Title:
The Role of Aerosols from Biomass Combustion
Author(s):
Nussbaumer, T.
Document(s):
Paper
Abstract:
Since biomass as a renewable fuel can effectively substitute fossil fuels and consequently fossil CO2, the use of biomass for heat and power production is funded in many countries and the International Energy Agency (IEA) Bioenergy Task 32 on Biomass Combustion and Co-firing promotes the utilisation of biomass as a renewable energy carrier. On the other hand, biomass combustion can contribute to inhalable particulate matter smaller than 10 micrometres (PM10) in the ambient air. Since PM10 can cause adverse health effects, a trade-off between CO2 mitigation and air pollution control can arise. To avoid this target conflict, measures ensuring low PM emissions from biomass combustion need to be identified and enforced. The present survey summarises the know-how on the health relevance of combustion generated PM, describes the mechanisms which can cause PM in biomass combustion, denotes the different particles types, and derives measures to reduce PM from biomass combustion. For this purpose, carbonaceous and inorganic pollutants as well as primary and secondary aerosols are distinguished. The overview shows, that a near-complete combustion is crucial to avoid organic pollutants, which is the main target for residential biomass combustion. Inorganic PM resulting from ash constituents and also formed in near-complete combustion is mainly relevant for automated biomass boilers and can be effectively reduced by particle precipitation from the flue gas. Hence biomass can play an important role to the future energy supply in an environmentally friendly way, if state-of-the art combustion devices are applied and appropriately operated.
Keywords:
particulate matter, aerosol, PM10, health impact, ambient air quality
Topic:
Biomass Conversion Technologies for Heating, Cooling and Electricity
Subtopic:
Biomass and Bioliquids Combustion for Small and Medium Scale Applications
Event:
25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
2BV.1.23
Pages:
593 - 595
ISBN:
978-88-89407-17-2
Paper DOI:
10.5071/25thEUBCE2017-2BV.1.23
Price:
FREE
