Estimation of organic and elemental carbon emitted from wood burning in traditional and improved cookstoves using controlled cooking test.

Emission of various climate- and health-related pollutant species from solid biomass burning in traditional cookstoves is a global concern. Improved cookstoves serve as a possible solution to mitigate the associated impacts. However, there is a need to intensify the efforts in order to increase the data availability and promote revision of existing metrics of cookstove testing. In this study, the effect of different phases of a cooking cycle of Northern India on emission factors of OC and EC (char and soot) was assessed for four cookstoves (advanced, improved, and traditional) using Acacia nilotica. Lowest EFs for OC (0.04 g/MJ) and EC (0.02 g/MJ) were observed in case of the forced draft cookstove; while the traditional and natural draft top feed cookstove emitted the highest OC (0.07 g/MJ) and EC (0.09 g/MJ), respectively. Variation in terms of EFs for OC and EC (char and soot) within the cooking cycle was also found to be significant.