Saccharides emissions from biomass and coal burning in northwest china and their application in source contribution estimation

Abstract

Saccharides are important tracers in aerosol source identification but results in different areas varied significantly. In this study, six saccharides (levoglucosan, arabitol, glucose, mannitol, inositol, and sucrose) were determined for their emission factors and diagnostic ratios from domestic combustion of typical biomass and coal fuels in Northwest China. Three types of coal (i.e., anthracitic coal, bituminous coal, and briquettes) and five types of biomass (i.e., maize straw, wheat straw, corn cob, wood branches, and wood block) collected from regional rural areas were selected. Overall, the ranking of the fuel types in terms of the emission factor of particulate matter less than 2.5 µm in diam-eter (PM2.5 ) was coal < firewood fuel