A critical review of pollutant emission factors from fuel combustion in home stoves

Abstract

A large population does not have access to modern household energy and relies on solid fuels such as coal and biomass fuels. Burning of these solid fuels in low-efficiency home stoves produces high amounts of multiple air pollutants, causing severe air pollution and adverse health outcomes. In evaluating impacts on human health and climate, it is critical to understand the formation and emission processes of air pollutants from these combustion sources. Air pollutant emission factors (EFs) from indoor solid fuel combustion usually highly vary among different testing protocols, fuel-stove systems, sampling and analysis instruments, and environmental conditions. In this critical review, we focus on the latest developments in pollutant emission factor studies, with emphases on the difference between lab and field studies, fugitive emission quantification, and factors that contribute to variabilities in EFs. Field studies are expected to provide more realistic EFs for emission inventories since lab studies typically do not simulate real-world burning conditions well. However, the latter has considerable advantages in evaluating formation mechanisms and variational influencing factors in observed pollutant EFs. One main challenge in field emission measurement is the suitable emission sampling system. Reasons for the field and lab differences have yet to be fully elucidated, and operator behavior can have a significant impact on such differences. Fuel properties and stove designs affect emissions, and the variations are complexly affected by several factors. Stove classification is a challenge in the comparison of EF results from different studies. Lab- and field-based methods for quantifying fugitive emissions, as an important contributor to indoor air pollution, have been developed, and priority work is to develop a database covering different fuel-stove combinations. Studies on the dynamics of the combustion process and evolution of air pollutant formation and emissions are scarce, and these factors should be an important aspect of future work.

Keywords: Emission factor; Fugitive emission; Home stoves; Indoor combustion; Solid fuel.