Emission Measurements from Traditional Biomass Cookstoves in South Asia and Tibet

Traditional
biomass stoves are a major global contributor to emissions
that impact climate change and health. This paper reports emission
factors of particulate matter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide
(CO), organic carbon (OC), black carbon (EC), optical absorption,
and scattering from 46 South Asian, 48 Tibetan, and 4 Ugandan stoves.
These measurements plus a literature review provide insight into the
robustness of emission factors used in emission inventories. Tibetan
dung stoves produced high average PM2.5 emission factors
(23 and 43 gkg–1 for chimney and open stoves) with
low average EC (0.3 and 0.7 gkg–1, respectively).
Comparatively, PM2.5 from South Asian stoves (7 gkg–1) was in the range of previous measurements and near
values used in inventories. EC emission factors varied between stoves
and fuels (p < 0.001), without corresponding differences
in absorption; stoves that produced little EC, produced enough brown
carbon to have about the same absorption as stoves with high EC emissions.
In Tibetan dung stoves, for example, OC contributed over 20% of the
absorption. Overall, EC emission factors were not correlated with
PM2.5 and were constrained to low values, relative to PM2.5, over a wide range of combustion conditions. The average
measured EC emission factor (1 gkg–1), was near
current inventory estimates.