Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Emissions due to Forest Fires in Russia and Possible Ways to Reduce Them

Abstract

Calculations of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere caused by forest fires in Russia as well as an experimental assessment of some possibilities to reduce the emissions were carried out. It was shown that calculations with the usage of the average values of the reserves of combustible forest materials (CFM), the area of fires and the value of the mass rate of wood burning gives the same results as the approach based on the relatively accurate data on the reserves of CFM and their distribution over the fire area as well as an information on the character of forest fires. It was obtained experimentally that the continuous short-term supply of sprayed extinguishing liquid does not reduce but increases the yield of carbon dioxide due to the earlier termination of the flame burning and transition of the process to the smoldering regime. It is possible to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere caused by forest fires up to 3-5 times when the extinguishing liquid is sprayed by applying two short-term pulses to eliminate both flaming and smoldering combustion.