Particle size distributions of ultrafine combustion aerosols generated from household fuels

In the present study, the number size distributions of aerosols generated from five commonly and widely used household fuels namely firewood, coal, dung cake, kerosene stove and LPG stove were investigated using scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS). Important parameters of PSD such as total number concentration, geometric mean (GM) and geometric standard deviation (GSD) for tested fuels were evaluated and compared. It was found that solid biomass (firewood and dung cake) generates higher particle number concentrations then non-solid fuels i.e. kerosene and LPG stove. For all biomass fuels the number concentrations were in the order of 107 particle/cm3. The geometric mean diameter was highest for dung cake generated aerosols, while LPG and coal generated aerosol showed lower GM diameter. The geometric mean diameter varied between 48 nm and 152 nm for all tested fuels. The geometric standard deviation values of all tested fuels revealed that in solid biomass combustion, there was more dispersion in aerosol sizes than non-solid fuels. The number concentration emitted by LPG was found to be the lowest among all fuels and the GSD was also the lowest.