Atmospheric Environment 42 (2008) 8432–8441

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Atmospheric Environment
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A laboratory study of agricultural crop residue combustion in

China: Emission factors and emission inventory
Hefeng Zhang a, Xingnan Ye a, Tiantao Cheng a, Jianmin Chen a, *, Xin Yang a, *,
Lin Wang b, Renyi Zhang b
a
Center of Atmospheric Chemistry Studies, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Handan Road 220, Shanghai 200433, China
b
Department of Atmospheric Science, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The burning of agricultural crop residue represents a major source of trace gases (CO, CO2,
Received 9 May 2008 NO, NO2, and NOx) and particulate matter on a regional and global scale. This study
Received in revised form 11 August 2008 investigates the gaseous and particulate emissions from the burning of rice, wheat and
Accepted 11 August 2008
corn straws, which are three major agricultural crop residues in China, using a self-built
burning stove and an aerosol chamber. Emission factors of CO2, CO, NO, NO2 and NOx were
Keywords:
measured to be 791.3, 64.2, 1.02, 0.79 and 1.81 g kg1 for rice straw, 1557.9, 141.2, 0.79, 0.32
Agricultural crop residue
and 1.12 g kg1 for wheat straw, and 1261.5, 114.7, 0.85, 0.43 and 1.28 g kg1 for corn straw,
Gaseous pollutant
Emission factor respectively. The corresponding emission factors of particle number are 1.8  1013,
Emission inventory 1.0  1013, and 1.7  1013 particles kg1, respectively. The total emissions of CO, CO2, and
Emission allocation NOx from rice, wheat and corn straw burnings in China for the year 2004 were estimated to
be 22.59, 252.92, and 0.28 Tg, respectively. The percentages of CO, CO2, and NOx to the total
emissions were 13.9%, 15.3%, and 31.4% for rice straw, 32.9%, 32.5%, and 20.9% for wheat
straw, and 53.2%, 52.2%, and 47.6% for corn straw, respectively. In addition, the emission
allocations of agricultural crop residue burning were also plotted in different regions of
China using a simple geographic information system (GIS).
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction global atmospheric chemistry and global climate change

China has a large rural population whose major energy
source has been biofuel (crop residue) for the last two
decades. However, the rapid economic development has
increased the consumption of commercial energy in rural
areas. As a result, not being used for domestic energy, more
agricultural residues have been directly burned in the field,
especially in grain-producing regions with low population
densities, industrially developed regions, and fossil-
producing regions (Cao et al., 2006). The burning of crop
residue has also been considered as an important source of
atmospheric trace species with significant impacts on
* Corresponding authors. Tel.: þ86 21 6564 2521; fax: þ86 21 6564
2080.
E-mail addresses: jmchen@fudan.edu.cn (J. Chen), yangxin@fudan.
edu.cn (X. Yang).
(Levine et al., 1995; Andreae and Merlet, 2001). Active trace
gases emitted from biofuel burning, such as carbon
monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxide (NOx), are precursors of
tropospheric ozone (O3) that reduce the tropospheric
concentration of the extremely reactive hydroxyl radical
(OH) (Logan et al., 1981; Mauzerall et al., 1998), which
possesses a greater threat to human health.
Trace gas emissions from the burning of agricultural
crop residue in China, including domestic and field burning,
were previously studied by Zhuang et al. (1996). A more
complete estimate of trace gas and aerosol emissions from
biomass burning in China, including biofuel combustion,
field burning of agricultural crop residue, and forest and
grassland fires, has been summarized in detail (Streets
et al., 2003). The contribution of biomass burning to the
total emissions of atmospheric trace species in China,
including forest and grassland fires, fuel wood consumption,

1352-2310/$ – see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2008.08.015
 H. Zhang et al. / Atmospheric Environment 42 (2008) 8432–8441
and the burning of agricultural crop residue, was assessed
by Yan et al. (2006) using statistical data, survey data,
expert estimates and a satellite data set. In addition, a few
other estimates of emissions from the open burning of
agricultural crop residue in China have been studied, for
example, CO (Palmer et al., 2003; Pétron et al., 2004), black
carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC) emissions (Cao et al.,
2006), particulate emissions (Li et al., 2007), and emission
impacts (Cheng et al., 2000), etc. However, because of the
difficulty of isolating gaseous pollutants and reducing
uncertainties concerning in domestic and field burning
(Li et al., 2007; Sahai et al., 2007), chamber studies can provide
the possibility of a precise understanding of such processes.
Emission inventories and emission allocations of trace
species are important for model application and analysis.
Detailed emission inventories of BC and OC from China in
the year 2000 were presented by Cao et al. (2006),
including gridded emissions at 0.2  0.2 resolution. The
emissions from a broader level inventory to finely gridded
emission values may be distributed using Geographic
Information System (GIS) (USEPA, 1998). Streets et al.
(2003) used GIS for gridding emissions for several gaseous
pollutants over the Indian and East Asian regions and
provided some useful information on a broader scale. In
China, Cao et al. (2005) reported gridding emissions of NOx
from biomass burning for the year 2000. However, little
work has been done on the emission inventories and
emission allocations of gaseous pollutants (such as CO, CO2,
and NOx) from the burning of agricultural crop residue
(rice, wheat and corn straws) in China.
This paper reports on a laboratory program for the
systematic study of the emission characteristics of rice,
wheat and corn straw burnings in China that has been
performed in the Aerosol Chamber of Fudan University (AC-
FU) in Shanghai. The emission factor, emission inventory
and emission allocation of gaseous pollutants from the
burning of rice, wheat and corn straws are discussed,
respectively. The concentrations and emission factors of
particle number (PN) are also presented.
2. Experimental section
2.1. Experimental system
The experimental system consisted of a self-designed
combustion stove and a stainless-steel environmental aero-
sol chamber at Fudan University (AC-FU) of 4.5 m3 (Fig. 1),
equipped with a set of analytical instruments. The diameter
of the combustion stove was 60 cm and its height was 80 cm.
Air was introduced into the combustion stove through a port
on the bottom. The top of the stove was connected to the
aerosol chamber through a stainless steel tube (diameter
16 mm). AC-FU was able to control temperature from 203 K
to 373 K and pressure from 14 Pa to 0.22 MPa. Its inner-wall
was plated by a PTFE-Teflon layer of about 0.3 mm in thick-
ness. The chamber was easily cleaned up by gas-blowing and
other methods through a manhole. A hygroclip monitor
(model IM-4, Rotronic) was used to measure the temperature
and relative humidity (RH) inside the chamber. A mixing
fan was installed at the bottom of the chamber to give
the air in the chamber full mixture. Moreover, AC-FU had
8433
supplementary instruments to clean, dry and remove static
before particles and gases were injected and dispersed into
the chamber. All technical properties of AC-FU were
completely tested and characterized before the campaign.
2.2. Experiment process
Rice, wheat and corn straws were chosen as represen-
tatives of agricultural crop residue. The rice straw was
collected from a rural field in the suburbs of Shanghai, and
the wheat and corn straws were from a rural region in Hebei
province, China. Agricultural crop straw was weighed before
and after each burning, and the unburned fraction and ash
were collected for weighing with an analytical balance
(Sartorius BP211D, resolving ability 10 mg). Before each
burning, the chamber was purged by scrubbing and blowing
air and then vacuumed to below 100 Pa. The agricultural
crop straw was ignited with a propane torch in the stove. The
processes of burning could be observed through the glass
window of the stove. Then, the smoke produced was
introduced into the chamber immediately by turning on the
controlling valve until the pressure between the inside and
the outside was equal. Gaseous pollutants were sampled
every 15 min for analysis. In the experimental processes,
ambient air was introduced into the chamber through an
activated charcoal filter and a filter, to maintain the pressure
equilibrium in the chamber.
2.3. Sampling instruments
Chemiluminescence NO–NO2–NOx analyzer (Model 42i,
Thermo Environmental Instrumental Inc.) was used to
measure NO, NO2, and NOx concentrations. Particle number
concentrations were determined using a condensation
particle counter (CPC) (model 3771, TSI.). CO and CO2 were
analyzed by a gas chromatograph (GC930, Shanghai Hai Xin
Gas Chromatograph Instrument CO., LTD) equipped with
a flame ionization detector and a Ni–hydrogen converter
where both CO and CO2 were converted into CH4.
2.4. CO and CO2 standard curve preparation
The CO and CO2 calibration curves were made by inject-
ing standard CO and CO2 gases into a gas chromatograph.
Before calibration, 2 ml CO standard gas was diluted with
Argon gas to a final volume of 500 ml. The amounts of CO2
used for calibration were 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 200, 400, 600,
800, and 1000 ml, while the diluted CO were 10, 20, 40, 60, 80,
100, 150, 200 ml, separately. Each injected gas volume and
the corresponding peak area produced by the gas injection
were recorded simultaneously, to allow one to determine
the equations of the calibration curves. Both CO and CO2
calibration curves were linear with R2 values exceeding 0.99.
2.5. Emission factor (EF), combustion efficiency (CE)
and emission ratio (ER)
Emission factors (EFs) of gaseous pollutants were calcu-
lated by dividing the mass of emission by the mass of the fuel
consumed, and expressed as grams of emission per kilograms
of consumed fuel (g kg1). The fundamental definition of the
8434 H. Zhang et al. / Atmospheric Environment 42 (2008) 8432–8441
Fig. 1. Schematic graph of the experiment system: (a) burning stove, (b) aerosol chamber and associated instruments.
fuel-based emission factor is the mass of released compound
per unit mass of consumed fuel (Andreae and Merlet, 2001)
which is described by the following equation:
EFi ¼ Mi =Mfuel
where EFi is the emission factor of species i; Mfuel is mass of
burned fuel; Mi is mass of emitted species i.
Particle number emission factors were calculated using
the following equation:
EF ¼ Cav V=m
1
where EF is the emission factor (particles kg ); Cav is the
average particle number concentration (particles cm3); V
is the chamber volume (cm3); m is the burned mass (kg).
Combustion efficiency (CE) is defined as the ratio of
released carbon in the form of CO2 to the total mass of
carbon released during combustion (Ward et al., 1992). It
may be used to determine the completeness of released
carbon oxidization during the combustion of biomass fuels
and may be given by the quantified equation:
CE ¼ C½CO2  =C½total (3)
(1)
where C½CO2  is the fraction of emitted carbon in form of CO2;
C[total] represents the total carbon of gaseous and particu-
late emissions.
Emission ratio (ER) relative to CO2 is determined by dividing
the excess mixing ratio above the ambient background level by
the excess mixing ratio of simultaneously measured CO2.
(2)
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Emission factors of gaseous pollutants and particle
numbers
Emission factors (EFs) of gaseous pollutants emitted
from the burning of rice, wheat and corn straws are shown
 H. Zhang et al. / Atmospheric Environment 42 (2008) 8432–8441 8435

in Table 1. For each kind of straw, four burning tests were 2000 3.2
rice straw wheat straw corn straw

CO, CO2 emission factors

conducted successively. About 20 g of straw was burned for 1800 2.8

emission factors (g/kg)

each experiment. 1600

NO, NO2 and NOx

2.4
The average emission factors of CO2 from four tests were 1400
calculated to be 791.3  12.5 (rice straw), 1557.9  85.8 1200 2.0

(wheat straw), and 1261.5  59.9 g kg1 (corn straw), the
CO EFs were 64.2  4.9 (rice straw), 141.2  14.8 (wheat
straw), and 114.7  12.4 g kg1 (corn straw), while the NOx
were 1.81  0.09 (rice straw), 1.12  0.19 (wheat straw), and
1.28  0.04 g kg1 (corn straw), respectively. For NO and
NO2, NO EFs of rice straw (1.02  0.03 g kg1), wheat straw
(0.79  0.13 g kg1) and corn straw (0.85  0.06 g kg1)
were significantly higher than NO2 EFs of rice straw
(0.79  0.05 g kg1), wheat straw (0.32  0.06 g kg1) and
corn straw (0.43  0.03 g kg1), respectively. Emission
factors of CO2 in our study were comparable to the EFs
reported in the literature (de Zarate et al., 2000; Zhang
et al., 2000; Andreae and Merlet, 2001; Air Sciences Inc.,
2003a,b; Sahai et al., 2007; Li et al., 2007). Emission factors
of CO were also in reasonable agreement with the pub-
lished values (Zhang et al., 2000; Andreae and Merlet,
2001; Dhammapala et al., 2006; Li et al., 2007). However,
emission factors of NOx in our study were lower than those
from other reported biomass burnings such as wheat straw
(2.63 g kg1, 1.70  1.68 g kg1) (Dennis et al., 2002; Sahai
et al., 2007), agricultural residues (2.5  1.0 g kg1)
(Andreae and Merlet, 2001), and wheat straw and corn
straw (3.3  1.7 g kg1, 4.3  1.8 g kg1) (Li et al., 2007). This
could probably be explained by the fact that NOx emissions
were related to the N content and/or physical properties of
crop residue.
Comparison of gaseous pollutant emission factors from
the burning of rice, wheat and corn straws is presented in
Fig. 2. The error bars in the figure represent standard
deviations in four repeated burnings.
For all of the gaseous pollutants measured in our study,
the emission factors of CO and CO2 followed the order of
wheat straw > corn straw > rice straw, while the NOx EFs
were in the order of rice straw > corn straw > wheat straw.
The differences in EFs were attributed to the fact that the
wheat and corn straws used in this experiment were
planted in northern China while the rice straw was from
southeastern China. Different growing regions could be
responsible for the different C, N contents in wheat, corn
(g/kg)
1000 1.6
800 1.2
600
0.8
400
200 0.4
0 0.0
CO CO2 NO NO2 NOx
Fig. 2. A comparison of gaseous pollutant emission factors from burning of
rice, wheat and corn straws.
and rice straws. Moreover, the physical properties of crop
residue, such as densities and moisture content, could
affect burning conditions, which could further affect the
emission factors of gaseous pollutants.
Particle number concentrations and particle number
emission factors from rice, wheat and corn straw
burnings are shown in Table 2. The particle number
concentrations were (7.3  0.3)  104, (3.9  0.7)  104, and
(7.5  0.6)  104 particles cm3 for rice, wheat, and corn
straws, respectively. It may be noticed that wheat straw
burning produced lower particle number concentration
than rice and corn straw burnings. There is little data on
particle number concentrations of agricultural crop residue
burning. Considering the similarity between agricultural
fires and wood fires, we compared our results with
previous studies on wood fires. The particle number
concentrations of rice, corn and wheat straw burnings in
our study were comparable with the particle number
concentrations from log burning in different combustion
systems which varied from 0.4  104 to 1.5  107 parti-
cles cm3 (Wieser and Gaegauf, 2005). The particle number
emission factors were (1.8  0.1)  1013, (1.0  0.1)  1013,
and (1.7  0.1)  1013 particles kg1 for rice, wheat, and
corn straws, respectively. It may be seen that particle
number emission factors from the burning of rice and corn
straws were higher than those from wheat straw. Due to
the absence of data on particle number emission factors for
crop residue burning, we compared our results with those

Table 1
Emission factors of gas pollutions emitted from burning of rice, wheat and corn straws (g kg1)a

Chemical species Rice straw (n ¼ 4) Wheat straw (n ¼ 4) Corn straw (n ¼ 4) Literature

CO 64.2  4.9 141.2  14.8 114.7  12.4 52.9  8.0,b 92  84,d 99.9  32.7,g 60  23,i 53  4.0i
CO2 791.3  12.5 1557.9  85.8 1261.5  59.9 1515  177,d 1787  36,e 1400,f 1225  101,g 1540–1615,h
1470  46,i 1350  16i
NO2 0.79  0.05 0.32  0.06 0.43  0.03 0.56  0.47e
NO 1.02  0.03 0.79  0.13 0.85  0.06 0.78  0.71e
NOx 1.81  0.09 1.12  0.19 1.28  0.04 2.63,c 2.5  1.0,d 1.70  1.68,e 3,f 0.89  0.48,g 3.3  1.7,i 4.3  1.8i
a
Dry fuel mass basis. The result in our study was given as average emission factor and standard deviation.
b
Dhammapala et al. (2006); wheat.
c
Dennis et al. (2002); wheat.
d
Andreae and Merlet (2001); agricultural residue.
e
Sahai et al. (2007); wheat straw.
f
de Zarate et al. (2000); cereal waste.
g
Zhang et al. (2000); wheat residue burned as fuel.
h
Air Sciences Inc (2003a,b); wheat residue.
i
Li et al. (2007); wheat straw and corn stover.
8436 H. Zhang et al. / Atmospheric Environment 42 (2008) 8432–8441

Table 2
Particle number concentrations and particle number emission factors from burning of rice, wheat and corn straws

Type of crop residue Rice straw Wheat straw Corn straw

Parameter Chamber temp. ( C)a 24.1 27.5 23.7
Chamber RH (%)b 71.3 58.9 69.3
Num.c 4 4 4

Particle number Maxd (particles cm3) 7.9  104 4.9  104 8.7  104
concentration Mine (particles cm3) 6.7  104 3.2  104 6.9  104
Mean (particles cm3) 7.3  104 3.9  104 7.5  104
SDf 0.3  104 0.7  104 0.6  104
CVg 0.05 0.17 0.08

Particle number emission factor (particles kg1) (1.8  0.1) 1013 (1.0  0.1) 1013 (1.7  0.1)1013
a
Average temperature.
b
Average relative humidity.
c
Number of experiments.
d
Maximum.
e
Minimum.
f
Standard deviation.
g
Coefficient of variance (CV ¼ SD/mean).

reported by Wardoyo et al. (2006), who presented them for
slow burning conditions. The average particle number
emission factors in their work were in the range of 2.8–
44.8  1013 particles kg1 for woods, 0.5–9.3  1013 parti-
cles kg1 for leaves and branches, respectively. Our results
were consistent with these previous studies.
3.2. Emission ratio of CO and NOx and modified combustion
efficiency (MCE)
Emission ratio (ERs) of CO and NOx to CO2 from rice,
wheat and corn straw burning are shown in Table 3, in
which the mean values were derived from the averaging of
four burnings for each fuel type.
In our study, the emission ratios (ERs) of CO to CO2 were
8.1  0.7% for rice straw, 9.1  0.5% for wheat straw, and
9.1  0.7% for corn straw, respectively. Crutzen and Andreae
(1990) reported that the typical ER of CO to CO2 was lower
than 0.1 during the flaming phase, while during the smol-
dering phase it could increase up to 0.2–0.3. It may clearly
be seen that the ER of CO to CO2 in our experiment was
much less than 0.1, indicating that the burning of crop
residue was dominated by the flaming phase. Moreover,
the ER of CO to CO2 in our tests was found to be similar to
those determined from other biofuels and burning prac-
tices in the literature (Hurst et al., 1994; Lacaux et al., 1996;
Ward and Hardy, 1991; Cofer et al., 1991). ER of NOx to CO2
averaged at 0.19  0.03% for rice straw, 0.07  0.005% for
wheat straw, and 0.10  0.005% for corn straw, respectively.
The NOx ER was comparable with the data from Andreae
(1991) and Lacaux et al. (1996). However, our result was
higher than those of Crutzen and Andreae (1990) and
Delmas et al. (1995), which could probably be explained by
the fact that NOx emissions are related to the nitrogen
content of the biofuel (Prasad et al., 2000; Lee et al., 2005).
It is well known that flaming and smoldering combus-
tion is less separated during the measurements of real-
world fires. Each fuel corresponds to a multicycle burn of
ignition, flaming, and smoldering stages. Combustion
phases of real-world fires can be divided using combustion
efficiency (CE). Alternatively, if only CO2 and CO are
measured, the modified combustion efficiency (MCE) can
be used to distinguish flaming and smoldering combustion
ðMCE ¼ C½CO2  =ðC½CO2  þ C½CO ÞÞ. The flaming combustion
usually exhibits the highest MCE (0.9–1) (Reid et al., 2005),
suggesting the remarkable influence of modified combus-
tion efficiency (MCE) on the partition of flaming and
smoldering. Modified combustion efficiency (MCE) in our
study was 0.93, 0.92, and 0.92 for rice, wheat, and corn
straw, respectively (Table 3). This suggested that the
burning process of agricultural crop residue was dominated
by the flaming combustion in our laboratory tests.
3.3. Yield estimate of agricultural crop residue
In order to evaluate emissions of gaseous pollutants from
the burning of rice, wheat and corn straws – the three major
agricultural residues in China, we first need to estimate the

Table 3
Emission ratio (ER) and modified combustion efficiency (MCE) from burning of rice, wheat and corn straws

Rice straw Wheat straw Corn straw

CO/CO2 NOx/CO2 MCE CO/CO2 NOx/CO2 MCE CO/CO2 NOx/CO2 MCE

1 0.092 0.0014 0.915 0.096 0.0006 0.912 0.076 0.0010 0.929
2 0.083 0.0019 0.924 0.081 0.0007 0.925 0.095 0.0009 0.913
3 0.068 0.0025 0.936 0.090 0.0008 0.918 0.098 0.0011 0.911
4 0.082 0.0019 0.924 0.096 0.0007 0.913 0.093 0.0010 0.915
Ava 0.081 0.0019 0.925 0.091 0.0007 0.917 0.091 0.0010 0.917
SDb 0.007 0.00030 0.006 0.005 0.00005 0.005 0.007 0.00005 0.006
a
Average value.
b
Standard deviation.
 H. Zhang et al. / Atmospheric Environment 42 (2008) 8432–8441 8437

Table 4
National and provincial estimated amounts of agricultural crop residue (rice, wheat and corn straws) and those burned in the field and as domestic fuel in
2004 (Gg)

Province Agricultural crop residue (Gg) Agricultural crop residue burned in the Agricultural crop residue burned as
field (Gg) domestic fuel (Gg)

Rice straw Wheat straw Corn straw Rice straw Wheat straw Corn straw Rice straw Wheat straw Corn straw
Beijing 6.29 251.48 644.00 2.83 113.17 289.80 1.60 51.05 159.07
Tianjin 35.20 490.53 1296.20 14.26 198.66 524.96 8.98 99.58 320.16
Hebei 255.80 13,917.22 21,471.40 61.90 3367.97 5196.08 28.91 1572.65 2426.27
Shanxi 7.73 3496.69 9539.00 1.61 730.81 1993.65 0.46 206.30 562.80
Neimenggu 280.35 1078.59 17,774.00 59.71 229.74 3785.86 71.49 218.95 4390.18
Liaoning 2189.22 84.69 18,144.00 461.93 17.87 3828.38 757.47 29.30 6277.82
Jilin 1982.39 81.96 32,306.00 414.32 17.13 6751.95 505.51 16.64 7979.58
Heilongjiang 5250.64 542.30 16,618.00 1176.14 121.48 3722.43 1160.39 119.85 3672.58
Shanghai 512.11 100.95 63.00 249.40 49.16 30.68 152.61 30.08 18.77
Jiangsu 8750.91 8314.98 3945.00 2992.81 2843.72 1349.19 2966.56 2818.78 1337.36
Zhejiang 4030.19 284.67 430.00 1716.86 121.27 183.18 673.04 47.54 71.81
Anhui 6003.85 8780.65 5212.00 1122.72 1641.98 974.64 1050.67 1536.61 912.10
Fujian 3261.03 37.84 232.40 1059.84 12.30 75.53 136.96 1.59 9.76
Jiangxi 8476.16 39.48 125.40 1839.33 8.57 27.21 1000.19 4.66 14.80
Shandong 485.25 21,378.31 28,220.40 128.59 5665.25 7478.41 95.11 4190.15 5531.20
Henan 1496.26 31,315.55 15,326.20 294.76 6169.16 3019.26 335.16 7014.68 3433.07
Hubei 8356.24 2259.64 3350.00 1955.36 528.76 783.90 3877.29 1048.47 1554.40
Hunan 12,897.22 225.25 2571.00 2876.08 50.23 573.33 877.01 15.32 174.83
Guangdong 7292.22 22.27 1062.60 2654.37 8.10 386.79 1531.37 4.68 223.15
Guangxi 7492.82 23.77 3194.00 1251.30 3.97 533.40 1910.67 4.82 788.92
Hainan 893.38 0.00 122.80 269.80 0.00 37.09 89.34 0.00 12.28
Chongqing 3097.18 1144.71 4140.00 600.85 222.07 803.16 789.78 232.38 1022.58
Sichuan 9170.00 5821.89 10,346.00 1824.83 1158.56 2058.85 4915.12 3120.53 5545.46
Guizhou 2861.44 1019.04 6398.00 429.22 152.86 959.70 572.29 203.81 1279.60
Yunnan 3961.59 1698.62 7998.60 451.62 193.64 911.84 1010.21 344.82 1975.65
Xizang 3.49 371.96 32.40 0.30 31.62 2.75 0.89 75.51 8.00
Shananxi 470.37 5402.53 7464.00 69.61 799.57 1104.67 119.47 1372.24 1895.86
Gansu 22.30 3721.80 4888.60 3.70 617.82 811.51 4.55 759.25 997.27
Qinghai 0.00 502.69 0.00 0.00 50.77 0.00 0.00 102.05 0.00
Ningxia 230.76 1032.83 2398.60 46.38 207.60 482.12 63.69 285.06 662.01
Xinjiang 316.05 4700.41 6346.80 60.68 902.48 1218.59 80.59 954.18 1567.66

Total 100,088.44 118,143.29 231,660.40 24,091.12 26,236.29 49,898.92 24,787.37 26,481.53 54,824.99

Bold indicated that the burning ratio of agricultural crop residue burned as domestic fuel was referred to the national average level.

amount of agricultural crop residue. Based on extensive
survey data, Gao et al. (2002) presented the percentage
of crop residue used as domestic fuel in 21 provinces of
China. Compared with the corresponding government-
generated statistics, the percentage of crop residue burned
for domestic fuel in individual provinces seems more
reasonable and agrees better with other survey results (Yan
et al., 2006). So we used Gao et al.’s percentage data to
estimate the amount of crop residue burned as domestic fuel
for the year 2004. For provinces not listed by Gao et al.
(2002), the average percentages for crop residue burned for
fuel for the whole country were adopted, i.e. 25.5%, 20.3%,
and 24.7% for rice, wheat, and corn straws, respectively.
Agricultural crop residues are not only burned as
domestic fuel, they are also burned directly in the field,
especially during harvest seasons, which can result in
serious local and regional environmental pollution (Guo
et al., 2004; Duan et al., 2004). Although the open burning
of crop residue has been a common practice in China,
unfortunately, the literature related to open burning of
agricultural waste is limited (Li et al., 2007). Cao et al.
(2006) deduced that the amount of crop residue openly
burned was proportional to peasants’ income level, and
this hypothesis was supported by investigations in Henan
Province (Chen, 2001). Consequently, we used this method
to estimate the proportion of crop residue burned openly
in the field.
National and provincial estimates of the amounts of
agricultural crop residue and those burned as domestic fuel
and in the field in China for 2004 are shown in Table 4. Data
are derived from 31 provinces. The total amounts of agri-
cultural crop residue in China for the year 2004 were
100.09, 114.18, and 231.66 Tg for rice, wheat, and corn
straws, respectively, and the estimates for the amounts
burned as domestic fuel were 24.09, 26.24, and 49.89 Tg for
rice, wheat, and corn straws, respectively, while the
amounts consumed by open burning were 24.79, 26.48,
and 54.82 Tg for rice, wheat, and corn straws, respectively.
We estimated that w106 Tg agricultural crop residue
was burned as domestic fuel in 2004, which was w23.6%
of total crop residue production. Our estimate was lower
than the result of Yan et al. (2006), who reported that
w153 Tg crop residue was burned as domestic fuel in 2000
(about 24.4% of the total crop residue). This suggested that
the crop residue burned as domestic fuel was decreasing
gradually due to the increase in other energy use. We also
evaluated that w100 Tg crop residue in 2004 was openly
burned, which was w22.3% of the total crop residue.
Compared with the data derived from Yan et al. (2006)
(w122 Tg in 2000 was burned in the field, accounting for
8438 H. Zhang et al. / Atmospheric Environment 42 (2008) 8432–8441

Table 5
Total emissions of gaseous pollutants from agricultural crop residue (rice, wheat and corn straws) burned as domestic fuel and in the field

Province Total emissions from agricultural crop residue burned as domestic fuel and in the field (rice, wheat and corn straws)

CO (Gg) CO2 (Gg) NO2 (Gg) NO (Gg) NOx (Gg)

Beijing 74.96  8.02 825.59  41.02 0.25  23.54 0.52  0.05 0.77  0.05
Tianjin 140.54  15.01 1549.14  76.05 0.48  0.04 0.98  0.09 1.46  0.09
Hebei 1577.73  168.08 17,384.43  881.62 4.93  0.53 10.47  1.10 15.45  1.25
Shanxi 425.68  45.58 4686.53  233.56 1.40  0.13 2.92  0.28 4.33  0.28
Neimenggu 1009.57  108.67 11,116.92  529.88 3.76  0.28 7.44  0.55 11.21  0.42
Liaoning 1244.13  131.99 13,787.38  624.65 5.32  0.37 9.87  0.65 15.19  0.52
Jilin 1753.53  187.67 19,364.30  896.41 7.07  0.49 13.49  0.92 20.56  0.68
Heilongjiang 1032.29  106.72 11,553.67  492.87 5.10  0.35 8.86  0.55 13.97  0.55
Shanghai 42.67  3.76 503.95  14.78 0.36  0.03 0.51  0.03 0.88  0.05
Jiangsu 1490.28  146.32 16,926.33  721.26 7.67  0.72 12.84  1.08 20.57  1.72
Zhejiang 206.52  17.37 2475.79  59.63 2.05  0.14 2.79  0.11 4.84  0.26
Anhui 804.76  81.09 9051.87  412.91 3.54  0.36 6.33  0.59 9.91  0.88
Fujian 88.58  7.13 1076.26  21.26 0.98  0.06 1.30  0.04 2.29  0.11
Jiangxi 188.98  14.63 2320.51  39.14 2.27  0.14 2.94  0.09 5.21  0.26
Shandong 2898.15  308.28 31,942.36  1627.67 8.92  0.99 19.07  2.07 28.09  2.41
Henan 2642.08  278.22 29,177.19  1525.54 7.49  1.02 16.54  2.12 24.17  2.82
Hubei 865.36  80.92 10,022.31  348.29 6.12  0.46 9.18  0.52 15.32  0.92
Hunan 336.02  28.64 4015.75  97.35 3.31  0.21 4.52  0.17 7.82  0.38
Guangdong 340.49  28.26 4101.51  89.95 3.57  0.23 4.79  0.16 8.37  0.40
Guangxi 355.91  32.02 4183.87  119.48 3.07  0.19 4.36  0.18 7.43  0.34
Hainan 28.72  2.37 346.46  7.44 0.30  0.02 0.41  0.01 0.71  0.03
Chongqing 362.86  36.18 4111.57  165.74 2.03  0.15 3.33  0.21 5.36  0.28
Sichuan 1909.13  190.65 21,592.55  906.89 9.96  0.82 16.72  1.21 26.73  1.72
Guizhou 371.51  37.95 4173.01  177.25 1.87  0.14 3.21  0.21 5.08  0.25
Yunnan 501.08  50.94 5638.19  237.43 2.57  0.19 4.37  0.29 6.94  0.35
Xizang 16.44  1.72 181.39  9.85 0.04  0.01 0.09  0.01 0.14  0.02
Shananxi 662.96  70.28 7318.26  368.44 2.13  0.23 4.46  0.47 6.62  0.55
Gansu 402.44  42.85 4433.64  226.60 1.22  0.14 2.63  0.29 3.87  0.33
Qinghai 21.58  2.26 238.07  13.11 0.05  0.01 0.12  0.02 0.17  0.03
Ningxia 207.86  22.01 2297.94  112.17 0.74  0.07 1.47  0.14 2.22  0.15
Xinjiang 590.81  62.72 6519.13  327.96 1.90  0.20 3.98  0.41 5.90  0.48

Total 22,593.59  23,18.31 25,2915.90  11,407.13 100.52  8.75 180.52  14.60 281.56  18.60

w19.4% of the total crop residue), our estimates were pollutant emissions were caused by corn straw burning,
lower in total amounts but slightly higher in relative which accounted for approximately half of the total
amounts. emissions.

3.4. Emission inventory of gaseous pollutants 3.5. Emission allocation of gaseous pollutants

National and provincial emissions of gaseous pollutants
(CO, CO2, NO, NO2 and NOx) from agricultural crop residue
burning in China for 2004 are compiled in Table 5.
Total emissions of gaseous pollutants were estimated
to be 22.59  2.32 Tg CO, 252.92  11.41 Tg CO2, and
281.56  18.60 Gg NOx, respectively. The top five contributors
by province are Shandong, Henan, Sichuan, Jilin, and Jiangsu,
which were also the regions with high income levels of
peasants and rural population densities.
Calculated gaseous pollutant emissions from rice,
wheat, and corn straws burned as domestic fuel and in the
field are presented (see Supplementary Information SI
Tables 1–3). Total emissions of CO, CO2, and NOx were
3137.99  239.50, 38,677.55  610.98, and 88.47  4.39 Gg
for rice straw, 7443.76  780.22, 82,129.09  4523.19, and
59.04  10.01 Gg for wheat straw, and 12,011.83  1298.58,
13,2109.20  6272.96, and 134.05  4.19 Gg for corn straw,
respectively. The percentages of CO, CO2, and NOx to the
total emissions were 13.9%, 15.3%, and 31.4% for rice straw,
32.9%, 32.5%, and 20.9% for wheat straw, and 53.2%, 52.2%,
and 47.6% for corn straw, respectively. A majority of gaseous
A simple GIS was applied to display emission allocation
of gaseous pollutants from the burning of agricultural crop
residue. Emission conditions of gaseous pollutants for the
year 2004 at province-level in China are shown in Fig. 3.
Different emission regions can be distinguished by
different emission strengths per km2. The highest CO, CO2
and NOx emission fluxes were from Shandong, Henan and
Jiangsu provinces, where the rural population density and
economic levels were relatively higher than in other
provinces. The lowest CO, CO2 and NOx gaseous pollutant
releases were in Inner Mongolia and the western part of
China, which were coincided with lower rural population
densities and lower economic levels.
The relative proportion of gaseous pollutant emissions
from the burning of rice, wheat and corn straws for the year
2004 at province-level in China is shown in Fig. 4. The
distribution of straw species in China is remarkable,
because the different straw types cause different magni-
tudes of emission. For example, the rice straw regions are
mainly distributed in southern China, corn straw regions in
northern and mid-China, wheat straw regions in western
 H. Zhang et al. / Atmospheric Environment 42 (2008) 8432–8441
Fig. 3. Distributions of gaseous pollutant emissions for the year 2004 at
province-level in China: (a) CO2, (b) CO, (c) NOx. (units: kg km2).
and mid-China, respectively. In southern China, the great
mass of gaseous pollutant emissions came mostly from rice
straw burning. The highest emission strength in northern
China was caused by corn straw burning. The western part
of China was characterized by relatively high emission
fluxes from the burning of wheat straw.
4. Conclusions
Gaseous pollutants and particle number emitted from
agricultural crop residue burning were investigated using
8439
Fig. 4. Relative proportion of gaseous pollutant emissions from burning of
rice, wheat, and corn straws for the year 2004 at province-level in China: (a)
CO2, (b) CO, (c) NOx.
a burning stove and aerosol chamber. The average emission
factors of CO2, CO, NO, NO2, and NOx were 791.3, 64.2, 1.02,
0.79, and 1.81 g kg1 for rice straw, 1557.9, 141.2, 0.79, 0.32,
and 1.12 g kg1 for wheat straw, and 1261.5, 114.7, 0.85,
0.43, and 1.28 g kg1 for corn straw, respectively. Accord-
ingly, the mean emission factors of particle number (PN)
were 1.8  1013, 1.0  1013, and 1.7  1013 particles kg1 for
8440 H. Zhang et al. / Atmospheric Environment 42 (2008) 8432–8441
rice, wheat, and corn straws, respectively. In addition, total
emission inventories of gaseous pollutants from the
burning of rice, wheat, and corn straws for 2004 in China
were 22.59, 252.92, and 0.28 Tg for CO, CO2, and NOx,
respectively. Spatial distribution (per km2 area) plotted
in all provinces of China showed that Shandong, Henan and
Jiangsu provinces are the three highest contributors.
However, because of discrepancies in the elements of crop
residue in different growing regions, emission uncer-
tainties regarding gaseous pollutants from crop residue
burnings may exist. Further, aerosol chamber experiments
can provide exact quantitative emission estimations,
but they need to be validated further through domestic
and open burning studies and compared with other
investigations.
Acknowledgments
This work has been supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (No. 40533017, No. 40605001,
No. 40728006, No. 40775080). This work has been partly
supported by the 973 Program (2008CB417205) from
the Chinese Ministry of Education Science and Technology,
Pujiang Project (07pj14018) from the Science & Technology
Commission of Shanghai Municipality, Key Project
(No. 108050) and the Special Fund for Ph.D. Studies
(20070246026) from the Chinese Ministry of Education.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be
found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.
2008.08.015.
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