Combustion Aerosol

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2020) | Viewed by 6968

Special Issue Editor

Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Interests: emissions, transport, and fate of air pollutants; indoor environmental quality

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Combustion processes are important sources of submicron aerosols. These aerosols may be directly emitted (e.g., black carbon or primary organic aerosol) or they may form in the atmosphere through photochemical reactions (e.g., sulfate or secondary organic aerosol). Even though some combustion sources have been studied for decades, our understanding of them is in nearly perpetual flux. For example, emissions standards for on-road motor vehicles have become more stringent, and wildfire occurrence and severity are projected to increase; both of these changes can have severe implications for ambient air quality and the global climate. Moreover, novel analytical tools (e.g., instrumentation, statistical techniques) are under continual development, so we now have the ability to collect and/or interpret data in ways that were simply unavailable in the past.

This Special Issue seeks original research articles and review articles encompassing the many different facets of combustion aerosols. Any combustion source will be considered, ranging from the “personal” scale (e.g., cookstove, e-cigarettes) to the urban scale (e.g., motor vehicles) to the regional/global scale (e.g., wildland fires) and all points in between (e.g., off-road engines, power plants, incinerators). We are interested in both laboratory and field measurements, as well as modeling studies ranging from box models to global chemistry–climate models. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Chemical, optical, and/or microphysical characterization of combustion aerosols;
  • Secondary aerosol formation and/or evolution of aerosol optical properties due to physicochemical processing of combustion emissions;
  • Phase partitioning of primary organic aerosols emitted from combustion sources;
  • Atmospheric transport of combustion-related aerosols;
  • Health and/or climate effects of combustion aerosols;
  • Impact of policy changes on future combustion aerosol emissions.

Source apportionment and remote sensing studies should have a strong connection to combustion aerosols for consideration; similarly, studies focusing on the development of instrumentation or computational tools should include an application to combustion aerosols. If in doubt, potential authors are encouraged to contact the guest editors with questions about the suitability of their research for the Special Issue prior to submission.

Dr. Andrew May
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • wildfires
  • cookstoves
  • motor vehicles
  • chemical characterization
  • optical properties
  • morphology
  • mixing state
  • secondary aerosols
  • atmospheric transport
  • health effects
  • climate effects

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 4727 KiB  
Article
On the Synergy between Elemental Carbon and Inorganic Ions in the Determination of the Electrical Conductance Properties of Deposited Aerosols: Implications for Energy Applications
by Luca Ferrero, Alessandra Bigogno, Amedeo M. Cefalì, Grazia Rovelli, Luca D’Angelo, Marco Casati, Niccolò Losi and Ezio Bolzacchini
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(16), 5559; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app10165559 - 11 Aug 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1639
Abstract
The role of the elemental carbon (EC), in synergy with hygroscopic ionic species, was investigated to study the formation of electrical bridging phenomena once the aerosol deliquescence is achieved. Ambient aerosol samples were collected on hydrophobic surfaces in urban and rural sites in [...] Read more.
The role of the elemental carbon (EC), in synergy with hygroscopic ionic species, was investigated to study the formation of electrical bridging phenomena once the aerosol deliquescence is achieved. Ambient aerosol samples were collected on hydrophobic surfaces in urban and rural sites in Northern Italy; their conductance was measured in an Aerosol Exposure Chamber (AEC) while varying the relative humidity. An electric signal was detected on 64% of the collected samples with conductance values (11.20 ± 7.43 μS) above the failure threshold (1 μS) of printed circuit boards. The ionic content was higher for non-electrically conductive samples (43.7 ± 5.6%) than for electrically conductive ones (37.1 ± 5.6%). Conversely, EC was two times higher for electrically conductive samples (26.4 ± 4.1 μg cm−2; 8.4 ± 1.7%) than for non-electrical ones (12.0 ± 4.1 μg cm−2; 5.2 ± 1.9%) suggesting that the synergy between the ionic and carbonaceous fractions is necessary to promote a bridging phenomenon. Synthetic aerosols (EC only, saline only, mixed saline and EC) were generated in laboratory and their conductance was measured in the AEC to verify the ambient results. Only in case of a contemporary presence of both EC and ionic components the bridging phenomenon occurred in keeping with the theoretical deliquescence values of each salt (R2 = 0.996). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Combustion Aerosol)
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16 pages, 2480 KiB  
Article
Seasonal and Long-Term Trend of on-Road Gasoline and Diesel Vehicle Emission Factors Measured in Traffic Tunnels
by Xiang Li, Timothy R. Dallmann, Andrew A. May and Albert A. Presto
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(7), 2458; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app10072458 - 03 Apr 2020
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2327
Abstract
Emissions of gaseous and particulate pollutants from on-road gasoline and diesel vehicles were measured in a traffic tunnel under real-world driving conditions. Emission factors were attributed to gasoline and diesel vehicles using linear regression against the fraction of fuel consumed by diesel vehicles [...] Read more.
Emissions of gaseous and particulate pollutants from on-road gasoline and diesel vehicles were measured in a traffic tunnel under real-world driving conditions. Emission factors were attributed to gasoline and diesel vehicles using linear regression against the fraction of fuel consumed by diesel vehicles (% fuelD). We measured 67% higher NOx emissions from gasoline vehicles in winter than in spring (2 versus 1.2 g NO2 kg fuel−1). Emissions of CO, NOx, and particulate matter from diesel vehicles all showed impacts of recent policy changes to reduce emissions from this source. Comparison of our measurements to those of a previous study ~10 years prior in a nearby traffic tunnel on the same highway showed that emission factors for both gasoline and diesel vehicles have fallen by 50–70%. To further confirm this long-term trend, we summarized emission factors measured in previous tunnel studies in the U.S. since the 1990s. More restrictive emission standards are effective at reducing emissions from both diesel and gasoline vehicles, and decreases in observed emissions can be mapped to specific vehicle control policies. The trend of diesel-to-gasoline emission factor ratios revealed changes in the relative importance of vehicle types, though fuel-specific emission factors of NOx and elemental carbon (EC) are still substantially larger (~5–10 times) for diesel vehicles than gasoline vehicles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Combustion Aerosol)
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14 pages, 2145 KiB  
Article
Thermo-Optical and Particle Number Size Distribution Characteristics of Smoldering Smoke from Biomass Burning
by Feng Wang, Qixing Zhang, Xuezhe Xu, Weixiong Zhao, Yongming Zhang and Weijun Zhang
Appl. Sci. 2019, 9(23), 5259; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app9235259 - 03 Dec 2019
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2423
Abstract
Controlled laboratory combustion experiments were conducted in the fire test room to mimic freshly emitted smoldering smoke of biomass burning in China. The biomass components were determined by ultimate analysis and proximate analysis before experiments. The particle number size distribution (PNSD) between 5 [...] Read more.
Controlled laboratory combustion experiments were conducted in the fire test room to mimic freshly emitted smoldering smoke of biomass burning in China. The biomass components were determined by ultimate analysis and proximate analysis before experiments. The particle number size distribution (PNSD) between 5 and 1000 nm of smoke was measured by a high sampling frequency size spectrometer. A cavity-enhanced aerosol albedometer with wavelength of 532 nm was used to measure scattering coefficients, extinction coefficients, and single scattering albedo (SSA) of smoldering smoke. The PNSDs of smoldering smoke from the burning of agricultural straw could be fitted with a bimodal lognormal distribution as modes around 10 nm (nucleation mode) and 60 nm (Aitken mode). The PNSDs of wood sawdust could be fitted with a trimodal lognormal distribution, while the two modes were in nucleation mode, and one was in Aitken mode. The bulk optical properties (scattering and extinction coefficients) of smoldering smoke had strong correlations with particle number concentrations of sizes bigger than 100 nm. The correlation between SSA and fixed carbon (FC) was strong (the correlation coefficient is 0.89), while the correlation between SSA and volatile matter (VM) or ash was weak. The relationship between SSA and N (or S) showed a positive correlation, while that of SSA and C showed a negative correlation. The relationship between SSA and VM/FC (or N) showed a strong linear relationship (r2 > 0.8). This paper could improve understanding of the relationship between the optical and particle size distribution properties of smoke from biomass burning and the components of biomass materials under similar combustion conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Combustion Aerosol)
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