Combustion of biomass fuels in developing countries: A major source of atmospheric pollutants

 

6. Combustion of biomass fuels in developing countries:
A major source of atmospheric pollutants

Jörg Ludwig, Lackson T. Marufu, Beate Huber, Meinrat O. Andreae and Günter Helas
(to be submitted)


Biomass burning has important impacts on atmospheric chemistry and climate. Fires in tropical forests and savannas release large quantities of trace gases and particulate matter. Combustion of biofuels for cooking and heating constitutes a less spectacular but similarly widespread biomass burning activity. To provide the groundwork for quantification of this source, we determined in rural Zimbabwe the emisssions from CO2, CO, and NO from more than 100 domestic fires fueled by wood, agricultural residues, and dung. The results indicate that, compared to open savanna fires, emissions from domestic fires are shifted toward products of incomplete combustion. A tentative global analysis shows that the source strength of domestic biomass burning is on the order of 1500 Tg CO2-C yr-1, 140 Tg CO-C yr-1, and 2.5 Tg NO-N yr-1. This represents contributions of about 7 to 20% to the global budgets of these gases.


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