Determination of emission factors and chemical properties of particulate matter from biomass burning

Abstract

One of serious environmental problems is air pollution that the main source of this problem mostly comes from biomass burning. Consequently, this study concentrated on collected and investigated the particulate matter especially PM2.5 that released from the different types of biomass species that were three types of road tree leaves and their pruning waste (Madagascar almond, Camphor and Horsetail Tree) and two types of joss paper (burning at home and temple) were selected to burning in an open combustion chamber. The XC-5000 Automated Isokinetic Sampling Console was used to collect the particulate matters from biomass burning smoke. The chemical compositions, water soluble ions, carboxylic acids, Total saccharides were analyzed by ion chromatograph (IC). The highest EF of PM2.5 was obtained from Horsetail tree (6.51 ± 5.41 g/kg), while the lowest EF was obtained from joss paper that uses in the temple (1.72 ± 0.23 g/kg). Moisture contents of all biomass samples were found insignificant difference. CO2 was the highest gases pollutant followed by CO. Except for Horsetail tree with organic carbon (OC) as the main carbon content in PM2.5, the other 4 types of biomass burning was found elemental carbon (EC) as the main carbon content in PM2.5. For water-soluble ions, the major forms of water-soluble ions are chloride (Cl-), potassium (K+), sulfate 42-) and sodium (Na+). Levoglucosan was the dominant species of total saccharides in PM2.5. The highest EF of Levoglucosan is from Madagascar almond burning (265.53 ± 0.12 mg/kg) and the lowest EF is from Camphor burning (29.34 ± 0.03 mg/kg). For carboxylate result, Lactic acid was the dominant species that bound on PM2.5. The ratio of levoglucosan/mannosan obtained from biomass burning were the highest in Joss paper-home (45.90) and the lowest in Camphor (17.49). Based on this study, knowing the emission factor and the chemical components can further be identified the source of particulate matters in the ambient air.