PCDD/Fs, PCB and HCB Emissions from Rural Wood Stoves: A Preliminary Evaluation in Mexico

Abstract

The Stockholm Convention (SC) on POPs obliges its parties to compile national emission inventories for unintentionally reseased POPs. In order to fill existing gaps what regards emission factors (EFs) for development country (DC) specific processes, an experiment on different kind of woodstoves was executed in a co-operattion berween the secretariate of the SC, UNEP, the National institute for Ecology in Mexico and the JRC. The experiment aimed at evaluating POPs emissions from different types of stoves that are being introduced in DCs in order to replace cooking on open fire, thereby reducing the impact on indoor air quality. The EFs were in a range of 120 ug PCDD/F/PCB TEQ per TJ and confirmed the range of 100 ug PCDD/F/PCB TEQ per TJ virgin wood as assumed in the existing toolkit for more sofisticated stoves as applied in developed countries.JRC.DDG.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resource