Abstract
Abstract. Currently residential wood combustion (RWC) is increasing in Europe because of rising fossil fuel prices but also due to climate change mitigation policies. However, especially in small-scale applications, RWC may cause high emissions of particulate matter (PM). Recently we have developed a new high-resolution (7 × 7 km) anthropogenic carbonaceous aerosol emission inventory for Europe. The inventory indicated that about half of the total PM2.5 emission in Europe is carbonaceous aerosol and identified RWC as the largest organic aerosol source in Europe. The inventory was partly based on national reported PM emissions. Use of this organic aerosol inventory as input for two chemical transport models (CTMs), PMCAMx and EMEP MSC-W, revealed major underestimations of organic aerosol in winter time, especially for regions dominated by RWC. Interestingly, this was not universal but appeared to differ by country. In the present study we constructed a revised bottom-up emission inventory for RWC accounting for the semivolatile components of the emissions. The revised RWC emissions are higher than those in the previous inventory by a factor of 2–3 but with substantial inter-country variation. The new emission inventory served as input for the CTMs and a substantially improved agreement between measured and predicted organic aerosol was found. The revised RWC inventory improves the model-calculated organic aerosol significantly. Comparisons to Scandinavian source apportionment studies also indicate substantial improvements in the modelled wood-burning component of organic aerosol. This suggests that primary organic aerosol emission inventories need to be revised to include the semivolatile organic aerosol that is formed almost instantaneously due to dilution and cooling of the flue gas or exhaust. Since RWC is a key source of fine PM in Europe, a major revision of the emission estimates as proposed here is likely to influence source–receptor matrices and modelled source apportionment. Since usage of biofuels in small combustion units is a globally significant source, the findings presented here are also relevant for regions outside of Europe.
Highlights
There is growing evidence of associations of adverse health effects with particles originating from combustion sources (e.g. Hoek et al, 2002; WHO, 2005)
The inventory was partly based on national reported particulate matter (PM) emissions. Use of this organic aerosol inventory as input for two chemical transport models (CTMs), PMCAMx and EMEP MSC-W, revealed major underestimations of organic aerosol in winter time, especially for regions dominated by residential wood combustion (RWC)
In this paper we briefly describe the construction of the EUCAARI inventory – a high-resolution emission inventory of elemental carbon (EC) and Organic aerosol (OA) for UNECE-Europe for the year 2005
Summary
There is growing evidence of associations of adverse health effects with particles originating from combustion sources (e.g. Hoek et al, 2002; WHO, 2005). Current understanding of organic aerosol emissions suggests that more than half of the organic matter emitted from transportation sources and wood combustion evaporates as it is diluted in the atmosphere (Robinson et al, 2007). The evaluation of the model results revealed a significant underestimation of OA in winter time, especially for regions dominated by residential wood combustion (RWC) These results were consistent with an earlier study with the EMEP model (Simpson et al, 2007) comparing model predictions to measurements of the wood-burning tracer levoglucosan and other source apportionment data from the EU CARBOSOL project (Gelencsér et al, 2007). The improved inventory (TNOnewRWC) using another type of emission factor for residential wood combustion was tested in two CTMs and evaluated using available measurement data
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