Gridded 1 km × 1 km emission inventory for paddy stubble burning emissions over north-west India constrained by measured emission factors of 77 VOCs and district-wise crop yield data

TY - JOUR

T1 - Gridded 1 km × 1 km emission inventory for paddy stubble burning emissions over north-west India constrained by measured emission factors of 77 VOCs and district-wise crop yield data

AU - Kumar, Ashish

AU - Hakkim, Haseeb

AU - Sinha, Baerbel

AU - Sinha, Vinayak

N1 - Funding Information: We acknowledge the IISER Mohali Atmospheric Chemistry Facility for data and the Ministry of Education (MoE), India for funding the facility. A.K. and H.H. acknowledge MHRD and IISER Mohali for PhD (SRF) fellowships. We acknowledge technical assistance rendered by the current and previous members of ACE and ARG research groups. Funding Information: We acknowledge the IISER Mohali Atmospheric Chemistry Facility for data and the Ministry of Education (MoE), India for funding the facility. A.K. and H.H. acknowledge MHRD and IISER Mohali for PhD (SRF) fellowships. We acknowledge technical assistance rendered by the current and previous members of ACE and ARG research groups. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2021/5/27

Y1 - 2021/5/27

N2 - Every year in the post-monsoon season, ~1.7 billion tons of paddy stubble is burnt openly in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) producing persistent smog and air quality deterioration that affects the entire IGP. Information concerning the identity, amounts and spatial distribution of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which drive ozone and aerosol formation is still largely unknown as existing global emission inventories have poor VOC speciation and rely on limited satellite overpasses for mapping burnt areas. Here, emission factors (EFs) of 77 VOCs were measured from paddy fire smoke and combined with 1 km × 1 km stubble burning activity constrained by annual crop production yields and detected fires to compile a new gridded emission inventory for 2017. Our results reveal a large source of acetaldehyde (37.5 ± 9.6 Ggy−1), 2-furaldehyde (37.1 ± 12.5 Ggy−1), acetone (34.7 ± 13.6 Ggy−1), benzene (9.9 ± 2.8 Ggy−1) and isocyanic acid (0.4 ± 0.2 Ggy−1) that are not accounted for by existing emission inventories (GFED, GFAS, FINv2.1). During October–November, these emissions (346 ± 65 Ggy−1 NMVOC; 38 ± 8 Ggy−1 NOx; 16 ± 4 Ggy−1 NH3; 129 ± 9 Ggy−1 PM2.5; 22,125 ± 3674 Ggy−1 GHG CO2 equivalents) are more than 20 times larger than corresponding emissions from traffic and municipal waste burning over north-west India. Mitigation of this source alone can therefore yield massive air-quality climate co-benefits for more than 500 million people.

AB - Every year in the post-monsoon season, ~1.7 billion tons of paddy stubble is burnt openly in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) producing persistent smog and air quality deterioration that affects the entire IGP. Information concerning the identity, amounts and spatial distribution of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which drive ozone and aerosol formation is still largely unknown as existing global emission inventories have poor VOC speciation and rely on limited satellite overpasses for mapping burnt areas. Here, emission factors (EFs) of 77 VOCs were measured from paddy fire smoke and combined with 1 km × 1 km stubble burning activity constrained by annual crop production yields and detected fires to compile a new gridded emission inventory for 2017. Our results reveal a large source of acetaldehyde (37.5 ± 9.6 Ggy−1), 2-furaldehyde (37.1 ± 12.5 Ggy−1), acetone (34.7 ± 13.6 Ggy−1), benzene (9.9 ± 2.8 Ggy−1) and isocyanic acid (0.4 ± 0.2 Ggy−1) that are not accounted for by existing emission inventories (GFED, GFAS, FINv2.1). During October–November, these emissions (346 ± 65 Ggy−1 NMVOC; 38 ± 8 Ggy−1 NOx; 16 ± 4 Ggy−1 NH3; 129 ± 9 Ggy−1 PM2.5; 22,125 ± 3674 Ggy−1 GHG CO2 equivalents) are more than 20 times larger than corresponding emissions from traffic and municipal waste burning over north-west India. Mitigation of this source alone can therefore yield massive air-quality climate co-benefits for more than 500 million people.

KW - Biomass burning

KW - Emission factors

KW - Furaldehyde

KW - Gridded emission inventory

KW - VOC speciation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107999620&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148064

DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148064

M3 - Article

C2 - 34323834

AN - SCOPUS:85107999620

SN - 0048-9697

VL - 789

JO - Science of the Total Environment

JF - Science of the Total Environment

M1 - 148064

ER -