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Determination of Biomass Burning Emission Factors: Methods and Results

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African Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories and Mitigation Options: Forestry, Land-Use Change, and Agriculture

Abstract

Biomass burning, in a broad sense, encompasses different burning practices, including open and confined burnings, and different types of vegetation. Emission factors of gaseous or particulate trace compounds are directly dependent both on the fuel type and the combustion process. Emission factors are generally calculated by stoichiometric considerations using the carbon mass balance method, applied either to combustion chamber experiments or to field experiments based on ground-level measurements or aircraft sampling in smoke plumes. There have been a number of experimental studies in the last 10 years to investigate wildfires in tropical, temperate, or boreal regions. This article presents an overview of measurement methods and experimental data on emission factors of reactive or radiatively active trace compounds, including trace gases and particles. It focuses on fires in tropical regions, that is, forest and savanna fires, agricultural burns, charcoal production, use of fuelwood, and charcoal combustion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d’Aerologie (URA CNRS 354), Universite Paul Sabatier, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse Cedex, France

    R. Delmas, J. P. Lacaux & D. Brocard

Authors
  1. R. Delmas
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  2. J. P. Lacaux
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  3. D. Brocard
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Country Studies Program, Washington, D.C., USA

    John F. Fitzgerald

  2. ICF Incorporated, 1850 K St., N.W., Suite 1000, Washington, D.C., 20006, USA

    Barbara V. Braatz

  3. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

    Sandra Brown

  4. Botany Department, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

    Augustine O. Isichei

  5. University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenia

    Eric O. Odada

  6. START/ENRICH Africa Liaison, Ghana Academy of Sciences, Agustin Neto Road, P.O. Box M32, Accra, Ghana

    Eric O. Odada

  7. Division of Forest Science and Technology, CSIR, South Africa

    Robert J. Scholes

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© 1995 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Delmas, R., Lacaux, J.P., Brocard, D. (1995). Determination of Biomass Burning Emission Factors: Methods and Results. In: Fitzgerald, J.F., Braatz, B.V., Brown, S., Isichei, A.O., Odada, E.O., Scholes, R.J. (eds) African Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories and Mitigation Options: Forestry, Land-Use Change, and Agriculture. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1637-1_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1637-1_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7232-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-1637-1

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