Primary aerosol emissions from wood combustion and shipping engines and their potentials for formation of secondary aerosols.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ralf Zimmermann
• Subject Area: Analytical Chemistry
• Term: from 2012 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 222250419

Wood burning and shipping emissions represent two poorly understood sources of primary and secondary organic aerosol (POA and SOA) responsible for serious health and environmental effects. The gas/particle interactions and their effect on particle composition will be studied using a comprehensive set of on-line and off-line analytical techniques. Important aims include the quantification and chemical characterization of primary organic aerosols and secondary organic aerosols, estimation of health effects via measurement of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and assessment of the stability of individual organic markers. As research on emissions form deep-sea navigation is only just beginning, measurement of the physicochemical properties of the direct particle emissions are value of themselves, while the controlled aging experiments in a mobile smog chamber are completely new. For the wood combustion experiments, the purpose is the quantitative characterization of the total aerosol produced under conditions relevant for wintertime domestic wood combustion. Previous wood combustion studies have not been conducted at lower temperatures (i.e. ~0 °C), which is expected to influence SOA formation, portioning of SOA and POA, and the ageing processes of components such as ROS. Experiments at these temperatures, enabled by the mobile smog chamber, will lead to more realistic results that are crucial for accurate description of the important partitioning effects affecting organic molecules.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Switzerland
• Participating Person: Dr. André Prévôt