Emission factors, characteristics, and gas-particle partitioning of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in PM2.5 emitted for the typical solid fuel combustions in rural Guanzhong Plain, China

Solid fuel is a the most dominant energy source for household usages in developing countries. In this study, emission characteristics on organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC) and fifty-two polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in gaseous and particulate phases from seven fuel-stove combinations were studied in a typical rural village in northwest China. For the PAHs, the highest gaseous and particulate phase emission factors (EFs) were both observed for bituminous coal with one-stage stoves, ranging from 459 ± 154 to 1.09 ± 0.36 × 103 mg kg−1. In contrast, the PAHs EFs for the clean briquette coal with two-stage stoves were two orders of magnitude lower than those of the bituminous coals. For parent PAHs (pPAHs) and total quantified PAHs (∑PAHs), they mainly contributed in gaseous phases with compositions of 69–79% and 64–70%, respectively. The gas-to-particle partitioning was mostly governed by the absorption. Moreover, the correlation coefficient (r) between EC and ∑PAHs, OC and parent PAHs (pPAHs), OC and nitro PAHs (nPAHs) were 0.81, 0.67 and 0.85, respectively, supporting that the PAHs species were potential precursors to the EC formation during the solid fuel combustion. The correlation analyses in this study further deduced that the formations of pPAHs and nPAHs were more closely related to that of OC than alkylated PAHs (aPAHs) and oxygenated PAHs (oPAHs). Diagnostic ratios of selective PAHs were calculated and evaluated as well. Among those, the ratio of retene (RET)/[RET + chyrene (CHR)] was found to be an efficient tool to distinguish coal combustion and biomass burning. In general, it was found that the amounts of pollutant emissions from clean briquette coal combustion were definitely lower than those from bituminous coal and biomass combustions. It is thus necessary to introduce and recommend the use of cleaner briquette coal as energy source.