Emissions Measurements from Household Solid Fuel Use in Haryana, India: Implications for Climate and Health Co-benefits

Abstract

A large concern with estimates of climate and health co-benefits of “clean” cookstoves from controlled emissions testing is whether results represent what actually happens in real homes during normal use. A growing body of evidence indicates that in-field emissions during daily cooking activities differ substantially from values obtained in laboratories, with correspondingly different estimates of co-benefits. We report PM_(2.5) emission factors from uncontrolled cooking (n = 7) and minimally controlled cooking tests (n = 51) using traditional chulha and angithi stoves in village kitchens in Haryana, India. Minimally controlled cooking tests (n = 13) in a village kitchen with mixed dung and brushwood fuels were representative of uncontrolled field tests for fine particulate matter (PM_(2.5)), organic and elemental carbon (p > 0.5), but were substantially higher than previously published water boiling tests using dung or wood. When the fraction of nonrenewable biomass harvesting, elemental, and organic particulate emissions and modeled estimates of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) are included in 100 year global warming commitments (GWC₁₀₀), the chulha had a net cooling impact using mixed fuels typical of the region. Correlation between PM_(2.5) emission factors and GWC (R² = 0.99) implies these stoves are climate neutral for primary PM_(2.5) emissions of 8.8 ± 0.7 and 9.8 ± 0.9 g PM_(2.5)/kg dry fuel for GWC₂₀ and GWC₁₀₀, respectively, which is close to the mean for biomass stoves in global emission inventories.