Pre-Harvest Sugarcane Burning: Determination of Emission Factors through Laboratory Measurements

Daniela De Azeredo França,Edson Anselmo,Ely Vieira Cortez,Saulo R Freitas,Karla Maria Longo,Bernardo F T Rudorff,Turibio Gomes Soares Neto,João Andrade Carvalho,José Carlos Santos

doi:10.3390/atmos3010164

Daniela De Azeredo França, Edson Anselmo + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos3010164

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Abstract

Sugarcane is an important crop for the Brazilian economy and roughly 50% of its production is used to produce ethanol. However, the common practice of pre-harvest burning of sugarcane straw emits particulate material, greenhouse gases, and tropospheric ozone precursors to the atmosphere. Even with policies to eliminate the practice of pre-harvest sugarcane burning in the near future, there is still significant environmental damage. Thus, the generation of reliable inventories of emissions due to this activity is crucial in order to assess their environmental impact. Nevertheless, the official Brazilian emissions inventory does not presently include the contribution from pre-harvest sugarcane burning. In this context, this work aims to determine sugarcane straw burning emission factors for some trace gases and particulate material smaller than 2.5 μm in the laboratory. Excess mixing ratios for CO2, CO, NOX, UHC (unburned hydrocarbons), and PM2.5 were measured, allowing the estimation of their respective emission factors. Average estimated values for emission factors (g kg−1 of burned dry biomass) were 1,303 ± 218 for CO2, 65 ± 14 for CO, 1.5 ± 0.4 for NOX, 16 ± 6 for UHC, and 2.6 ± 1.6 for PM2.5. These emission factors can be used to generate more realistic emission inventories and therefore improve the results of air quality models.

Highlights

Biomass burning is the principal source of anthropogenic greenhouse gases and aerosols to the atmosphere in South America [1,2,3,4]
Emission factors for trace gases and particulate matter and combustion factor for sugarcane straw burning were estimated, and information was obtained about the duration and emission of chemical species during the phases of the combustion process
A good agreement between the results obtained in this study and data found in the literature was observed, especially with relation to the estimated emission factors (EF) values for CO2 and PM2.5

Summary

Introduction

Biomass burning is the principal source of anthropogenic greenhouse gases and aerosols to the atmosphere in South America [1,2,3,4]. Manual harvesting of sugarcane is an example of a current agricultural practice that uses fire. The burning practice for sugarcane residues varies worldwide. In many countries, such as Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, and Costa Rica, pre-harvest burning is a common practice. The problems related to the pre-harvest burning practice are serious in Brazil as it is the world’s largest producer of sugarcane. This type of burning has been a practice there for hundreds of years to make the manual harvest easier, but has only recently been recognized as an environmental damage and a public health issue

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