Air pollutants in rural homes in Guizhou, China – Concentrations, speciation, and size distribution

Abstract

Several types of fuels, including coal, fuel wood, and biogas, are commonly used for cooking and heating in Chinese rural households, resulting in indoor air pollution and causing severe health impacts. In this paper, we report a study monitoring multiple pollutants including PM 10, PM 2.5, CO, CO 2, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from fuel combustion at households in Guizhou province of China. The results showed that most pollutants exhibited large variability for different type of fuels except for CO 2. Among these fuels, wood combustion caused the most serious indoor air pollution, with the highest concentrations of particulate matters (218∼417 μg m −3 for PM 10 and 201∼304 μg m −3 for PM 2.5), and higher concentrations of CO (10.8 ± 0.8 mg m −3) and TVOC (about 466.7 ± 337.9 μg m −3). Coal combustion also resulted in higher concentrations of particulate matters (220∼250 μg m −3 for PM 10 and 170∼200 μg m −3 for PM 2.5), but different levels for CO (respectively 14.5 ± 3.7 mg m −3 for combustion in brick stove and 5.5 ± 0.7 mg m −3 for combustion in metal stove) and TVOC (170 mg m −3 for combustion in brick stove and 700 mg m −3 for combustion in metal stove). Biogas was the cleanest fuel, which brought about the similar levels of various pollutants with the indoor case of non-combustion, and worth being promoted in more areas. Analysis of the chemical profiles of PM 2.5 indicated that OC and EC were dominant components for all fuels, with the proportions of 30∼48%. A high fraction of SO 4 2− (31∼34%) was detected for coal combustion. The cumulative percentages of these chemical species were within the range of 0.7∼1.3, which was acceptable for the assessment of mass balance.