Characterization of aerosol emission from rice straw open burning in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region | |
| Author | Ly Bich Thuy |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.EV-06-14 |
| Subject(s) | Air--Pollution--Thailand--Bangkok Incineration Burning of land--Thailand--Bangkok--Environmental aspects Aerosols |
| Note | A thesis submitted in ·pa1iial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Rice straw burning is one of the major types of intentional biomass burning in Asia, which emits a large amount of air pollution including aerosols. This research characterizes the emission from open rice straw burning in terms of air pollution and climate change properties. The research is conducted though field sampling (six experiments) and laboratory burning (five batches) during the period from November 2005 to February 2006. Results of the field sampling using dichot show the average concentration of PM10, PM, ; and PMZ.5-10 are 560 g/m3, 512 pg/m3 and 47 pg/m3, respectively. PM,., contributes above 90% of PM10. The particle mass size distribution was determined by a cascade impactor , the results of which also show that emission from biomass burning mainly contains fine particles. The particle number concentration measured by a particle counter confirmed that most particles emitted are of size <1 m, which are damaging to human health and have high potential for atmospheric and climate effects. Element, water soluble ions, elemental carbon and organic carbon (EC/OC) concentration were analyzed for the coarse and fine fractions samples obtained by dichot. All parameters except for the elemental composition were sampled at different size ranges by the cascade impactor. Results showed high concentration of EC/OC, chloride and potassium in all PM samples. Chloride and potassium have the highest fractions in the fine particles. The ratio of EC/ PM10 and OC/PM10 are 0.07 ± 0.01, 0.30 ± 0.04, respectively. Ratios of CY and K' to coarse mass fraction are 0.043 and 0.003 while the corresponding ratios to the fine mass fraction are 0.262 and 0.123, respectively. Results of laboratory experiments with rice straw burnt in a hood show that the Suspended particulate matter emission was high and varied widely, 10.2 ± 5.5 g/kg depending largely on moisture content. Among the analyzed ionic species the highest emission factor was obtained for CF of 674 mg/kg, followed by K+ of 342 mg/kg, S042- of 176 mg/kg, and Na 2+ at 78.9 mg/kg. Emission factors of some detected elements are 47.6 mg/kg for Zn, 27.1 mg/kg for Al, and 25.6 mg/kg for Ca. The emission factors of CO and CO2 are 119 g/kg, and 1555 g/kg. Real time emission of CO and CO2 was measured to determine combustion phase and to estimate the dilution factors of the emission plume. These data is used in conjunction with the Carbon balance, for estimating emission factors from the field sampling data. The emission factors of CO and CO2 based on C balance are 114 and 1139 g/kg. The emission factor of PM1O calculated using this method is 6 g/kg, which is in the same range as the emission factor obtained in the hood above. Large areas of rice plantation in Bangkok Metropolitan Region would result in a total emission of 2.7 million tons of rice straw would be burnt each year which may result in 5 tons of CO2 equivalent of climate forcing on 100 year horizon |
| Year | 2006 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Environmental Engineering and Management (EV) |
| Chairperson(s) | Oanh, Nguyen Thi Kim; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Chettiyappan Visvanathan ;Shrestha, Ram M. |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Government of Norway (NORAD) ; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2006 |