Emission Profiles of PM10-Bound Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons from Biomass Burning Determined in Chamber for Assessment of Air Pollutants from Open Burning

Abstract

In order to estimate emission factors (EFs) of air pollutants, three types of biomass (rice straw, maize residue and leaf litter) were collected and burnt in a self-designed stainless steel chamber. The EFs of PM 10 from biomass burning were leaf litter (1.22 ± 0.29 g kg dry ). The results revealed that burning of forest leaf litter emitted higher amounts of particulate pollutants than the agricultural residue burning. New values of diagnostic ratios of some PAHs, including FLA/(FLA + PYR, BaA/(BaA + CHR) and IND/(IND + BPER), were proposed to identify biomass burning sources. Emission rates (ERs) of PM 10 and PAHs from biomass burning in Chiang Mai, Thailand were estimated based on the EFs and burning areas recorded in the dry season of 2010 and 2011. The ERs of pollutants from forest burning were found to be much higher than those from agricultural field burning, mainly due to larger burnt areas in the forest. In 2010, PM 10 was mainly emitted from the forest fire (2,250 tons), followed by crop burning (133 tons) and paddy field burning (66.9 tons). The same trend was found in 2011 but with much lower emission rates. The ERs of PAHs from biomass burning were 1,815 kg in 2010 and 416 kg in 2011. The ERs of PM 10 and PAHs in 2011 were 77% decreased from those in 2010 due to unusually high precipitation in the dry season, causing relatively smaller burnt areas and lower pollutant emissions from open burning. It is expected that the results from this study will be significant information for regulatory actions of air quality management in the northern part of Thailand.

Satellite-Surface Perspectives of Air Quality and Aerosol-Cloud Effects on the Environment: An Overview of 7-SEAS/BASELInE

“…Enriched tracers from K + , NO 3 -and levoglucosan confirmed the major influence of biomass-burning activities, and the principal component analysis revealed that agricultural activities, soil re-suspension and road traffic were the additional sources of PM 2.5 over the sites. Furthermore, Wiriya et al (2016) thoroughly investigated and analyzed the emission factors of PM 10 and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the burning of leaf litter, maize residue and rice straw in a stainless steel chamber at CM site. They concluded that the burning of forest leaf litter emitted higher amounts of particulate pollutants than the agricultural residue burning.…”

Seasonal Trends of Atmospheric PAHs in Five Asian Megacities and Source Detection Using Suitable Biomarkers

“…A number of studies have focused on atmospheric PAHs in developing nations such as China, India, Hong Kong, and Thailand (Chetwittayachan et al, 2002;Sun et al, 2004;Ravindra et al, 2006;Haggler et al, 2007;Liu et al, 2007;Okuda et al, 2010;Masih et al, 2012;Li et al, 2016;Pongpiachan, 2016;Wiriya et al, 2016;Yu et al, 2016;Tang et al, 2017;Zhou et al, 2017). Some studies have reported that vehicular emissions are the primary cause of PAH pollution in many Japanese cities (Chetwittayachan et al, 2002;Hayakawa, 2009;Murakami et al, 2012).…”

“…Suspended PM can be evaluated by its size. PM 10 (particles with aerodynamic diameter < 10 µm) has been associated with adverse health effects, although in recent times smaller cutoffs (PM 2.5 or PM 10 ) have been proposed as better indexes of air pollution owing to greater lung deposition of smaller particles in association with toxic compounds (Varghese and Gangemma, 2006;Wiriya et al, 2016). Since PAHs have affinity to the PM carbonaceous core, they are found mostly on smaller particles (Miguel et al, 1998;de Kok et al, 2005;Zhou et al, 2005).…”

Level of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission in the ambient air and residual ash from a typical municipal solid waste open burning site in Nigeria

“…Zhao et al [12] worked on levels of PAHs in the different types of hospital waste incinerator ashes, their study linked the presence of organic matters in the waste to the level of PAHs in the residual ashes. Wiriya et al [13] studied emission profiles of PM 10 -bound PAHs from chamber burning of biomass.…”