Pre-harvest sugarcane burning: Determination of emission factors through laboratory measurements

Sugarcane is an important crop for the Brazilian economy and roughly 50% of its production is used to produce ethanol. However, the common practice of pre-harvest burning of sugarcane straw emits particulate material, greenhouse gases, and tropospheric ozone precursors to the atmosphere. Even with p...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: França, Daniela de Azeredo, Longo, Karla Maria, Neto, Turibio Gomes Soares, Santos, José Carlos, Freitas, Saulo R., Rudorff, Bernardo F. T., Cortez, Ely Vieira, Anselmo, Edson, Carvalho Jr., João Andrade [UNESP]
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2012
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional da UNESP
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.unesp.br:11449/73890
Acceso en línea:http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/atmos3010164
http://hdl.handle.net/11449/73890
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:CO
CO2
Emission factors
Experimental fires
Hydrocarbons
NOX
PM2.5
Sugarcane burning
Air quality models
Burning emissions
Dry biomass
Emission inventories
Emissions inventory
Environmental damage
Laboratory measurements
Mixing ratios
Particulate materials
Sugarcane straw
Trace-gases
Tropospheric ozone
Unburned hydrocarbons
Air quality
Cobalt
Environmental impact
Ethanol
Greenhouse gases
Harvesting
Carbon dioxide
atmospheric pollution
burning
emission
environmental factor
greenhouse gas
laboratory method
ozone
particulate matter
troposphere
Descripción
Sumario:Sugarcane is an important crop for the Brazilian economy and roughly 50% of its production is used to produce ethanol. However, the common practice of pre-harvest burning of sugarcane straw emits particulate material, greenhouse gases, and tropospheric ozone precursors to the atmosphere. Even with policies to eliminate the practice of pre-harvest sugarcane burning in the near future, there is still significant environmental damage. Thus, the generation of reliable inventories of emissions due to this activity is crucial in order to assess their environmental impact. Nevertheless, the official Brazilian emissions inventory does not presently include the contribution from pre-harvest sugarcane burning. In this context, this work aims to determine sugarcane straw burning emission factors for some trace gases and particulate material smaller than 2.5μm in the laboratory. Excess mixing ratios for CO2, CO, NOX, UHC (unburned hydrocarbons), and PM2.5 were measured, allowing the estimation of their respective emission factors. Average estimated values for emission factors (g kg-1 of burned dry biomass) were 1,303 ± 218 for CO2, 65 ± 14 for CO, 1.5 ± 0.4 for NOX, 16 ± 6 for UHC, and 2.6 ± 1.6 for PM2.5. These emission factors can be used to generate more realistic emission inventories and therefore improve the results of air quality models. © 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.