Moisture effects on carbon and nitrogen emission from burning of wildland biomass

Chen, L.-W. Antony; Verburg, Paul; Shackelford, A.; Zhu, Dongzi; Susfalk, R. B.; Chow, Judith C.; Watson, John G.

doi:10.5194/acp-10-6617-2010

Cited by 130 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This could also explain the more elevated estimated average EF value for CO, since generally fuel with a higher humidity decreases the combustion efficiency, reduces the flaming phase, and causes a smoldering phase before ignition. In addition, it results in an increase of the emission factors for species resulting from incomplete oxidation, such as CO [39]. Yokelson et al [24] explained that a high MCE was obtained from a laboratory fire that burned at a MCE that was higher than that normally obtained in the field for biomass burning and, in this way, the MCE of a typical sugarcane fire is likely lower and would imply a larger emission factor for PM 2.5 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-Harvest Sugarcane Burning: Determination of Emission Factors through Laboratory Measurements

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sugarcane is an important crop for the Brazilian economy and roughly 50% of its production is used to produce ethanol. However, the common practice of pre-harvest burning of sugarcane straw emits particulate material, greenhouse gases, and tropospheric ozone precursors to the atmosphere. Even with policies to eliminate the practice of pre-harvest sugarcane burning in the near future, there is still significant environmental damage. Thus, the generation of reliable inventories of emissions due to this activity is crucial in order to assess their environmental impact. Nevertheless, the official Brazilian emissions inventory does not presently include the contribution from pre-harvest sugarcane burning. In this context, this work aims to determine sugarcane straw burning emission factors for some trace gases and particulate material smaller than 2.5 μm in the laboratory. Excess mixing ratios for CO 2 , CO, NO X , UHC (unburned hydrocarbons), and PM 2.5 were OPEN ACCESSAtmosphere 2012, 3 165 measured, allowing the estimation of their respective emission factors. Average estimated values for emission factors (g kg −1 of burned dry biomass) were 1,303 ± 218 for CO 2 , 65 ± 14 for CO, 1.5 ± 0.4 for NO X , 16 ± 6 for UHC, and 2.6 ± 1.6 for PM 2.5 . These emission factors can be used to generate more realistic emission inventories and therefore improve the results of air quality models.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-Harvest Sugarcane Burning: Determination of Emission Factors through Laboratory Measurements

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Detailed descriptions of these different techniques can be found in the literature (Ward and Radke, 1993;Yokelson et al, 1999;Christian et al, 2004). For real-time concentration measurements, the analytical instruments must be close to the fire.…”

Section: Different Measurement Approaches and Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Chen et al, 2010). Qualitatively, important parameters that partly govern the flaming/smoldering ratio and thus EFs include vegetation characteristics, climate, weather, topography, and fire practices.…”

Section: Factors Influencing the Efmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal variability in the ratio of trace gases emitted from biomass burning

Leeuwen¹,

Werf²

2011

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Fires are a major source of trace gases and aerosols to the atmosphere. The amount of biomass burned is becoming better known, most importantly due to improved burned area datasets and a better representation of fuel consumption. The spatial and temporal variability in the partitioning of biomass burned into emitted trace gases and aerosols, however, has received relatively little attention. To convert estimates of biomass burned to trace gas and aerosol emissions, most studies have used emission ratios (or emission factors (EFs)) based on the arithmetic mean of field measurement outcomes, stratified by biome. However, EFs vary substantially in time and space, even within a single biome. In addition, it is unknown whether the available field measurement locations provide a representative sample for the various biomes. Here we used the available body of EF literature in combination with satellite-derived information on vegetation characteristics and climatic conditions to better understand the spatio-temporal variability in EFs. While focusing on CO, CH 4 , and CO 2 , our findings are also applicable to other trace gases and aerosols. We explored relations between EFs and different measurements of environmental variables that may correlate with part of the variability in EFs (tree cover density, vegetation greenness, temperature, precipitation, and the length of the dry season). Although reasonable correlations were found for specific case studies, correlations based on the full suite of available measurements were lower and explained about 33%, 38%, 19%, and 34% of the variability for respectively CO, CH 4 , CO 2 , and the Modified Combustion Efficiency (MCE). This may be partly due to uncertainties in the environmental variables, differences in measurement techniques for EFs, assumptions on the ratio between flaming and smoldering combustion, and incomplete information on the location and timing of EF Correspondence to: T. T. van Leeuwen (thijs.van.leeuwen@falw.vu.nl) measurements. We derived new mean EFs, using the relative importance of each measurement location with regard to fire emissions. These weighted averages were relatively similar to the arithmetic mean. When using relations between the environmental variables and EFs to extrapolate to regional and global scales, we found substantial differences, with for savannas 13% and 22% higher CO and CH 4 EFs than the arithmetic mean of the field studies, possibly linked to an underrepresentation of woodland fires in EF measurement locations. We argue that from a global modeling perspective, future measurement campaigns could be more beneficial if measurements are made over the full fire season, and if relations between ambient conditions and EFs receive more attention.

show abstract

“…Furthermore, there has been limited study of the effect of straw burning conditions (e.g., moisture of rice straw or size of rice straw stacks) on the amount of each gas emitted during straw burning. Since the moisture content of burned biomass affects carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) emissions (Chen et al 2010) and emissions factors -for example, residue moistness has been shown to be positively correlated with particle emissions (Darley et al 1974;Oanh et al 2011)-the effects on the burned straw condition also need to be taken into account when considering regional GHG emissions. High moisture content was shown to enhance the emissions of gases that originated from incomplete combustion, typically CO (Hayashi et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Greenhouse gas emissions from rice straw burning and straw-mushroom cultivation in a triple rice cropping system in the Mekong Delta

Arai

Hosen

Hong

et al. 2015

Soil Science and Plant Nutrition

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Mekong Delta produces 21 Mt of rough rice (Oryza sativa L.) and an estimated 24 Mt of straw (dry weight) annually. Approximately one fourth of the straw is burned on the field, which is a common practice in intensive rice cultivation systems in this region because there is limited time to prepare the field for the next crop. The spread of intensive rice production in the Delta may increase the total biomass of burning crop residues, significantly impacting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Vietnam. In this study, GHG emissions from the major uses of straw (burning and mushroom beds) were monitored in a triple rice cropping system located in the central Mekong Delta. Between September 2011 and November 2012, both wind tunnel and closed chamber methods were used to measure the emissions of major GHGs from straw-burning and straw-mushroom cultivation systems, respectively. The global warming potential (GWP) was then determined. Methane (CH 4 ) and non-methane volatile organic carbon emissions (NMVOC) increased with lower modified combustion efficiency [MCE: emissions ratio of Carbon composing carbon dioxide (CO 2 -C) and carbon monooxide (CO-C) (CO 2 -C/(CO-C + CO 2 -C))]. Furthermore, higher moisture straw stacks generated lower nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions. Small straw stacks (5 or 10 kg dry straw) with higher moisture content emitted more carbon monoxide (CO), CH 4 and NMVOC. These results suggest that factors that increase the straw moisture content, such as rainfall, can cause smoldering combustion in small straw stacks or when straw is scattered on the ground, thereby inhibiting N 2 O emissions but enhancing CO, CH 4 and NMVOC. The measured N 2 O emissions contributed negligible amounts to the GWP compared with measured CO and CH 4 , which are relatively intense GHG emissions; this was likely a result of the slow and inefficient burning that was observed from the smaller straw stacks with higher moisture content. In this study, rice straw burning threatened to generate more GHGs than straw-mushroom (Volvariella volvacea (Bul. ex Fr.) Singer) cultivation under the studied agroecosystems.

show abstract

Moisture effects on carbon and nitrogen emission from burning of wildland biomass

Cited by 130 publications

References 32 publications

Pre-Harvest Sugarcane Burning: Determination of Emission Factors through Laboratory Measurements

Pre-Harvest Sugarcane Burning: Determination of Emission Factors through Laboratory Measurements

Spatial and temporal variability in the ratio of trace gases emitted from biomass burning

Greenhouse gas emissions from rice straw burning and straw-mushroom cultivation in a triple rice cropping system in the Mekong Delta

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About