Black carbon, the dark residue resulting from incomplete burning of fossil fuels, has become a significant factor in climate change and adverse effects on human health. Scholars at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis have utilized various models to tackle the complex issue of gauging ambient levels of black carbon in the “global south” and discovered that the estimates of these detrimental emissions have been severely undervalued.
Yuxuan Ren, a PhD candidate in the lab of Randall Martin, the Raymond R. Tucker Distinguished Professor at McKelvey Engineering, spearheaded a study that characterized black carbon based on data from the Surface Particulate Matter Network (SPARTAN), a worldwide measurement network managed by McKelvey Engineering. Ren concentrated on black carbon levels in the atmosphere within the “global south,” an ambiguously defined collective of developing nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. The research team found that black carbon levels in low- and middle-income regions across the “global south” were underestimated by approximately 38%.
The team executed simulations utilizing data from the Community Emissions Data System, the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research, and the Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution. By employing the GEOS-Chem open-source community model for atmospheric composition, they could establish stronger connections between global emissions and localized observations. However, measuring black carbon is not as straightforward as it may seem because different areas burn various materials and fuels contributing to black carbon, making uniform comparisons challenging.
“There are various burning practices in this region, such as domestic burning of wood and charcoal for cooking and heating,” Ren noted. “Emission inventory developers will aggregate the total volume of fuel utilized from all these sources and estimate the overall black carbon emissions in the air. Comparing disparate studies from various regions makes estimating emissions from these dispersed and inefficient sources complicated, potentially introducing a certain level of bias. We believe this is the main cause of the underestimation of black carbon.”
The most significant underestimations were observed in numerous locations: Dhaka, Bangladesh, where the combustion of agricultural waste, crop remnants, fuel wood, and cow dung, along with inadequately regulated brick kilns, generates black carbon emissions; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where emissions arise from diesel-powered heavy-duty vehicles and burning wood for energy; Ilorin, Nigeria, characterized by insufficiently regulated oil and gas extraction infrastructure; Mexico City; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Bujumbura, Burundi, where reliance on diesel generators and kerosene is prevalent; and Kanpur, India. Ren emphasized that the underestimation at these locations has global implications.
“The widespread two- to four-fold underestimation of black carbon across sites in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Mexico indicates that the radiative effects and health implications of black carbon could be greater than previously anticipated, underscoring the ongoing significance of black carbon mitigation efforts with potential benefits for both climate and health that merit further exploration,” she stated.
Martin highlighted the robustness of the SPARTAN network.
“This research builds on the long-term establishment of the SPARTAN network,” Martin remarked. “A significant strength of this study is the global consistency of this measurement network, which provides a benchmark for enabling global assessment.”
These findings draw fresh attention to the need for characterizing hazardous black carbon in the atmosphere of low- and middle-income nations within this region, according to the researchers.
“This endeavor explores the potential for mutually beneficial strategies that address both human health and climate through a single pollutant affecting both, presenting an exciting opportunity,” Martin concluded.
Ren Y, Oxford CR, Zhang D, Liu X, Zhu H, Dillner AM, White WH, Chakrabarty RK, Hasheminassab S, Diner DJ, Le Roy EJ, Kumar J, Viteri V, Song K, Akoshile C, Amador-Muñoz O, Asfaw A, Ying-Wen Chang R, Francis D, Gahungu P, Garland RM, Grutter M, Kim J, Langerman K, Lee P-C, Lestari P, Mayol-Bracero OL, Naidoo M, Nelli N, O’Neill N, Park SS, Salam A, Sarangi B, Schechner Y, Schofield R, Tripathi SN, Windwer E, Wu M-T, Zhang Q, Rudich Y, Brauer M, Martin RV. Black Carbon Emissions Generally Underestimated in the Global South as Revealed by Globally Distributed Measurements. Nature Communications. DATE, DOI.
Funding for this investigation was supplied by the Clean Air Fund (001591), NASA (80NSSC21K0508), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NA230AR4310464 and NA24NESX432C0001T101), and National Science Foundation (2020673), along with additional support from NASA and the US Agency for International Development via the MAIA project.
Originally published on the McKelvey Engineering website
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