Wildland fire emission factors database

Abstract. We report trace-gas emission factors from three pine-understory prescribed fires in South Carolina, US measured during the fall of 2011. The fires were more intense than many prescribed burns because the fuels included mature pine stands not subjected to prescribed fire in decades that were lit following an extended drought. Emission factors were measured with a fixed open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP-FTIR) system that was deployed on the fire control lines. We compare these emission factors to those measured with a roving, point sampling, land-based FTIR and an airborne FTIR deployed on the same fires. We also compare to emission factors measured by a similar OP-FTIR system deployed on savanna fires in Africa. The data suggest that the method used to sample smoke can strongly influence the relative abundance of the emissions that are observed. The majority of fire emissions were lofted in the convection column and were sampled by the airborne FTIR. The roving, ground-based, point sampling FTIR measured the contribution of individual residual smoldering combustion fuel elements scattered throughout the burn site. The OP-FTIR provided a ~ 30 m path-integrated sample of emissions transported to the fixed path via complex ground-level circulation. The OP-FTIR typically probed two distinct combustion regimes, "flaming-like" (immediately after adjacent ignition and before the adjacent plume achieved significant vertical development) and "smoldering-like." These two regimes are denoted "early" and "late", respectively. The path-integrated sample of the ground-level smoke layer adjacent to the fire from the OP-FTIR provided our best estimate of fire-line exposure to smoke for wildland fire personnel. We provide a table of estimated fire-line exposures for numerous known air toxics based on synthesizing results from several studies. Our data suggest that peak exposures are more likely to challenge permissible exposure limits for wildland fire personnel than shift-average (8 h) exposures.

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Wildland fire emission factors in North America: synthesis of existing data, measurement needs and management applications

International Journal of Wildland Fire ◽

10.1071/wf19066 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 132 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Susan J. Prichard ◽

Susan M. O'Neill ◽

Paige Eagle ◽

Anne G. Andreu ◽

Brian Drye ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental Protection Agency ◽

Air Pollutants ◽

Prescribed Burning ◽

Wildland Fire ◽

Emission Factors ◽

Hazardous Air Pollutants ◽

Total Particulate Matter ◽

Fire Emissions ◽

Criteria Air Pollutants ◽

Flaming Combustion

Field and laboratory emission factors (EFs) of wildland fire emissions for 276 known air pollutants sampled across Canada and the US were compiled. An online database, the Smoke Emissions Repository Application (SERA), was created to enable analysis and summaries of existing EFs to be used in smoke management and emissions inventories. We evaluated how EFs of select pollutants (CO, CO2, CH4, NOx, total particulate matter (PM), PM2.5 and SO2) are influenced by combustion phase, burn type and fuel type. Of the 12533 records in the database, over a third (n=5637) are represented by 23 air pollutants, most designated as US Environmental Protection Agency criteria air pollutants, greenhouse gases, hazardous air pollutants or known air toxins. Among all pollutants in the database, including the most common pollutants PM, CO, CO2 and CH4, records are unevenly distributed with a bias towards flaming combustion, prescribed burning and laboratory measurements. Across all EFs, records are most common for south-eastern and western conifer forests and western shrubland types. Based on identified data gaps, we offer recommendations for future studies, including targeting underrepresented air pollutants, smouldering combustion phases and improved source characterisation of wildland fire emissions.

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Field measurements of trace gases emitted by prescribed fires in southeastern US pine forests using an open-path FTIR system

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ◽

10.5194/acpd-13-18489-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 13 (7) ◽

pp. 18489-18533 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

S. K. Akagi ◽

I. R. Burling ◽

A. Mendoza ◽

T. J. Johnson ◽

M. Cameron ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Wildland Fire ◽

Ground Level ◽

Emission Factors ◽

Prescribed Fires ◽

Fire Control ◽

Exposure Limits ◽

Point Sampling ◽

Fire Emissions ◽

Southeastern Us ◽

Open Path

Abstract. We report trace-gas emission factors from three pine-understory prescribed fires in South Carolina, US measured during the fall of 2011. The fires were more intense than many prescribed burns because the fuels included mature pine stands not subjected to prescribed fire in decades that were lit following an extended drought. The emission factors were measured with a fixed open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP-FTIR) system that was deployed on the fire control lines. We compare these emission factors to those measured with a roving, point sampling, land-based FTIR and an airborne FTIR that were deployed on the same fires. We also compare to emission factors measured by a similar OP-FTIR system deployed on savanna fires in Africa. The data suggest that the method used to sample smoke can strongly influence the relative abundance of the emissions that are observed. The majority of the fire emissions were lofted in the convection column and they were sampled by the airborne FTIR along with the downwind chemistry. The roving, ground-based, point sampling FTIR measured the contribution of actively located individual residual smoldering combustion fuel elements scattered throughout the burn site. The OP-FTIR provided a ~30 m path-integrated sample of emissions transported to the fixed path via complex ground-level circulation. The OP-FTIR typically probed two distinct combustion regimes, "flaming-like" (immediately after adjacent ignition and before the adjacent plume achieved significant vertical development) and "smoldering-like." These two regimes are denoted "early" and "late", respectively. The emission factors from all three systems were plotted versus modified combustion efficiency and for some species (e.g. CH4 and CH3OH) they fit a single trend suggesting that the different emission factors for these species were mainly due to the specific mix of flaming and smoldering that each system sampled. For other species, the different fuels sampled also likely contributed to platform differences in emission factors. The path-integrated sample of the ground-level smoke layer adjacent to the fire provided by the OP-FTIR also provided our best estimate of fire-line exposure to smoke for wildland fire personnel. We provide a table of estimated fire-line exposures for numerous known air toxics based on synthesizing results from several studies. Our data suggest that peak exposures are more likely to challenge permissible exposure limits for wildland fire personnel than shift-average (8 h) exposures.

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