Gas Pollutant Emissions from Smoldering Incense Using FTIR

Abstract

This study characterized the effects of smoldering incenses and combustion conditions on gaseous pollutant yields. Incense comes in three types: non-smoke (A), reduced-smoke (B) and traditional-smoke incense (C and D). Each incense type was burned in a test chamber with various combustion conditions (airflow rate and relative humidity). An extractive Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) was used to measure gas pollutants from smoldering incense in real time. Concentrations of methane, ethylene, methanol, formaldehyde and ammonia were measured using the IR spectra of smoldering incense samples. The resulting order of total emission factors of the identified gas pollutants (sum of methane, ethylene, methanol, formaldehyde and ammonia) were non-smoke < reduced-smoke