ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS IN PARTICULATE-EMISSIONS FROM WOOD COMBUSTION AND IN AIRBORNE PARTICLES

Residential wood combustion results in partly very high particulate em issions with high percentages of inhalable particles. Especially in ru ral areas, where wood ist frequently used for heating reasons, residen tial wood combustion is an important source for soot and polycyclic ar omatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), mainly in winter. Different possibilites f or the identification of PAHs related to wood combustion in airborne p articles were reported. For instance the determination of tracers gene rated during the oxidation of lignine. The concentrations of airborne particles and of PAHs were determined during March 1996 in Waldenbuch, a small town surrounded by woods near Stuttgart. In addition particul ate emissions from the combustion of hardwood (beech) were collected a nd analysed. The concentrations of airborne particles varied between 2 7 and 85 mu g/m(3). The concentrations of particulate PAHs were not hi gher than 3.2 ng/m(3). It was found, that the collected airborne parti cles also contain different amounts of syringaldehyde, a product of th e oxidation of lignin. Syringaldehyde and other syringol derivatives w ere also found in high amounts in particulate emissions from hardwood burning. Thus syringaldehyde seems to be an ideal tracer for particula te matter and PAHs from hardwood burning. The identification and quant ification of PAHs due to softwood burning with the tracer syringaldehy de is impossible.