Wood combustion smoke

Occurrence. Carbon monoxide is a product of incomplete combustion and is not likely to result where a flame bums in an abundant air supply, yet may result when a flame touches a cooler surface than the ignition temperature of the gas. Gas or coal heaters in the home and gas space heaters in industry have been frequent sources of carbon monoxide poisoning when not provided with effective vents. Gas heaters, though properly adjusted when installed, may become hazardous sources of carbon monoxide if maintained improperly. Automobile exhaust gas is perhaps the most familiar source of carbon monoxide exposure. The manufacture and use of synthesis gas, calcium carbide manufacture, distillation of coal or wood, combustion operations, heat treatment of metals, fire fighting, mining, and cigarette smoking represent additional sources of carbon monoxide exposure (105—107). 

In urban areas, the typical dominant sources of fine organic aerosol particles are diesel exhaust, gasoline-powered vehicle exhaust, meat cooking operations, smoke from wood combustion, and paved road dust followed by four smaller sources of particles tire wear, vegetative detritus, natural gas combustion, and cigarette smoke. ... 

Emissions from fireplaces and stoves have been reported in several studies testing furnaces and wood fuel typical for different areas of the world. Wood smoke emissions typical for central Europe were investigated by Schmidl et al. [22, 23]. In these studies, different common European wood types were analysed to derive chemical profiles of wood combustion emissions for various types of wood. An overview of the fuel wood types used in the Alpine countries is given by Kistler et al. [24]. In the above-mentioned emission studies, wood has been burnt in a tiled wood stove [22] and in two automatically and two manually fired appliances [23]. The authors found a high variability for the emissions from small-scale manually fired wood combustion appliances in the performed individual tests. 

There are many conditions of partial combustion and pyrolysis that favor production of PAH compounds, and they are encountered abundantly in the atmosphere, soil, and elsewhere in the environment. Sources of PAH compounds include engine exhausts, wood stove smoke, cigarette smoke, and charbroiled food. Coal tars and petroleum residues have high levels of PAHs. 

In 1775, PAHs were the first group of compounds known to cause cancer in humans. Nowadays, many of these compounds are well-known carcinogens in humans and animals. PAHs are produced in the environment as the result of heating organic matter to high temperatures like tobacco smoke, soot, coal tar, creosote production, wood burning, smoked foods, roasted coffee, charbroiled meat, and fossil fuel combustion exhaust. However, the major environmental source comes from asphalt, tar, used motor oil, diesel exhaust, and coal burning. 

On the other hand, formaldehyde is a byproduct of human activities. It is a combustion product it is in cigarette smoke, in wood combustion, and in natural gas flames. Urban air contains between 10 and 1,000 mg/m of aldehydes, depending on location. Typical concentrations are shown in Table I ... 

Wood waste Particulates, smoke, and combustion Continuous-feed systems operation at... 

Smoke - Smoke constitutes fine, solid, gasbome matters that are products of incomplete combustion of organics (wood, coal, tobacco). Smoke particles are extremely small, ranging in size from less than 0.01 /im to 1 /im. 

VOCs are emitted indoors by building materials (e.g., paints, pressed wood products, adhesives, etc.), equipment (photocopying machines, printers, etc.), cleaning products, stored fuels and automotive products, hobby supplies, and combustion activities (cooking, unvented space heating, tobacco smoking, indoor vehicle use). 

We discuss in this section four key aspects of heterogeneous reactions (1) theoretical and experimental structure and reactivity relationships (2) held measurements of relative and absolute PAH decay rates in near-source ambient air and during downwind transport (3) laboratory studies of the photolysis/photo-oxidation and gas-particle interactions with 03 and NOz of key 4- and 6-ring PAHs adsorbed on model substrates or ambient aerosols and (4) environmental chamber studies of the reactions of such PAHs associated with several physically and chemically different kinds of combustion-generated aerosols (e.g., diesel soot, wood smoke, and coal fly ash). Where such data are available, we also briefly consider some toxicological ramifications of these reactions. 

Guo and Kamens (1991) describe a system for studying gas-particle reactions on the surfaces of combustion aerosols in which they report a half-life of 80 h for high loadings of particle-bound BaP in wood smoke particles reacting with 200 ppb of NOz in air. 

Other combustion sources of nitro-PAHs and nitro-PACs include, for example, the following gasoline exhaust, Wang et al., 1978 Alsberg et al., 1985 IARC, 1989 coal fly ash, Fisher et al., 1979 Fisher, 1983 White, 1985 wood smoke, Alfheim et al., 1984b indoor air particulate matter, e.g., emissions from a kerosene heater, Kinouchi et al., 1988 see also the review by van Houdt (1990) and references therein. 

PAHs Combustion products (smoking, wood burning, kerosene heaters)... 

Isoprene occurs in the environment as emissions from vegetation, particularly from deciduous forests, and as a by-product in the production of ethylene by naphtha cracking. In the United States, the total emission rate of isoprene from deciduous forests has been estimated at 4.9 tonnes per year, with greatest emissions in the summer. The global annual emission of isoprene in 1988 was estimated to be 285 000 thousand tonnes. Isoprene is produced endogenously in humans. It has also been found in tobacco smoke, gasoline, turbine and automobile exhaust, and in emissions from wood pulping, biomass combustion and rubber abrasion (United States National Library of Medicine, 1997). 

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