Emission Factors for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons from Biomass Burning

Emission factors for 19 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were measured during wind tunnel simulations of open burning for agricultural and forest biomass fuels including cereal grasses, agricultural tree prunings, and fir and pine wood (slash). Yields of total PAH varied from 5 to 683 mg kg-1 depending principally on burning conditions and to a lesser extent on fuel type. Barley straw and wheat straw loaded at 400−500 g m-2 emitted much higher levels of PAH, including benzo[a]pyrene, than other cereal and wood fuel types burning under more robust conditions. As anticipated, total PAH emission rates increased with increasing particulate matter emission rates and with declining combustion efficiency.