Reductions in indoor black carbon concentrations from improved biomass stoves in rural India.
Deployment of improved biomass burning cookstoves is recognized as a black carbon (BC) mitigation measure that has the potential to achieve health benefits and climate cobenefits. Yet, few field based studies document BC concentration reductions (and resulting human exposure) resulting from improved stove usage. In this paper, data are presented from 277 real-world cooking sessions collected during two field studies to document the impacts on indoor BC concentrations inside village kitchens as a result of switching from traditional stoves to improved forced draft (FD) stoves. Data collection utilized new low-cost cellphone methods to monitor BC, cooking duration, and fuel consumption. A cross sectional study recorded a reduction of 36% in BC during cooking sessions. An independent paired sample study demonstrated a statistically significant reduction of 40% in 24 h BC concentrations when traditional stoves were replaced with FD stoves. Reductions observed in these field studies differ from emission factor reductions (up to 99%) observed under controlled conditions in laboratory studies. Other nonstove sources (e.g., kerosene lamps, ambient concentrations) likely offset the reductions. Health exposure studies should utilize reductions determined by field measurements inside village kitchens, in conjunction with laboratory data, to assess the health impacts of new cooking technologies.
†The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi 110 003, India.
Omkar S
OS
Patange
‡Nexleaf Analytics, 2356 Pelham Ave., Los Angeles, California 90064, United States.
Nithya
N
Ramanathan
†The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi 110 003, India.
I H
IH
Rehman
∥Department of Civil Engineering and Center for Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208016, India.
Sachi Nand
SN
Tripathi
∥Department of Civil Engineering and Center for Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208016, India.
Amit
A
Misra
⊥Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada.
Abhishek
A
Kar
‡Nexleaf Analytics, 2356 Pelham Ave., Los Angeles, California 90064, United States.
Eric
E
Graham
†The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi 110 003, India.
Lokendra
L
Singh
§Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego 92093, United States.
Ranjit
R
Bahadur
§Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego 92093, United States.
V
V
Ramanathan
D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000032:analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018533:Biomass; D002244:Carbon / Q000032:analysis; D003296:Cooking / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D006794:Household Articles; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D012424:Rural Population; D053260:Soot / Q000032:analysis*
D053260:Soot; D002244:Carbon