO2, CH4, and 16 types of U.S. EPA priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The emission of PM2.5 can be reduced by 99% and 95% for natural gas and electricity switch. Toxic equivalent quantity value of PAHs was also decreased from 4.89 (coal) to 0.03 (natural gas) and 0.07 μg/MJnet (electricity). When comprehensively considering the upstream pollutants emissions from power plant, natural gas switching performed better than coal‐fired electricity. Moreover, the government supported the clean heating replacement project with extensive financial subsidy for purchasing clean stoves and using clean energy within 3 years in rural areas. A relatively cheaper price on an energy basic of natural gas and electricity use can be obtained after this subsidy compared to coal.
Charcoal stove is widely used in the developing countries especially in Africa and Central America. Even reported to have a high impact on human health, stoves promoted in the related areas still mainly focus on fuel saving and little knowledge was reported for the stove performance in the field. This research evaluated four commercialized charcoal stoves with clay baseline stove using a modified Chinese cooking stove protocol that considered the local cooking habit to make the testing results more useful for the local stove promotion. The results showed that the thermal efficiency of tested charcoal stoves ranged from 38.7% to 47.5%, and the cooking power was around 640-1200 W. The CO emission factors of the improved stove had a 60% reduction compared with baseline stove. Different indicators reporting the same aspect of the stove were evaluated, and it suggested choosing the indicators according to the project requirements.
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