Stove Performance and Emission Characteristics in Residential Wood Log and Pellet Combustion, Part 2: Wood Stove

The characteristics and quantities of a large number of gaseous and particulate emission components during combustion in a residential wood log stove with variations in fuel, appliance and operational conditions were determined experimentally. The measurement campaign included CO, NOx, organic gaseous carbon (OGC), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), total particulate matter (PMtot) as well as particle mass and number concentrations, size distributions, and inorganic composition. CO varied in the range of 1100 to 7200 mg/MJ(fuel), while OGC varied from 210 to 3300 mg/MJ(fuel). Dominating VOCs were methane, followed by ethene, acetylene, and benzene. Methane varied from 9 to 1600 mg/MJ(fuel). The nonmethane volatile organic compound (NMVOC) emissions were in the range of 20-2300 mg/MJ(fuel). The PAH(tot) emissions varied from 1.3 to 220 mg/MJ(fuel), in most cases dominated by phenantrene, fluoranthene, and pyrene. PMtot were in all cases dominated by fine particles and varied in the range 38-350 mg/MJ(fuel). The mass median particle diameters and the peak mobility diameters of the fine particles varied in the range 200-320 and 220-330 nm, respectively, and number concentrations in the range of 1-4 x 10(13) particles/MJ(fuel). Air starved conditions, at high firing intensity, gave the highest emissions, especially for hydrocarbons. This type of condition is seldom considered, though it may occur occasionally. The emissions from Swedish wood stoves, comparing a Swedish field study, are covered fairly well with the applied methodology, but other field studies report considerably higher emissions especially for diluted particle sampling.