Goal

In the United States the majority of homes are heated by burning fuels, such as wood, natural gas, or heating oil, which releases nitrogen oxides (NOx) and other combustion emissions.

The goal of this study is to quantify the relative contributions of residential heating emissions and atmospheric chemical processes to wintertime air quality in the United States by developing a temperature-dependent emissions inventory for residential fuel combustion.

Objectives

Construct a temperature-dependent residential fuel combustion emissions inventory for the United States by developing new annual-to-daily temporal scaling factors based on heating degree days (HDDs) on a 12 km by 12 km grid.
Implement the temperature-dependent emissions inventory into the EQUATES 2019 modeling platform to simulate wintertime NOx and PM concentrations using CMAQ, and compare output with observations.
Use CMAQ for modeling experiments to isolate the effects of increased emissions from extended NOx lifetime in cold temperatures on wintertime NOx and PM concentrations.:

Outcomes

Current outcomes include the development of daily temperature-dependent scaling factors to be applied to the annual total emissions for residential fuel combustion from the National Emissions Inventory, and research into a more representative diurnal profile. The expected outcomes of this research include a new temperature-dependent residential fuel combustion emissions inventory at a 12 km x 12 km resolution, allowing for more accurate representation of residential heating emissions in air quality models.

Timeline:

2024 – Present

Tools:

Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE) Processing System; EPA’s Air QUAlity TimE Series Project (EQUATES); Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling System (CMAQ); National Emissions Inventory

Core Team Members:

Cara Scalpone, Tracey Holloway, Monica Harkey

Photo by Wonderlane on Unsplash