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Scenarios for residential wood burning

Emission impacts of three scenarios for residential wood combustion are estimated and the impacts of the concentrations of black carbon BC are modelled over Denmark and the Arctic.

(Foto: Colourbox).

Three emission scenarios have been defined and the emission consequences for selected pollutants have been compared to a baseline scenario based on the latest official emission projections. The three scenarios are:

  1. Ban on stoves that do not meet the requirements according to the Nordic Ecolabel in district heating areas
  2. Particle filters on 20 % of the wood stoves and wood boilers that do not meet the requirements according to the Nordic Ecolabel
  3. Phasing out of older stoves (2003 and before) in connection with transfer of house ownership.

The results of the model runs show a decrease of the mean EC from 2018 to 2030 of 11.7 %. The largest decrease of the mean EC concentration in Denmark in 2030 compared to the basic scenario in 2030 is found for scenario 2 (0.16 percentage point), while scenario 1 and 3 results in minor increases compared to the basic scenario (0.08 percentage point and 0.28 percentage point, respectively).

Further, the mean concentration and deposition for the Arctic area has been modelled showing only minor changes for the three scenarios.  

Impacts on particle concentrations in Denmark and in the Arctic
The transport and transformation of Elemental Carbon (EC) and other air pollutants of the emissions scenarios have been determined by using the Danish Eulerian Hemispheric Model (DEHM). While BC is the term used in the emission inventory due to the definitions in the reporting requirements, the term EC is used in air quality measurements and modelling. 

The concentrations of EC modelled with DEHM has been compared to air quality measurements at three different sites; one rural, one suburban and one urban background site in Denmark. The comparison generally shows a good agreement between observed and modelled concentrations, with the best result for the rural measurement site.

This is expected since the DEHM model will perform better for a rural area, where emissions from a larger area contributes to the concentrations, compared to the two other sites, where more local sources contribute significantly, e.g. residential wood burning and road transport. The model overestimates the concentration by about 11 % at the rural measurement site and captures the same trend as can be observed in the measurement.  

Read the full report "Emission scenarios and air quality modelling for residential wood combustion" here.