Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Smoke Yields of Nonmethane Organic Gases from Combustion of Small-Scale Residential Building Surrogates

At the wildland-urban interface (WUI) structural fires
can generate
nonmethane organic gases (NMOGs) from burning urban fuels like structural
lumber, plastics, and carpet. These NMOGs can contaminate nearby homes
and affect indoor air quality. NMOGs have been quantified extensively
from biomass burning, but few measurements exist of yields from structure
fires. We calculated yields of 201 NMOGs generated from burning small-scale
residential building surrogates. We also constructed surrogates of
different sizes and stick packing densities to modulate air ventilation
and simulate how reduced oxygen conditions in enclosed fires might
affect NMOG yields. We find that reduced aromatics (e.g., benzene,
naphthalene) show notably higher yields from combustion of the surrogates
compared to biomass, whereas oxygenated NMOG (e.g., formaldehyde,
acetaldehyde) yields are lower. Using factor analysis of NMOG time
series, we observe chemical signatures from the combustion of synthetic
polymers, wood, and mixed fuel char. Though we do not identify unique
tracers we identify NMOGs that, if present in enhanced concentrations,
may indicate WUI fire contamination in homes.