Air quality—climate forcing double whammy from domestic firelighters

Chunshui Lin, Darius Ceburnis, Aditya Vaishya, Anna Trubetskaya, Yue Tan, Tao Wang, William Smith, Robert Johnson, Wei Xu, Rory F.D. Monaghan, Colin O’Dowd*, Jurgita Ovadnevaite*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
35 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Renewable biomass plays a crucial role in transitioning toward climate-friendly heating sources; however, not without its collateral damage in terms of the disproportionately high effects on local air quality. The associated proliferation of residential heating appliances around the world, including developed regions like Europe, where an estimated 70 million are housed, does not appear to be abating. Here, we identify super self-concentrating ambient pollution events whereby solid-fuel residential heating haze is infused with a hitherto unaccounted for firelighter smoke that contributes additional adsorbing black carbon. This black carbon-organic aerosol combination results in a strong positive radiative forcing (up to 149 W m−2) and alters the boundary layer thermodynamics sufficiently so as to further suppress pollutant dilution and dispersion leading to extraordinary high submicron particulate matter (PM1: 166 µg m−3). Unfortunately, there is no silver lining in this cloud until the promotion of solid biomass fires with firelighters for ignition is replaced by a co-benefit policy.

Original languageEnglish
Article number101
Number of pages8
Journalnpj Climate and Atmospheric Science
Volume6
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Jul 2023
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

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