Black and brown carbon fractal aggregates from combustion of two fuels widely used in Asian rituals

Incense sticks and mustard oil are the two most popular combustion fuels during rituals and social ceremonies in Asian countries. Given their widespread use in both closed and open burning activities, it is important to quantify the spectral radiative properties of aerosols emitted from the combustion of both fuels. This information is needed by climate models to assess the impact of these aerosols on radiative forcing. In this study, we used a 3-wavelength integrated photoacoustic-nephelometer - operating simultaneously at 405, 532 and 781 nm - to measure the optical coefficients of aerosols emitted from the laboratory combustion of mustard oil lamp and two types of incense sticks. From the measured optical coefficients at three wavelengths, time-varying single scattering albedo (SSA), absorption Ångström exponent (AAE), and scattering Ångström exponent (SAE) were calculated. For incense smoke particles, the time-averaged mean AAE values were found to be as high as 8.32 (between 405 and 532 nm) and 6.48 (between 532 and 781 nm). This spectrally-varying characteristic of AAE indicates that brown carbon - a class of organic carbon which strongly absorbs solar radiation in the blue and near ultraviolet - is the primary component of incense smoke aerosols. For aerosols emitted from the burning of mustard oil lamp, the time-averaged mean AAE values were ∼1.3 (between 405 and 781 nm) indicating that black carbon (BC) is the primary constituent. Scanning electron microscopy combined with image processing revealed the morphology of incense smoke aerosols to be non-coalescing and weakly-bound aggregates with a mean two-dimensional (2-d) fractal dimension (Df)=1.9±0.07, while the mustard oil smoke aerosols had typical fractal-like BC aggregate morphology with a mean 2-d Df=1.85±0.09.

► Incense and mustard oil burning aerosols characterized by 3-wavelength photoacoustic spectroscopy and nephelometery, and electron microscopy. ► Brown carbon is primary constituent of emissions from incense burning. ► Black carbon is primary constituent of emissions from mustard oil burning. ► Fractal aggregate morphology observed for both brown and black carbon aerosols.