Abstract
Biomass burning (BB) is a significant air pollution source, with global, regional and local impacts on air quality, public health and climate. Worldwide an extensive range of studies has been conducted on almost all the aspects of BB, including its specific types, on quantification of emissions and on assessing its various impacts. China is one of the countries where the significance of BB has been recognized, and a lot of research efforts devoted to investigate it, however, so far no systematic reviews were conducted to synthesize the information which has been emerging. Therefore the aim of this work was to comprehensively review most of the studies published on this topic in China, including literature concerning field measurements, laboratory studies and the impacts of BB indoors and outdoors in China. In addition, this review provides insights into the role of wildfire and anthropogenic BB on air quality and health globally. Further, we attempted to provide a basis for formulation of policies and regulations by policy makers in China.
Highlights
Document Version: Final Published version, known as Publisher’s PDF, Publisher’s Final version or Version of Record
It was estimated that the Northern China Plain and the Sichuan Basin and southern China region are heavy emitters of biofuel Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) while the Northeast region of China is the main emitter of PAHs from wildfire burnings (Zhang et al, 2008e). It is because the Northern China Plain and the Sichuan Basin produce the bulk of wheat straw from its crop, which has significantly higher emission factors of PAHs compared with other kinds of crop residues
The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) measurements were carried out at a rural site in North China during summer of 2013, and the results indicated that extensive transport of Biomass burning (BB) emissions from Shandong and Hebei provinces had an important effect on the local VOCs pollution levels, and that during the BB period VOCs had higher ozone formation potential values, especially the aromatics and alkynes (Zhu et al, 2016b)
Summary
Field observation is a practical way to characterize properties and dynamic changes of BB pollutants (Reid et al, 2005a, b). In China, in-situ fire studies have mainly focused on the agricultural straw burning, and field observations monitor and discriminate pollutants from BB via the methods including but not limited to instrumental on-line measurements and offline analysis of PM and gas samples (Du et al, 2011; Rose et al, 2011; Ding et al., 2013a; Huang et al, 2014; Wang et al, 2015a; Yao et al, 2016a). Apart from elevating aerosol mass concentration, BB plume suppresses nucleation mode and CCN activity of ambient particles, while increases field AOD and absorption angstrom exponent (AAE) in mixing and transportation process (Agus et al, 2008; Nowak et al, 2010; He et al, 2015)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
