scholarly journals Global combustion: the connection between fossil fuel and biomass burning emissions (1997–2010)

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1696) ◽  
pp. 20150177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer K. Balch ◽  
R. Chelsea Nagy ◽  
Sally Archibald ◽  
David M. J. S. Bowman ◽  
Max A. Moritz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Fossil Fuel Burning ◽  
Annual Carbon ◽  
Global Modelling ◽  
Human Use ◽  
Global Data ◽  
Fossil Fuel Emissions

Humans use combustion for heating and cooking, managing lands, and, more recently, for fuelling the industrial economy. As a shift to fossil-fuel-based energy occurs, we expect that anthropogenic biomass burning in open landscapes will decline as it becomes less fundamental to energy acquisition and livelihoods. Using global data on both fossil fuel and biomass burning emissions, we tested this relationship over a 14 year period (1997–2010). The global average annual carbon emissions from biomass burning during this time were 2.2 Pg C per year (±0.3 s.d.), approximately one-third of fossil fuel emissions over the same period (7.3 Pg C, ±0.8 s.d.). There was a significant inverse relationship between average annual fossil fuel and biomass burning emissions. Fossil fuel emissions explained 8% of the variation in biomass burning emissions at a global scale, but this varied substantially by land cover. For example, fossil fuel burning explained 31% of the variation in biomass burning in woody savannas, but was a non-significant predictor for evergreen needleleaf forests. In the land covers most dominated by human use, croplands and urban areas, fossil fuel emissions were more than 30- and 500-fold greater than biomass burning emissions. This relationship suggests that combustion practices may be shifting from open landscape burning to contained combustion for industrial purposes, and highlights the need to take into account how humans appropriate combustion in global modelling of contemporary fire. Industrialized combustion is not only an important driver of atmospheric change, but also an important driver of landscape change through companion declines in human-started fires. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’.

scholarly journals The impact of human and livestock respiration on CO2 emissions from 14 global cities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qixiang Cai ◽  
Ning Zeng ◽  
Fang Zhao ◽  
Pengfei Han ◽  
Di Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Carbon Budget ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Large City ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Emissions Inventory ◽  
Budget Analysis ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Fossil Fuel Emissions

Abstract BackgroundThe CO2 released by humans and livestock through digestion and decomposition is an important part of the urban carbon cycle. But this part is reraly condidarded in the stuties of city carbon budget since its annual magnitude is lower than that of fossil fuel emissions within the boundaries of cities. However, human and livestock respiration may be substantial compared to fossil fuel emissions in areas with high population density such as Manhattan or Beijing. High-resolution datasets of CO2 release from respiration also have rarely been reported on a global scale or in cities globally. Here, we estimate the CO2 released by human and livestock respiration at global and large city scales and then compare it with the carbon emissions inventory from fossil fuels in 14 cities worldwide.ResultsThe results show that the total human and livestock respiration is up to 38.1% of fossil fuel emissions for Delhi among the studied cities. The proportion could be larger than 10% in cities of Sao Paulo, Cape Town and Tokyo. In other cities, it is raletivily small with a proportion around 5%, while Washington DC has the least proportion in 2.8%. In addition, almost 90% of respiratory carbon comes from urban areas in most cities, while up to one-third comes from suburban areas in Beijing on account of the siginificant livestock production.ConclusionThe results suggest that the respiration of humans and livestock represents a significant CO2 source in some cities and is nonnegligible for city carbon budget analysis and carbon monitoring.

scholarly journals Exploiting multi-wavelength aerosol absorption coefficients in a multi-time resolution source apportionment study to retrieve source-dependent absorption parameters

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (17) ◽  
pp. 11235-11252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Corina Forello ◽  
Vera Bernardoni ◽  
Giulia Calzolai ◽  
Franco Lucarelli ◽  
Dario Massabò ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Source Apportionment ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Time Resolution ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Optical Data ◽  
Optical Parameters ◽  
Bootstrap Analysis ◽  
Aerosol Absorption ◽  
Fossil Fuel Emissions

Abstract. In this paper, a new methodology coupling aerosol optical and chemical parameters in the same source apportionment study is reported. In addition to results on source contributions, this approach provides information such as estimates for the atmospheric absorption Ångström exponent (α) of the sources and mass absorption cross sections (MACs) for fossil fuel emissions at different wavelengths. A multi-time resolution source apportionment study using the Multilinear Engine (ME-2) was performed on a PM10 dataset with different time resolutions (24, 12, and 1 h) collected during two different seasons in Milan (Italy) in 2016. Samples were optically analysed by an in-house polar photometer to retrieve the aerosol absorption coefficient bap (in Mm−1) at four wavelengths (λ=405, 532, 635, and 780 nm) and were chemically characterized for elements, ions, levoglucosan, and carbonaceous components. The dataset joining chemically speciated and optical data was the input for the multi-time resolution receptor model; this approach was proven to strengthen the identification of sources, thus being particularly useful when important chemical markers (e.g. levoglucosan, elemental carbon) are not available. The final solution consisted of eight factors (nitrate, sulfate, resuspended dust, biomass burning, construction works, traffic, industry, aged sea salt); the implemented constraints led to a better physical description of factors and the bootstrap analysis supported the goodness of the solution. As for bap apportionment, consistent with what was expected, biomass burning and traffic were the main contributors to aerosol absorption in the atmosphere. A relevant feature of the approach proposed in this work is the possibility of retrieving a lot of other information about optical parameters; for example, in contrast to the more traditional approach used by optical source apportionment models, here we obtained source-dependent α values without any a priori assumption (α biomass burning =1.83 and α fossil fuels =0.80). In addition, the MACs estimated for fossil fuel emissions were consistent with literature values. It is worth noting that the approach presented here can also be applied using more common receptor models (e.g. EPA PMF instead of multi-time resolution ME-2) if the dataset comprises variables with the same time resolution as well as optical data retrieved by widespread instrumentation (e.g. an Aethalometer instead of in-house instrumentation).

Spatial Distribution of 14C in Tree Leaves from Bali, Indonesia

Radiocarbon ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamás Varga ◽  
A J Timothy Jull ◽  
Zsuzsa Lisztes-Szabó ◽  
Mihály Molnár
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Woody Plant ◽  
Tree Leaves ◽  
Natural Level ◽  
Woody Plant Species ◽  
Fossil Fuel Emissions

ABSTRACTThe increase of fossil-fuel-derived CO2 in the atmosphere has led to the dilution of the atmospheric radiocarbon concentration, but due to the costly instrumentation, the continuous atmospheric 14C/12C data is incomplete in developing countries, such as in Indonesia. These data give useful information about the level of local and regional fossil emissions. In this study, 14C AMS measurements of local vegetation and woody plant species samples have been used to estimate the rate of fossil-fuel-derived carbon in the plants, which fix the CO2 from the atmosphere by photosynthesis. Evergreen leaf samples were collected in September 2018 on the island of Bali in different, diverse districts in local and urban areas. The samples from the densely populated areas show observable fossil fuel emissions and show that the Δ14C level is close to zero ‰, similar to the natural level.

scholarly journals Analysis of Four Years of Global XCO2 Anomalies as Seen by Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 850 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janne Hakkarainen ◽  
Iolanda Ialongo ◽  
Shamil Maksyutov ◽  
David Crisp
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Complex Model ◽  
Fuel Combustion ◽  
Local Concentration ◽  
Fossil Fuel Combustion ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Model Based

NASA’s carbon dioxide mission, Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, began operating in September 2014. In this paper, we analyze four years (2015–2018) of global (60°S–60°N) XCO2 anomalies and their annual variations and seasonal patterns. We show that the anomaly patterns in the column-averaged CO2 dry air mole fraction, XCO2, are robust and consistent from year-to-year. We evaluate the method by comparing the anomalies to fluxes from anthropogenic, biospheric, and biomass burning and to model-simulated local concentration enhancements. We find that, despite the simplicity of the method, the anomalies describe the spatio-temporal variability of XCO2 (including anthropogenic emissions and seasonal variability related to vegetation and biomass burning) consistently with more complex model-based approaches. We see, for example, that positive anomalies correspond to fossil fuel combustion over the major industrial areas (e.g., China, eastern USA, central Europe, India, and the Highveld region in South Africa), shown as large positive XCO2 enhancements in the model simulations. We also find corresponding positive anomalies and fluxes over biomass burning areas during different fire seasons. On the other hand, the largest negative anomalies correspond to the growing season in the northern middle latitudes, characterized by negative XCO2 enhancements from simulations and high solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) values (indicating the occurrence of photosynthesis). The largest discrepancies between the anomaly patterns and the model-based results are observed in the tropical regions, where OCO-2 shows persistent positive anomalies over every season of every year included in this study. Finally, we demonstrate how XCO2 anomalies enable the detection of anthropogenic signatures for several local scale case studies, both in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. In particular, we analyze the XCO2 anomalies collocated with the recent TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument NO2 observations (used as indicator of anthropogenic fossil fuel combustion) over the Highveld region in South Africa. The results highlight the capability of satellite-based observations to monitor natural and man-made CO2 signatures on global scale.

scholarly journals Sources and transport of Δ<sup>14</sup>C on CO<sub>2</sub> within the Mexico City Basin and vicinity

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 7213-7237 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Vay ◽  
S. C. Tyler ◽  
Y. Choi ◽  
D. R. Blake ◽  
N. J. Blake ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mexico City ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
North American ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Co2 Flux ◽  
Waste Incineration ◽  
Background Value ◽  
The North ◽  
Fossil Fuel Emissions

Abstract. Radiocarbon samples taken over Mexico City and the surrounding region during the MILAGRO field campaign in March 2006 exhibited an unexpected distribution: (1) relatively few samples (23%) were below the North American free tropospheric background value (57‰) despite the fossil fuel emissions from one of the world's most highly polluted environments; and (2) frequent enrichment well above the background value was observed. Correlate source tracer species and air transport characteristics were examined to elucidate influences on the radiocarbon distribution. Our analysis suggests that a combination of radiocarbon sources biased the "regional radiocarbon background" above the North American value thereby decreasing the apparent fossil fuel signature. These sources included the release of bomb or "hot" radiocarbon sequestered in plant carbon pools via the ubiquitous biomass burning in the region as well as the direct release of radiocarbon as CO2. Plausible large local perturbations include the burning of hazardous waste in cement kilns; medical waste incineration; and emissions from the Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Plant. These observations provide insight into the use of Δ14CO2 to constrain fossil fuel emissions in the megacity environment, indicating that underestimation of the fossil fuel contribution to the CO2 flux is likely wherever biomass burning coexists with urban emissions. Our findings increase the complexity required to quantify fossil fuel-derived CO2 in source-rich environments characteristic of megacities, and have implications for the use of Δ14CO2 observations in evaluating bottoms-up emission inventories and their reliability as a tool for validating national emission claims of CO2 within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol.

scholarly journals Modeled source apportionment of black carbon particles coated with a light-scattering shell

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aki Virkkula
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Size Distributions ◽  
Core Size ◽  
Carbon Particles ◽  
Aerosol Mass ◽  
Measured Absorption ◽  
Absorbing Material ◽  
Fossil Fuel Emissions

Abstract. The Aethalometer model been used widely for estimating the contributions of fossil fuel emissions and biomass burning to equivalent black carbon (eBC). The calculation is based on measured absorption Ångström exponents (αabs). The interpretation αabs is ambiguous since it is well-known that it not only depends on the dominant absorber but also on the size and internal structure of the particles, core size and shell thickness. In this work the uncertainties of the Aethalometer-model-derived apparent fractions of absorption by eBC from fossil fuel and biomass burning are evaluated with a core-shell Mie model. Biomass-burning fractions (BB(%)) were calculated for pure and coated single BC particles, for lognormal unimodal and bimodal size distributions of BC cores coated with ammonium sulfate, a scattering-only material. BB(%) was very seldom 0 % even though BC was the only absorbing material in the simulations. The shape of size distribution plays an important role. Narrow size distributions result in higher αabs and BB(%) values than wide size distributions. The sensitivity of αabs and BB(%) to variations in shell volume fractions is the highest for accumulation mode particles. This is important because that is where the largest aerosol mass is. For the interpretation of absorption Ångström exponents it would be very good to measure BC size distributions and shell thicknesses together with the wavelength dependency of absorption.

scholarly journals Mangrove blue carbon strategies for climate change mitigation are most effective at the national scale

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 20180251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Taillardat ◽  
Daniel A. Friess ◽  
Massimo Lupascu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Blue Carbon ◽  
National Scale ◽  
Nationally Determined Contributions ◽  
Natural Carbon ◽  
Change Mitigation ◽  
Fossil Fuel Emissions

Carbon fixed by vegetated coastal ecosystems (blue carbon) can mitigate anthropogenic CO 2 emissions, though its effectiveness differs with the spatial scale of interest. A literature review compiling carbon sequestration rates within key ecosystems confirms that blue carbon ecosystems are the most efficient natural carbon sinks at the plot scale, though some overlooked biogeochemical processes may lead to overestimation. Moreover, the limited spatial extent of coastal habitats minimizes their potential at the global scale, only buffering 0.42% of the global fossil fuel carbon emissions in 2014. Still, blue carbon plays a role for countries with moderate fossil fuel emissions and extensive coastlines. In 2014, mangroves mitigated greater than 1% of national fossil fuel emissions for countries such as Bangladesh, Colombia and Nigeria. Considering that the Paris Agreement is based on nationally determined contributions, we propose that mangrove blue carbon may contribute to climate change mitigation at this scale in some instances alongside other blue carbon ecosystems.

Characterization of aerosols and trace gases at the Central Himalayas using long-term ground and satellite observations  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priyanka Srivastava ◽  
Manish Naja ◽  
Hema Joshi ◽  
Mukunda M Gogoi ◽  
S Suresh Babu
Keyword(s):  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Trace Gases ◽  
Satellite Observations ◽  
Radiation Budget ◽  
Industrial Emissions ◽  
Central Himalayas ◽  
Fossil Fuel Emissions

&lt;p&gt;The serene environment of the Himalayas is experiencing adverse impact of air pollution, rising critically with the advent of rapid industrialization and urbanization. However, systematic long-term ground-based measurements are almost nonexistent in this region due to the prevailing extreme conditions and complex terrain.&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this context, we present insights from the long term ground based measurements of aerosols and trace gases carried at ARIES, (29.4&lt;sup&gt;o&lt;/sup&gt;N, 79.5&lt;sup&gt;o&lt;/sup&gt;E, 1958 m a.m.s.l) a high altitude site in the Central Himalayas. We also used satellite observations, back-air trajectories and radiative forcing estimations with these extensive observations to understand the variabilities, sources and radiative impact over this region. The higher temporal resolution online measurements during 2014-2020 revealed that daytime concentrations of OC, EC, CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; and CO were twice that of the night-time. It is shown that swiftly varying meteorological parameters along with boundary layer height during daytime are responsible for these changes at diurnal scales. Diurnal observations of EC are used to estimate radiative forcing (RF) and it is shown that atmospheric RF during afternoon is about 70% higher than the forenoon RF.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Residence time and concentration weighted trajectory analysis along with OC/EC ratio and fire estimates from MODIS show the influence of biomass burning in spring (MAM). Seasonal minimum for all the species occurs in the monsoon (JJA) due to extensive wet scavenging at the site. During winter (DJF), influence of local burning activities for heating and cooking, to aide in lower temperatures is shown.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Source apportionment estimate is used in BC and multiple regression approach is used in CO to segregate their biomass (BC&lt;sub&gt;bb&lt;/sub&gt;/ CO&lt;sub&gt;bb&lt;/sub&gt;), fossil fuel (BC&lt;sub&gt;ff/&lt;/sub&gt; CO&lt;sub&gt;ff&lt;/sub&gt;) and background components (CO&lt;sub&gt;bgd&lt;/sub&gt;) components. The results reveal the dominance of fossil fuel emissions in BC (BC&lt;sub&gt;ff &lt;/sub&gt;~76% BC&lt;sub&gt;bb &lt;/sub&gt;~24%) and background component in CO followed by fossil fuel emissions (CO&lt;sub&gt;bgd &lt;/sub&gt;~59%, CO&lt;sub&gt;ff &lt;/sub&gt;~26%, CO&lt;sub&gt;bb &lt;/sub&gt;~14%). Principal component analysis (PCA) applied to 23 chemical constituents of PM10 samples collected during October 2018&amp;#8722;February 2019 identified the contribution of crustal/soil dust, biomass burning and industrial emissions at the site. Further, long term (2006-2020) aerosol properties acquired from the CALIPSO is used to study the vertical structure of aerosols and their subtypes and it is shown that the fine mode aerosols with particle depolarization ratio &lt; 0.2 dominate the site. &amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study thus utilizes the long term dataset to precisely segregate the role of local meteorological conditions, transport, fossil fuel, biomass burning and local emissions impacting the site in different seasons and shows its particular importance in terms of radiation budget and constraining emission sources.&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals Exploiting multi-wavelength aerosol absorption coefficients in a multi-time source apportionment study to retrieve source-dependent absorption parameters

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice C. Forello ◽  
Vera Bernardoni ◽  
Giulia Calzolai ◽  
Franco Lucarelli ◽  
Dario Massabò ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Absorption Coefficient ◽  
Source Apportionment ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Optical Parameters ◽  
Bootstrap Analysis ◽  
Mass Absorption ◽  
Aerosol Absorption ◽  
Multi Wavelength ◽  
Fossil Fuel Emissions

Abstract. In this paper, a new methodology coupling aerosol optical and chemical parameters in the same source apportionment study is reported. This approach gives additional relevant information such as estimates for the atmospheric Ångström Absorption Exponent (α) of the sources and Mass Absorption Coefficient (MAC) for fossil fuel emissions at different wavelengths. A multi-time source apportionment study using Multilinear Engine ME-2 was performed on a PM10 dataset with different time resolution (24 hours, 12 hours, and 1 hour) collected during two different seasons in Milan (Italy) in 2016. Samples were optically analysed to retrieve the aerosol absorption coefficient bap (in Mm−1) at four wavelengths (λ = 405 nm, 532 nm, 635 nm and 780 nm) and chemically characterised for elements, ions, levoglucosan, and carbonaceous components. Time-resolved chemically speciated data were coupled with bap multi-wavelength measurements and introduced as input data in the multi-time receptor model; this approach was proven to strengthen the identification of sources being particularly useful when important chemical markers (e.g. levoglucosan, elemental carbon, ...) are not available. The final solution consisted in 8 factors (nitrate, sulphate, resuspended dust, biomass burning, construction works, traffic, industry, aged sea salt); the implemented constraints led to a better physical description of factors and the bootstrap analysis supported the goodness of the solution. As for bap apportionment, consistently to what expected, the two factors assigned to biomass burning and traffic were the main contributors to aerosol absorption in atmosphere. A relevant feature of the approach proposed in this work is the possibility of retrieving many other information about optical parameters; for example, opposite to the more traditional approach used by optical source apportionment models, here we obtained the atmospheric Ångström Absorption Exponent (α) of the sources (α biomass burning = 1.83 and α fossil fuels = 0.80), without any a priori assumption. In addition, an estimate for the Mass Absorption Cross section (MAC) for fossil fuel emissions at four wavelengths was obtained and found to be consistent with literature ranges.

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