Biomass burning Combustion

Thomas, W., E. Hegels, S. Slijkhuis, R. Spurr, and K. Chance, Detection of Biomass Burning Combustion Products in Southeast Asia from Backscatter Data Taken by the GOME Spectrometer, Geophys. Res. Lett., 25, 1317-1329 (1998). 

Thomas W. Hegels E. Slijkhuis S. Spurr R. and Chance K. (1998a). Detection of biomass burning combustion products in South East Asia from backscatter data taken by the GOME spectrometer. Geophysical Research Letters, 25, 1317-1320... 

Levine J. S., Cofer W. R., Winstead E. L., Rhinehart R. P., Cahoon D. R., Sebacher D. I., Sebacher S., and Stocks B. J. (1991) Biomass burning combustion emissions, satellite imagery, and biogenic emissions. In Global Biomass Burning Atmospheric, Climatic, and Biospheric Implications (ed. J. S. Levine). MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 264-272. 

Global atmospheric CO2 has increased by approximately 25% since the industrial revolution (circa 1850). The primary source is the combustion of fossil fuels (72). However, recent estimates indicate that biomass burning may comprise 40% of... 

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, sometimes also called polynuclear aromatics, PNA) are a hazardous class of widespread pollutants. The parent structures of the common PAHs are shown in Fig. 4 and the alkylated homologs are generally minor in combustion emissions. PAHs are produced by all natural combustion processes (e.g., wild fires) and from anthropogenic activity such as fossil fuels combustion, biomass burning, chemical manufacturing, petroleum refining, metallurgical processes, coal utilization, tar production, etc. [6,9,15,18, 20,24,131-139]. 

Some component of the terrestrial POM must be extremely nonreactive to enable a higher burial efficiency as compared to autochthonous POM. A possible candidate for this nonreactive terrestrial POM is black carbon. This material is a carbon-rich residue produced by biomass burning and fossil fuel combustion. Some black carbon also appears to be derived from graphite weathered from rocks. It is widely distributed in marine sediments and possibly carried to the open ocean via aeolian transport. 

Simoneit BRT, Biomass burning — A review of organic tracers for smoke from incomplete combustion. Applied Geochem 17 129—162, 2002. 

Figure 2.10 shows the trend in S02 emissions from North America, Europe, the USSR, and Asia from 1970 to 1986 (Hameed and Dignon, 1992). While S02 emissions from North America have decreased significantly, those from Europe have remained about the same and in the USSR have increased somewhat. However, S02 emissions from Asia have increased dramatically due to the increased combustion of fossil fuels, particularly from the use of coal in China and from biomass burning in Southeast Asia (Arndt et al., 1997). For example, Fig. 2.11 shows the 1987 annual emission fluxes of S02 in Asia, where China is seen to be a major source (Akimoto and Narita, 1994). Emissions from ships are also thought to contribute significantly (e.g., Streets et al., 1997 Corbett and Fishbeck, 1997). 

Radiocarbon (14C) dating is the most common application of AMS, and is also relevant for compound specific measurements. PAHs in sediments from an urban reservoir were 14C-free, but most of the PAHs in these sediments were derived from fossil fuel combustion rather than biomass burning.136... 

Finally the so-called mono- and macro-tracer approaches can be applied for determining source contributions. These methods rely on the fact that a number of chemical compounds can be directly linked to biomass combustion emissions. For example, ambient concentrations of water-soluble potassium, certain PAHs, anhydrosugars and many other tracers have been used as indicators for the impact of biomass burning. When the fractions of one of these tracers in PM and carbonaceous aerosols emitted by wood burning are known (emissions ratios), the contribution of wood burning at a receptor site can be calculated based on the concentration of the considered tracer (mono tracer method). 

Many studies have shown that in North Europe major biomass burning emissions are mostly linked with wood smoke from fireplaces and stoves, whereas in Southern Europe wildfires can be the most important biomass combustion source. The Mediterranean region is frequently under the influence of this phenomenon, especially during dry periods. Although wildfires can be a major contributor of particulate matter into the atmosphere, forest fire emissions are poorly quantified in the literature, due to the difficulties induced in estimating their temporal and spatial distribution. 

Ter test rial ecosystems - 147 TgN/yr Oceanic ecosystems - 30 TgN/yr Industrial combustion - 20 TgN/yr Biomass burning - 12 TgN/yr... 

Jaegle L. Steinberger L. Martin R.V. and Chance K. (2005). Global partitioning of NOx sources using satellite observations Relative roles of fossil fuel combustion, biomass burning and soil emissions. Faraday Discuss., 130, 407 -423, doi 10.1039/b502128f. 

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