Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Emissions: Laboratory Measurement of Aerosol and Trace Gas from Combustion of Manufactured Building Materials
Katherine Benedict, James E. Lee, Nitin Kumar, Prakash S. Badal, Michele Barbato, Manvendra K. Dubey, A. C. Aiken
Abstract
Wildfires are increasing in intensity and more often threatening the wildland urban interface (WUI) where buildings and homes coexist with the natural environment. WUI emissions have not been as well-studied as emissions from vegetation. Thus, there is a need to quantify the emissions of building materials used in home construction under flaming and smoldering conditions to study their impacts to human health, visibility, air quality, and climate. Here, in a controlled laboratory setting, we quantify emissions of aerosols and trace gases including formaldehyde, particulate matter, and black carbon. We focus on the combustion of traditional single-source wood-based construction fuels. Our results indicate that, similar to natural fuels, the aerosol optical properties were more related to combustion conditions than the fuel type. Overall, we observed significant variability in the gas and particle emissions. Consistent trends include high formaldehyde (HCHO) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions for smoldering conditions and higher carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), nitrogen oxides (NO x ), and black carbon for flaming conditions. These observations highlight the need to better characterize emissions for materials in the built environment to assess large-scale climate and human health impacts of fires at the WUI.