Characteristics of Carbonaceous Components and Anhydrous Saccharides in PM_2.5 Emitted from House Holding Burning by Agricultural Wasted Biomass in Rural Area of Northern China

Abstract

In rural areas of northern China, local household combustion system so-called “Kang” is widely used for heating and cooking with coal, firewood and agricultural waste biomass during the winter season. It is one of the largest pollution sources of fine particles which influence the regional atmosphere and human health. In this study, field measurements were conducted to determine the characteristics of carbonaceous particles including anhydrosugars emitted from Kang combustion of agricultural wasted biomass fuels such as rice straw, corncob, maize stem and gaoliang in rural area in Daton, China. PM_2.5 were collected using a personal PM_2.5 sampler. Then, we determined the organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC) and anhydrosugars such as levoglucosan (L), mannosan (M), galactosan (G) as the biomass burning tracers in PM_2.5. Exhausted carbonaceous particles from Kang combustion of agricultural waste biomass were mostly OC fractions, which may be affected by combustion conditions (smoldering or flame burning), combustion temperature and moisture content when dry or wet waste biomass samples were burnt. It was found that the composition ratios of G/L and (M+G)/L from the combustion of different dry waste biomass samples are obviously higher than those of wild fire and shrubland reported in the literatures.