Smoke Emissions from Wildland Fires

Biomass burning is a major source of emissions to the atmosphere. Some of these emissions may change global climate. This paper uses combustion eff iciency as an independent variable for predicting emission factors for, among others, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, and particulate matter. Other gases are correlated with the release of carbon monoxide. The release of nitrogen and sulfur-based compounds occurs in relation to their content in the biomass. The Sundance Fire is used to model the emissions from major fires that have occurred in the United States. Approximately 1 Tg of biomass was consumed by this fire, which released 0.019, 0.151, 1.545, and 0.007 Tg of particulate matter, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and oxides of nitrogen, respectively. Other fires have released over 50 times this amount. Global emissions of various products of combustion are dependent on the combustion efficiency of the fires.