Experimental Determination of Emission Factors of Vocs from Burning Commonly Used Biomass Fuels in India

Abstract

Biomass fuel is the prime fuel for cooking purpose especially in the developing countries like India. The fuels used in India are mainly biomass fuels in rural area and LPG in urban areas. Burning of domestic fuels emits gases such as CH4, CO2, CO, VOCs and some other trace compounds. The co-emission of VOCs has got attention in recent times due to their proved toxicity and carcinogenicity. Quantity and quality of VOCs in indoor environment depends on the choice of household fuels and combustion conditions. Apart from their health hazards, VOCs in environment also lead to the formation of ozone, secondary organic aerosol and other photo oxidants. A lab-scale experiment was carried out for analysis of combustion generated VOCs by burning the common domestic fuels in India. Three types of fuels viz. wood, dung cake and LPG were used in this study. The fuels were burned in a specially designed setup and the generated exhaust gases were collected in special bags known as tedlar bags. The method of whole air sampling with Solid Phase Micro-extraction (SPME) technique followed by detection with Gas chromatography coupled with Flame Ionisation Detector (GC-FID) was developed and the concentrations of different VOCs in the sampled gases were determined. Major Volatile organic compounds which were present in gaseous samples were benzene, Toluene, cis-1,2- Dichloromethane, Ethyl benzene, o- Xylene, m- Xylene, p- Xylene, Styrene etc. CO and CO2 concentrations were determined with special sensors. Emission Factors (EF) for NMHC in wood, dung cake and LPG were calculated by using Carbon mass balance methods. And the value obtained were 5.6, 17.5, 0.68 g/kg of dry mass for wood, dung cake and LPG respectively.