Deployment of coal briquettes and improved stoves: possibly an option for both environment and climate.

The use of coal briquettes and improved stoves by Chinese households has been encouraged by the government as a means of reducing air pollution and health impacts. In this study we have shown that these two improvements also relate to climate change. Our experimental measurements indicate that if all coal were burned as briquettes in improved stoves, particulate matter (PM), organic carbon (OC), and black carbon (BC) could be annually reduced by 63 +/- 12%, 61 +/- 10%, and 98 +/- 1.7%, respectively. Also, the ratio of BC to OC (BC/OC) could be reduced by about 97%, from 0.49 to 0.016, which would make the primary emissions of household coal combustion more optically scattering. Therefore, it is suggested that the government consider the possibility of: (i) phasing out direct burning of bituminous raw-coal-chunks in households; (ii) phasing out simple stoves in households; and, (iii) financially supporting the research, production, and popularization of improved stoves and efficient coal briquettes. These actions may have considerable environmental benefits by reducing emissions and mitigating some of the impacts of household coal burning on the climate. International cooperation is required both technologically and financially to accelerate the emission reduction in the world.

[1]  Effects of temperature parameters on thermal-optical analysis of organic and elemental carbon in aerosol , 2009, Environmental monitoring and assessment.

[2]  J. Penner,et al.  Influence of anthropogenic sulfate and black carbon on upper tropospheric clouds in the NCAR CAM3 model coupled to the IMPACT global aerosol model , 2009 .

[3]  C. Myhre,et al.  Title The carbonaceous aerosol — a remaining challenge by , 2009 .

[4]  Yan Feng,et al.  Air Pollution, Greenhouse Gases and Climate Change: Global and Regional Perspectives , 2009 .

[5]  Xiaoye Zhang,et al.  Carbonaceous aerosol composition over various regions of China during 2006 , 2008 .

[6]  Yanli Feng,et al.  Emission characteristics of carbonaceous particles from various residential coal-stoves in China. , 2008, Environmental science & technology.

[7]  V. Ramanathan,et al.  Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon , 2008 .

[8]  T. Niu,et al.  Aerosol monitoring at multiple locations in China: contributions of EC and dust to aerosol light absorption , 2008 .

[9]  Omar Masera,et al.  The impact of improved wood-burning stoves on fine particulate matter concentrations in rural Mexican homes , 2007, Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology.

[10]  Kirk R. Smith,et al.  Household Air Pollution from Coal and Biomass Fuels in China: Measurements, Health Impacts, and Interventions , 2007, Environmental health perspectives.

[11]  David G. Streets,et al.  Dissecting Future Aerosol Emissions: warming Tendencies and Mitigation Opportunities , 2007 .

[12]  Liu Yuan,et al.  Measurements of Emission Factors for Primary Carbonaceous Particles From Residential Raw-coal Combustion in China , 2007 .

[13]  G. Cao,et al.  Inventory of black carbon and organic carbon emissions from China , 2006 .

[14]  M. Andreae,et al.  Black carbon or brown carbon? The nature of light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosols , 2006 .

[15]  J. Hansen,et al.  Efficacy of climate forcings , 2005 .

[16]  J. Hansen,et al.  Aerosol organic carbon to black carbon ratios: Analysis of published data and implications for climate forcing , 2005 .

[17]  Tami C Bond,et al.  Can reducing black carbon emissions counteract global warming? , 2005, Environmental science & technology.

[18]  D. Streets,et al.  The importance of China's household sector for black carbon emissions , 2005 .

[19]  Yanli Feng,et al.  Emission factors for carbonaceous particles and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from residential coal combustion in China. , 2005, Environmental science & technology.

[20]  Tami C. Bond,et al.  On the future of carbonaceous aerosol emissions , 2004 .

[21]  P. Hopke,et al.  The comparison between thermal-optical transmittance elemental carbon and Aethalometer black carbon measured at multiple monitoring sites , 2004 .

[22]  Z. Bai,et al.  Emissions of air pollutants from household stoves: honeycomb coal versus coal cake. , 2004, Environmental science & technology.

[23]  D. Streets,et al.  A technology‐based global inventory of black and organic carbon emissions from combustion , 2004 .

[24]  Joyce E. Penner,et al.  Observational evidence of a change in radiative forcing due to the indirect aerosol effect , 2004, Nature.

[25]  Michael Q. Wang,et al.  An inventory of gaseous and primary aerosol emissions in Asia in the year 2000 , 2003 .

[26]  T. Kirchstetter,et al.  Airborne measurements of carbonaceous aerosols in southern Africa during the dry biomass burning season , 2003 .

[27]  Joyce E. Penner,et al.  Soot and smoke aerosol may not warm climate , 2002 .

[28]  T. Bond,et al.  Primary particle emissions from residential coal burning: Optical properties and size distributions , 2002 .

[29]  Q. Lan,et al.  Household stove improvement and risk of lung cancer in Xuanwei, China. , 2002, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

[30]  V.V.N Kishore,et al.  Improved cookstoves in rural India: how improved are they? , 2002 .

[31]  Michael Q. Wang,et al.  Black carbon emissions in China , 2001 .

[32]  Lu Wenbin.  Clean Coal Technology and Its Role in the Adjustment of China’ s Energy Consumption Structure , 2001 .

[33]  Thomas W. Kirchstetter,et al.  Origin of carbonaceous aerosols over the tropical Indian Ocean: Biomass burning or fossil fuels? , 2000 .

[34]  N Künzli,et al.  Public-health impact of outdoor and traffic-related air pollution: a European assessment , 2000, The Lancet.

[35]  J. Durant,et al.  Mutagenicity of C24H14 PAH in human cells expressing CYP1A1. , 1999, Mutation research.

[36]  C. Liousse,et al.  Construction of a 1° × 1° fossil fuel emission data set for carbonaceous aerosol and implementation and radiative impact in the ECHAM4 model , 1999 .

[37]  John Zhang,et al.  Carbon monoxide from cookstoves in developing countries: 1. Emission factors , 1999 .

[38]  V. Ramaswamy,et al.  Global sensitivity studies of the direct radiative forcing due to anthropogenic sulfate and black carbon aerosols , 1998 .

[39]  M. Birch.  Analysis of carbonaceous aerosols: interlaboratory comparison. , 1998, The Analyst.

[40]  J. Wilson,et al.  A global black carbon aerosol model , 1996 .

[41]  Huang Kun,et al.  One hundred million improved cookstoves in China: how was it done? , 1993 .

[42]  J. W. Crawford,et al.  A multiple-system, multi-channel diffusion denuder sampler for the determination of fine-particulate organic material in the atmosphere , 1993 .

[43]  T. Mansfield,et al.  Airborne particulate elemental carbon: Its sources, transport and contribution to dark smoke and soiling , 1991 .

[44]  J. Chuang,et al.  Indoor air sampling and mutagenicity studies of emissions from unvented coal combustion. , 1987, Environmental science & technology.