Saccharides as Particulate Matter Tracers of Biomass Burning: A Review

Beatrice Vincenti, Enrico Paris, Monica Carnevale, Adriano Palma, Ettore Guerriero, Domenico Borello, Valerio Paolini and Francesco Gallucci
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Beatrice Vincenti: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Center of Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Via della Pascolare 16, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Enrico Paris: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Center of Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Via della Pascolare 16, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Monica Carnevale: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Center of Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Via della Pascolare 16, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Adriano Palma: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Center of Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Via della Pascolare 16, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Ettore Guerriero: National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research (CNR-IIA), Via Salaria km 29,300, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Domenico Borello: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, Italy
Valerio Paolini: National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research (CNR-IIA), Via Salaria km 29,300, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Francesco Gallucci: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Center of Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Via della Pascolare 16, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 7, 1-20

Abstract: The adverse effects of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) on health and ecosystems, as well as on meteorology and climate change, are well known to the scientific community. It is therefore undeniable that a good understanding of the sources of PM is crucial for effective control of emissions and to protect public health. One of the major contributions to atmospheric PM is biomass burning, a practice used both in agriculture and home heating, which can be traced and identified by analyzing sugars emitted from the combustion of cellulose and hemicellulose that make up biomass. In this review comparing almost 200 selected articles, we highlight the most recent studies that broaden such category of tracers, covering research publications on residential wood combustions, open-fire or combustion chamber burnings and ambient PM in different regions of Asia, America and Europe. The purpose of the present work is to collect data in the literature that indicate a direct correspondence between biomass burning and saccharides emitted into the atmosphere with regard to distinguishing common sugars attributed to biomass burning from those that have co-causes of issue. In this paper, we provide a list of 24 compounds, including those most commonly recognized as biomass burning tracers (i.e., levoglucosan, mannosan and galactosan), from which it emerges that monosaccharide anhydrides, sugar alcohols and primary sugars have been widely reported as organic tracers for biomass combustion, although it has also been shown that emissions of these compounds depend not only on combustion characteristics and equipment but also on fuel type, combustion quality and weather conditions. Although it appears that it is currently not possible to define a single compound as a universal indicator of biomass combustion, this review provides a valuable tool for the collection of information in the literature and identifies analytes that can lead to the determination of patterns for the distribution between PM generated by biomass combustion.

Keywords: biomass burning; saccharides; anhydrosugars; sugar alcohols; tracers; PM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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