Abstract
Abstract. A thermal desorption aerosol gas chromatograph coupled to a high resolution – time of flight – aerosol mass spectrometer (TAG-AMS) was connected to an atmospheric chamber for the molecular characterization of the evolution of organic aerosol (OA) emitted by woodstove appliances for residential heating. Two log woodstoves (old and modern) and one pellet stove were operated under typical conditions. Emissions were aged during a time equivalent to 5 h of atmospheric aging. The five to seven samples were collected and analyzed with the TAG-AMS during each experiment. We detected and quantified over 70 compounds, including levoglucosan and nitrocatechols. We calculate the emission factor (EF) of these tracers in the primary emissions and highlight the influence of the combustion efficiency on these emissions. Smoldering combustion contributes to a higher EF and a more complex composition. We also demonstrate the effect of atmospheric aging on the chemical fingerprint. The tracers are sorted into three categories according to the evolution of their concentration: primary compounds, non-conventional primary compounds, and secondary compounds. For each, we provide a quantitative overview of their contribution to the OA mass at different times of the photo-oxidative process.
Highlights
Organic matter represents a major fraction (20–90 %) of particulate matter (PM; Kanakidou et al, 2005)
We investigated the primary organic aerosol (POA) emissions and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) production potential generated by three woodstove appliances used for residential heating (Bertrand et al, 2017) using a HR-ToF-AMS
There exists a strong variability between the experiments regarding the contribution of the markers to the total POA mass concentration as well as their emission factor (EF) (Fig. 4)
Summary
Organic matter represents a major fraction (20–90 %) of particulate matter (PM; Kanakidou et al, 2005). Organic PM is a complex mixture made up of tens of thousands of compounds (Goldstein and Galbally, 2007), with some of them shown to be carcinogenic (Yu, 2002; Yang et al, 2010). Identifying and quantifying their contribution to the organic PM mass is key in order to resolve its origins and impacts on human health and climate. The full characterization of these emissions and their contribution to the concentration of total organic aerosol (OA) is of particular interest for source apportionment of ambient PM using molecular markers.
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