I think this is really a serious challenge. Perhaps innovations are the only solution.

Dear Ali,

in many extension messages, this burning is disqualified. Apart from the smoke, quite some nitrogen is lost into the air.

Using the material as a mulch, by either incorporating it into the soil or spreading it over the soil, is the first thing to advise. In the former case one adds organic matter to the soil (from which is was taken by the crop), improving surface soil structure and composition appreciably. In the latter case (spreading it on the surface) the decay is slower but the mulch reduces evaporation and influences soil temperature appreciably, while weeds are suppressed as well. Spread on sloping land it helps reduce water and soil erosion.

Where organic matter incorporated adds to methane release under anaerobic conditions, as in irrigated rice, the material can be collected and composted, after which it can be incorporated into the soil without the methane release. Any way, once composted it is even better as an organic fertilizer.

Cheers, Kees 

I believe one of the alternatives in developing countries could be the use of biodigesters to avoid all the GHG that are being emitted to the atmospehre when the crops are being burned.

Dear Alvaro Corral Naveda

Respected Professors, Candidate PhD and master students it is time to send papers in journal for publication. We should talk to our colleagues for the opportunity to publicize their work if they have interest in the publication of scientific work, in journal IJMPEM.

Attached will find basic notes

 Wishes best

Editorial in Chief

Ahmet Haxhiaj

      IJMPEM

Dear Alvaro,

that is an alternative but in that way the biomass is not returned to the soil, which is mined that way and not improved or protected where necessary!

Kees

Dear All. A warning.

The intervention for the IJMPEM is not in place here and misuse of ResearchGate because that journal does not cover any of the subjects we are dealing with in this discussion on burning biomass.

Moreover, the Publisher "Science Publishing Group" is on Beall's list of predatory publishers. Already since 2013. See http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/

Cheers, Kees

Aerobic composting of residues could be a viable options rather than others.

Thanks C.J. Stigter for your comment, A warning. I totally agree with you, let's just discuss biomass burning and emissions here.

Open burning of crop residue in the field generates gases and particulates emissions which affects the health of the population and the climate. If residue burning takes place either at home for cooking and other household purposes may still contribute to health effects. I am interested to know further about the health impacts and how can they be quantified?

Although open burning biomass causes loss of soil carbon and nutrients, but farmers derive specific benefits by that such as cost- and time-savings, controlling weeds, diseases, and pests. 

Concerning alternatives,

The incorporation of crop residues into the fields has been promoted to preserve organic matter and nutrients in the soil. However, it has been reported that the incorporation of crop residues in the case of rice field increases CH4 emissions significantly.

According to the above suggestions, the use of biodigesters or making compost may be available options to avoid both climate and health effects of biomass burning.

More comments are welcomed!

Ali

There are a number of technologies available that actually turn agricultural waste into biomass-based feedstocks. For example, in the cane sugar industry, the waste could be pelletized and turned into charcoal. By compressing the pellets, they become transportable, hence resolving one of the economic disadvantages related to logistics - that of moving bulky feedstock with low BTU content. At the sugar mill, bagasse is a byproduct of the extraction of sugar cane juice from the cane to produce sugar. Sugar cane mills in the Philippines has been using bagasse as fuel for their mills, often combined with steam from the sugar mills as complementary energy sources. The obstacles are often structural - where the question of who owns the bagasse (sugar cane planters or the mill?) and lax environmental penalties for pollution that arises from burning waste are two examples. If no penalties are imposed for polluting, burning agricultural waste in money terms for the planters may prove to be the most economically attractive and expeditious way of getting rid of the waste. The other technologies are those that combine agricultural waste with urban waste to produce solid recovered fuels (SRFs) to produce fuels or industrial additives.   

Greetings for all colleagues,

I think that the harmful impacts of PM (for which sizing is around 0.2 micometer) and gaseous emissions (CO, NO, CnHm...) on human health and on other environment constituents are well proven and well treated in many papers published in specialized  journals (Fuel, Energy, Fuel processing technology, Bioresouces, hazardous materials, Aerosol Science...). However, because this practise is low cost and is always the easiest it is usually considered by farmers worlwide in under developed countries. It is to be highlighted that NO emissions by biomass containing small nitrogen content after combustion, and even when this gas is emitted in small ppm concentration, it can seriously affect the ozone atmospheric layer according to well known kinetic mechanisms.

In these last decades many conversion processes allow producing alternative biofuels under different forms (pelletts, loggs, briquettes...) from crop residues in order to be used in well designed household boilers, stoves and even in some plants for producing heat and or eletricity at a wide scale

The alternatives may include converting the biomass into biofuels and bioproducts. There are several proven technologies that can be used including gasification, briquetting, anaerobic digestion, composting, press technology for manufacture of particleboards etc.

I think of aerobic digestion in the biodigesters  as suggested above  or the pelletization process that transforms the waste into pellets which can easily be  managed.  all can be met with technology available.

But I must also comment that burning destroy soil ecology and soil micro organisms which are part of the soil quality but alternately replenishes the soil with ash which is a strong amendment to the soil. I am of the opinion if the burning should be practiced at all it must be monitored and controlled so as not to constitute harm on the environment. 

Then quantifying the health implication can be traced but you know settlements are so dispersed in agricultural settlement. But I think heat island studies  in relation to weather and climate will be helpful and then linking it to human health and its significance. That is my humble suggestion anyway

Here in Egypt, the problem is that the farmers burn rice straw and wheat straw especially in areas near to the capital city Cairo which is now covered with black fume these days and the smell is very bad. This happens every year in October!

The solution is to produce biofuels from these wastes, e.g.: bioethanol (fermentation), biochar, bio-oil and syngas (pyrolysis). This procedure will save the environment and turn the wastes into bioenergy and money.

Thanks all for participating in the discussion, regarding the health impacts:

Each year, a large amounts of agricultural residues are produced which are disposed off by burning in fields, this practice continues for over one month depending upon the weather conditions. During this period, and due to less combustible conditions, huge amounts of smoke are generated creating a thick cloud over farms and housing areas. Less combustible conditions can comprise the amount of available oxygen, combustion temperature, residue moisture content, residence time of ventilation air, prevalent meteorological conditions, rate of flame spread, fire management techniques and turbulence.

The air pollutants generated from straw burning include CO2, CO, CH4, N2O, NOx, SO2, non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) and particulate matter (PM), and not sure about ammonia (NH3)?. As far as I found in literature, CH4 and N2O contribute to climate change; NOx, SO2 and PM10 contribute to PM10 impact; NOx and NMVOCs contribute to Ozone depletion.   

What about human toxicity? Does biomass burning cause that with any toxic products? If so, which elements contribute to this impact category? What are characterization factors for the contributing elements?

Dear Ali,

Depending on the combustion conditions like temperature, several polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are evolved. These are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which when reacted with NOx emissions under the action of sunlight, form photochemical oxidants (i.e. ozone O3 and peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN)). The photochemical oxidants in turn react with other pollutants to form photochemical smog which presents several human health effects. In particularly, toxicity of photochemical smog is majorly due to presence of ozone which damage lung tissue and lower the immune system among others depending on the pollution levels.

When it comes to study the effects of residue burning on the environment , I would also put more focus on the negative long-term effects on the soil biological activity and the micro environment. Residue burning ruin the litter layer and reduce the amount of organic matter returned to the soil. Moreover, the heat will eliminate the organisms that live in the surface soil and/or litter layer. Micro-organism play a key role in nutrient cycling and therefore open burning residues might cause nutrient losses as well. Besides,burning residues can also affect chemical properties of the soil 

In rice-wheat cropping systems burning of rice residues is a common practice among the farmers being an easy and cheap way to get rid of these residues to plant the next crop.  This burning results in soil moisture loss thus leaving behind less moisture to sow the next crop that negatively effects the germination. Burning also affects soil fauna particularly the population of earthworms and beneficial insects. Burning produces smoke carrying CO2, CO, NO, CH4 and VOC (volatile organic compounds) in addition to particulate matter (micro solid particles). This all is added to the atmosphere as a result of crop residue burning. It creates environmental issues and its very recent example is that the city of Lahore along with adjoining areas (Pakistan) was encircled by noxious haze-the smog during November 2016 for many days. Sunshine became imperceptible as haze spread over the sky. Motorways were reportedly blocked and flights were delayed or cancelled. This smog reportedly caused irritation in the eyes and different pulmonary diseases in the human beings.

A good alternate of crop residue burning is Residue Management. In this technique next crop is planted with ZTHS (Zero tillage happy seeder) in the standing residues of the previous crop. Neither the residues are burnt nor any tillage operations are done. These standing residues gradually become a part of the soil and help in improving soil health. Thus there’s no residue burning, no bad effects on soil fauna, no air pollution, no running of tractors for soil preparatory tillage, less burning of fossil fuels (diesel) thus resulting in reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Under the umbrella of AIP-CIMMYT program, our team is successfully practicing this technique of Residue Management at farmers’ fields for last three years. It is getting good popularity among the farmers. This not only saves time, fuel, resources, and environment but also improves soil health, farm profitability and ultimately the livelihood of resource poor farmers. Let us SHARE for The Environmental CARE.  

Dear Ali Mohammadi,

One example of toxic compound directly affecting human health from biomass burning is dioxin. It is produced by biomass burning in low temperature (e.g. less than 800 degree Celcius). It is almost always produced from uncontrolled open biomass burning, due to inability to control the temperature of the process.

There are many alternatives to tackle this problem. A popular pathway is to convert the burnable biomass / waste into a feedstock for energy or valuable chemicals in other industry. For example, to use rice straw for medium mushroom cultivation, to use rice straw and rice husk for electricity generation through cleaner gasification process, or to use as feedstock for anaerobic digestion (as in my current research project), just to mention a few.

Dear Ali Mohammadi,

Thank you for your Question, can i ask some related articles about the question you've asking. Thank you

Dear Ali Mohammadi,

your are asking about an emerging issue in this context of global scenario on changing climate. I can refer you an article which can help you.

Article Emission characterization, environmental impact, and control...

Thanks..

Km Arti