A study for development of emission factors for trace gases and carbonaceous particulate species from in situ burning of wheat straw in agricultural fields in india

• Published in: Atmospheric environment (1994) 2007-12, Vol.41 (39), p.9173-9186
• Main Authors: Sahai, Shivraj, Sharma, C., Singh, D.P., Dixit, C.K., Singh, Nahar, Sharma, P., Singh, K., Bhatt, S., Ghude, S., Gupta, V., Gupta, Raj K., Tiwari, M.K., Garg, S.C., Mitra, A.P., Gupta, Prabhat K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural crop residue; Applied sciences; Atmospheric pollution; Biomass; Carbonaceous aerosols; Dispersed sources and other; Exact sciences and technology; Greenhouse gases; Inventory estimation; Pollution; Pollution sources. Measurement results; Triticum aestivum
• ISSN: 1352-2310; 1873-2844
• DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2007.07.054

Major crops subject to field burning of crop residue (FBCR) generated an estimated 284 Tg of residue in India, of which 40% was contributed by wheat in the year 2000. About 7.5% of this total generated wheat straw was subjected to on-site burning, that is expected to emit large amounts of trace gases and particulate matter (PM) to the atmosphere, whose country-specific estimates and emission factors (EFs) are presently not available. An in situ experiment for wheat straw burning was undertaken for developing India specific EFs. The EFs of CO 2 , CH 4 , CO, N 2 O , NO x , NO and NO 2 were found to be 1787 ± 36 , 3.6 ± 2.7 , 28.1 ± 20.1 , 0.74 ± 0.46 , 1.70 ± 1.68 , 0.78 ± 0.71 and 0.56 ± 0.47 g kg - 1 , whereas those for organic carbon (OC), black carbon (BC) and total carbon (TC) were 0.3 ± 0.1 , 0.2 ± 0.1 , and 0.5 ± 0.2 g kg - 1 , respectively. Although these EFs have been generated from a single field experiment nevertheless they address important information gap on FBCR in the region. Further, the total emissions of CH 4 , CO 2 , CO, N 2 O , NO x , NO, NO 2 , OC, BC and TC from wheat straw burning in India for the year 2000 was estimated as 68 ± 51 , 34435 ± 682 , 541 ± 387 , 14 ± 9 , 33 ± 32 , 15 ± 14 , 11 ± 9 , 6 ± 2 , 3 ± 1 and 10 ± 4 Gg, respectively.