Emissions of carbonyl compounds from various cookstoves in China

This paper presents a new database of carbonyl emission factors for commonly used cookstoves in China. The emission factors, reported both on a fuel-mass basis (mg/ kg) and on a defined cooking-task basis (mg/task), were determined using a carbon balance approach far 22 types of fuel/stove combinations. These include various stoves (e.g., traditional, improved, brick, and metal, with and without flue) using different species of crop residues and wood, kerosene, and several types of coals and gases. The results show that all the tested cookstoves produced formaldehyde and acetaldehyde and that the vast majority of the biomass stoves produced additional carbonyl compounds such as acetone, acrolein, propionaldehyde, crotonaldehyde, 2-butanone, isobutyraldehyde, butyraldehyde, isovaleraldehyde, valeraldehyde, hexaldehyde, benzaldehyde, o-tolualdehyde, m,p-tolualdehyde, and 2,4-dimethylbenzaldehyde. Carbonyls other than formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, however, were rarely generated by burning coal, coal gas, and natural gas. Kerosene and LPG stoves generated more carbonyl compounds than coal, coal gas, and natural gas stoves, but less than biomass stoves. Indoor levels of carbonyl compounds for typical village houses during cooking hours, estimated using a mass balance model and the measured emission factors, can be high enough to cause acute health effects documented for formaldehyde exposure, depending upon house parameters and individuals' susceptibility.