Emission estimates of organic and elemental carbon from household biomass fuel used over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), India T. Saud a, b , R. Gautam a , T.K. Mandal a, * , Ranu Gadi b , D.P. Singh b , S.K. Sharma a , Manisha Dahiya a, c , M. Saxena a a CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K.S. Krishnan Road, New Delhi 110012, India b Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi 110006, India c Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar 125001, Haryana, India highlights < Determination of EF of OC and EC of residential fuels in the Laboratory. < State wise EF of carbonaceous aerosol from residential fuels over IGP, India. < Estimation of emission budget of OC and EC over seven states in IGP, India. < Refinement of estimation of emission budget of OC and EC over India. article info Article history: Received 1 March 2012 Received in revised form 10 July 2012 Accepted 13 July 2012 Keywords: Biomass Indo-Gangetic Plain Organic and elemental carbon Emission factors Budget estimation abstract Biomass burning emits large amount of aerosols and trace gases into the atmosphere, which have significant impact on atmospheric chemistry and climate. In the present study, we have selected seven Indian states (Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and West Bengal) over the IGP, India. Samples of biomass fuel (Fuel Wood, Crop Residue and Dung Cake) from rural household have been collected (Saud et al., 2011a). The burning process has been simulated using a dilution sampler following the methodology developed by Venkatraman et al. (2005). In the present study, emission factor repre- sents the total period of burning including pyrolysis, flaming and smoldering. We have determined the emission factors of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) from different types of biomass fuels collected over the study area. Average emission factors of OC from dung cake, fuel wood and crop residue over IGP, India are estimated as 3.87  1.09 g kg 1 , 0.95  0.27 g kg 1 , 1.46  0.73 g kg 1 , respectively. Similarly, average emission factors of EC from dung cake, fuel wood and crop residue over IGP, India are found to be 0.49  0.25 g kg 1 , 0.35  0.07 g kg 1 and 0.37  0.14 g kg 1 , respectively. Dung cake and crop residue are normally not used in Uttarakhand. Annual budget of OC and EC from biomass fuels used as energy in rural households of IGP, India is estimated as 361.96  170.18 Gg and 56.44  29.06 Gg respectively. This study shows the regional emission inventory from Indian scenario with spatial variability. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Biomass is a major source of energy in developing countries, particularly in India. It is a significant global source of gaseous and particulate matter emissions to the troposphere. The potential toxicity of some of the organic aerosols has made them the subject of environmental concern and extensive investigation. Smoke particles are composed of w60% organic carbon (OC) and w5e10% black carbon (BC) or elemental carbon (EC) (Reid et al., 2005). Soot like particles are highly absorbing type aerosols (Bond and Bergstrom, 2006) and can play a role in warming of the earth’s atmosphere. Estimated warming by black carbon is next only to CO 2 (Jacobson, 2001). Soot aerosols also known as BC are produced when incomplete combustion takes place. Aerosols containing carbonaceous particles have important effects on climate as well as earth atmospheric system (Liousse et al., 1996; Cook and Wilson, 1996; Jacobson, 2001 , 2002). Li et al. (2009) reported emission * Corresponding author. Radio and Atmospheric Sciences Division, CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K.S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi 110012, India. Tel.: þ91 11 45609448; fax: þ91 11 45609310. E-mail address: tuhin@nplindia.org (T.K. Mandal). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Atmospheric Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/atmosenv 1352-2310/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2012.07.030 Atmospheric Environment 61 (2012) 212e220