Biomass burning polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

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]. 

Jenkins, B. M A. D. Jones, S. Q. Turn, and R. B. Williams, Particle Concentrations, Gas-Particle Partitioning, and Species Intercorrelations for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) Emitted during Biomass Burning, Atmos. Environ., 30, 3825-3835 (1996). 

Incomplete combustion of oil and other carbonaceous materials, e.g., in internal combustion engines, industrial processes Bjprseth and Ekbmd, 1979), domestic heating, forest fires and intentional biomass burning Greenberg et al., 1984) is another source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), primarily to the atmosphere. Dry deposition and atmospheric precipitation are the principal vectors of their transport into surface seawater. Gustafsson et al. (1997) discussed the export of deposited PAH from surface waters by association with sinking particles. 

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