Biomass is increasingly being used for power generation; however, assessment of potential occupational health and safety (OH&S) concerns related to usage of biomass fuels in combustion-based generation remains limited. We reviewed the available literature on known and potential OH&S issues associated with biomass-based fuel usage for electricity generation at the utility scale. We considered th...

Online non-refractory submicron aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) measurements in urban areas have successfully allowed the apportionment of specific sources and/or physical and chemical properties of the organic fraction. However, in order to be fully representative of PM pollution, a comprehensive source apportionment analysis is needed by taking into account all major components of submicron a...

It has been suggested that certain organic aerosol components of wood smoke have enhanced ultraviolet absorption at 370 nm relative to 880 nm in two-wavelength aethalometer black carbon (BC) measurements. This enhanced absorption could serve as an indicator of wood combustion particles (“Delta-C” = UVBC370nm – BC880nm). From August 2009 to October 2010, week-long mobile monitoring campaigns wer...

Pine bark beetle insecticide treatment plots were established on the Ocala National Forest, in central Florida. Each plot consisted of five sand pine, pinus clausa (Chapm. Ex. Engelm) Vassey ex. Sarg., trees treated with either 0.5% lindane (benzene hexachloride) or 2% chlorpyrifos (O,O-diethyl O-(3,5,6-trichloro-2-pgridyl) phosphorothioate). After 4 months, mean residue levels ranged from 0.32...

Estimating the Number of Vulnerable People in the United States Exposed to Residential Wood Smoke http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1409136 Rogalsky et al. (2014) recently estimated the number of homes and individuals at risk of adverse health effects from exposure to emissions from residential wood combustion in the United States. We appreciate the importance of this topic, particularly to rural a...

We report on the application of a compact and field-deployable instrument, based on a continuous-wave fiber-coupled Telecom external cavity diode laser, to measure the C/C isotope ratio in CO2 from a wood-based combustion. Carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas, is a major product of combustion. The measurements of the C/C isotopic ratio in CO2 from combustion emission permit one to ...

Humans around the world rely on a diversity of energy sources to provide heat for cooking and home comfort. Each of the energy sources utilized has a series of impacts on the environment and human health from extraction or harvest through combustion. At the household level, fuels that are considered to be clean, including gas, oil, and purchased electricity, yield lower levels of particulate em...

Cook stoves that produce biochar as well as heat for cooking could help mitigate indoor air pollution from cooking fires and could enhance local soils, while their potential reductions in carbon (C) emissions and increases in soil C sequestration could offer access to C market financing. We use system dynamics modeling to (i) investigate the climate change impact of prototype and refined biocha...

A novel method for real-time moisture level monitoring of the solid biomass fuel in grate combustion is presented. The measurement principle is based on temperature sensor information from both flame and a fuel bed. Based on the combustion theory and data analysis, selected features have been extracted from the fused sensor information and estimate of the fuel quality is then made continuously ...