Emission estimation of aromatic and halogenated VOCs from household solid fuel burning practices

This study describes the emission factors (EFs) of 16 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for the combustion of commonly used household solid fuels including coal balls (CB), fuelwood (FW), dung cakes (DC), crop residues (CR), and mixed fuels (MF: DC + FW), collected from ten states of India. Sum of 16 VOCs EF (g kg−1) have shown highest level (50.0 ± 22.7 g kg−1) for CB, followed by CR (23.71 ± 10.64 g kg−1), DC (19.08 ± 3.29 g kg−1), MF (15.77 ± 9.49 g kg−1), and FW (12.79 ± 5.69 g kg−1). These findings are multifold higher than those reported for biomass burning in test chamber studies. Benzene and dichloromethane EFs were found to be dominating among the aromatic and halogenated VOCs, respectively. Annual TVOCs emission estimates were evaluated to be 12.58 ± 5.92 Gg year−1 from household solid fuel burning practices. It was the 1/6th of TVOCs emission estimates (73 Gg year−1) from biomass burning in India during 2009.