Air Pollution From Solid Fuels

Abstract

Concerns have been raised to control air pollution in the developing as well as the developed world. The greater half of the human kind relies on solid biomass fuel, such as coal, charcoal, wood, agricultural wastes, and dung, as their basic source of energy needs for cooking, boiling water, lighting, and climatic controls. The solid fuel includes coal, charcoal, wood, crops or other agriculture waste, dung, shrubs, grass, straw, and so forth. Solid fuels cause indoor air pollution as well as outdoor air pollution. Oxides of nitrogen, SO2, CO2, and CO are emitted from wood, dung, and coal. Cooking stoves burning solid biomass fuels emit CO, fine particles, and hydrocarbons. Ambient air pollution from solid fuels includes mining, transporting, and storing of coal that pollute the environment. Ash, sludge, toxic chemicals, and waste heat create more environmental problems. Indoor air pollution from the combustion of solid fuels is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the developing countries. Different health impairments due to air pollution from burning of solid biomass include causes immune suppression in the respiratory system. Interstitial lung disease and ischemic heart disease have association with long-term exposures to particulate air pollution due to solid biomass fuels. Wood smoke might cause increased risk of developing nasopharyngeal and eloping nasopharyngeal and digestive tract cancers. Pollution arising from the usage of solid fuel essentially demands multiple measures of intervention for its control. The intervention includes improvement in cooking stoves and shifting to low emission, higher quality, and gaseous fuels, such as LPG, and biomass-based gaseous fuels derived either from biologic process (biogas) or from thermo chemical process (producer gas) solar cookers and electricity.