Imperial College London
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Dr Francesco Restuccia

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Honorary Lecturer
 
 
 
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Contact

 

f.restuccia Website

 
 
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Location

 

609City and Guilds BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Hu:2019:10.1016/j.proci.2018.06.008,
author = {Hu, Y and Christensen, E and Restuccia, F and Rein, G},
doi = {10.1016/j.proci.2018.06.008},
journal = {Proceedings of the Combustion Institute},
pages = {4035--4042},
title = {Transient gas and particle emissions from smouldering combustion of peat},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2018.06.008},
volume = {37},
year = {2019}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Smouldering combustion of peat drives the largest fires on Earth, and their emissions play an important role in global carbon balance and regional air quality. Here we report a series of controlled laboratory experiments of peat fires. Peat samples of 100% moisture content in dry basis were burnt in an open-top reactor with dimensions of 20 × 20 × 10 cm. The diagnostics are a unique set of simultaneous measurements consisting of real-time mass loss, up to 20 different gas species concentration, size-fractioned particle mass (PM10, PM2.5and PM1), temperature profile, and visual and infrared imaging. This comprehensive framework of measurements reveals that the evolution of the emissions varies in time with four observed stages (ignition, growth, steady and burn out) which are characterised by different combustion dynamics. Mass flux measurements show that CO2, CO, CH4and NH3are the four most predominant gas species emitted in the steady stage. Incorporating the mass loss rate, the transient emission factors (EFm) of both gas and particle species are calculated and reported here for the first time. Averaging the steady stage, the EFm of PM2.5reached 23.12 g kg-1, which accounts for 87.2% of the total particle mass, and PM1EFmwas reported to be 15.04 g kg-1. The EFm of alkane species (CH4, C2H6, C3H8, C4H10) were found to peak within the ignition stage, whereas the EFmof CO2, CO and NH3kept increasing during the steady stage. Because of these measurements, for the first time we were able to validate the EF calculated by assuming averaged values and a carbon balance, which is the preferred method used in remote sensing and atmospheric sciences. This work contributes to a better understanding of peat fire emissions and could help develop strategies tackling regional haze.
AU  - Hu,Y
AU  - Christensen,E
AU  - Restuccia,F
AU  - Rein,G
DO  - 10.1016/j.proci.2018.06.008
EP  - 4042
PY  - 2019///
SN  - 1540-7489
SP  - 4035
TI  - Transient gas and particle emissions from smouldering combustion of peat
T2  - Proceedings of the Combustion Institute
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2018.06.008
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/68447
VL  - 37
ER  -
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