Characterization of Burning Behaviors and Particulate Matter Emissions of Crop Straws Based on a Cone Calorimeter

Crop residue burning is one of the major sources of particulate matter (PM) in the air. The burning behaviors and PM emissions of the three typical crop residues (rice straw, wheat straw, corn straw) in China were characterized by a cone calorimeter (CONE) coupled with a laser dust meter. The water-soluble compounds, carbonaceous content, and morphology of PM were measured by ion chromatography, elemental analyzer, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS). The results showed that thermal stability of corn straw was the worst among the three crop straws. The heat release rate (HRR) curves of the three crop straws were the typical curves of thermally thick charring (residue forming) samples. Wheat straw had the highest smoke yield, which was 2.9 times that of rice straw. The PM emission factor of wheat straw was 180.91 µg/g, which was about three times that of rice straw. The contents of K(+), Na(+), and Cl(−) in PM were significantly higher than those of the other six water-soluble inorganic ions. The ratio of organic carbon and elemental carbon (OC/EC) ranged from 14.82 to 30.82, which was similar to the results of open burning. There were mainly three kinds of aggregates in the PM of crop straws: network, chain-like, and soot. Individual particles were mixtures of KCl and organic matters. Core-shell structures were found in PM of rice straw and corn straw. The results in this study were provided based on CONE, an ISO-standard apparatus, which could avoid data conflicts caused by the difference of combustion devices. The relationship between the burning behavior and PM emission characteristics of crop straws was established, which is helpful to understand emissions of crop straws and to find a novel way to solve the problems from the burning of crop residues.