[Stoves] Air quality and stoves in Ulaanbaatar - qz.com article

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Nikhil



The article, which contains a plethora of errors, is the sort of thing that is used to bolster the anti-coal agenda which *yawn* continues particularly among those with something else to sell. The population consistently ignores it when they can .Come May 1st, we will see the conflict between the large ger district population and those who will ban all raw coal movement into the city. At worst it will raise the price of smuggled coal and at best it will be ignored because they do not have an alternative.



The city has been offered a couple of million tons of Alag Tolgoi middlings free, but it is more than 400 km away. I tried it. Three qualities, high ash and a bit strong - doesn't feed through the grate without shaking.  ☹



OK Smoke is more than PM2.5 but not much in their case. The smoke is actually almost all PM1.0, with some CO and a very small amount of fly ash. There is a lot of wind-blown Gobi Desert dust on some days, from vehicles and fly-ash from the evaporation pond for the power stations (there are two functioning in the city).



Apartment heating is usually from the CHP hot water,  but the personal exposure to PM2.5 often rises when moving from a ger (which is very clean) to the apartment where people smoke indoors. The PM2.5 exposure of several times higher in the latter condition.   The fugitive dust, BTW, is large particles. Not the fly ash of course, if it lofts.



The reduction of ambient air pollution in the ger districts boils down to reducing the PM2.5 emitted by domestic stoves and low pressure boilers. Here is a lot or wood scraps and pallets and cordwood burned, but it is not often someone's major heating fuel (though I have seen that as well).  The wood stoves are much better than the others.



The air quality problem can be delivered a huge blow if the combustors were changed, whatever the application. They are throwing away huge amounts of energy in the form of evaporated fuel. It is like having a TLUD combustor running for 25 minutes without secondary flames. Completely unnecessary.



As you point out, the ones left behind in the apartment building move will be the poorest and least able to afford the fancy solutions proposed by the Development Set.



Aluta continua...

Crispin





Crispin:



I must correct you on your abuse of the phrase “PM 2.5” and conflate it with any “smoke” and with “pollution”.



PM 2.5 may or may not be “smoke”.



Smoke may or may not be PM2.5.



Just what PM2.5 is “pollution” depends on chemical speciation, coincident pollution (ozone, CO, say), exposure profiles, and health condition.



Air quality is a complex science. Reducing air quality to smoke or PM2.5 is stupidity or conspiracy.



One more thing about alternatives to direct use of coal for home heating in Ulaanbaatar - apartments or tenements with central heating plants. I don’t know if the apartment share of dwellings has increased in the 20 years since I went there (July, thankfully). Housing finance can change household energy and combustion technology markets very rapidly.



I am guessing that apartments and outsourcing of cooking did far, far more to shift markets for cooking energy fuels or technologies than all stove programs combined.



As these trends go, biomass household cooking will be left for chronically poor and elderly users. Not a market we can get too excited about, whatever the smoke. Or PM2.5. Or pollution.



Nikhil Desai

Skype: nikhildesai888



> On Mar 11, 2019, at 2:54 PM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at outlook.com<mailto:crispinpigott at outlook.com>> wrote:

>

> Dear Friends of Warmth

>

> Staying alive in Mongolia is a struggle. This article<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fqz.com%2F1557026%2Fmongolias-air-pollution-crisis-is-the-future-of-our-cities%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C4d7baa3c61a244c954f208d6a68bca82%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636879516659828444&sdata=FHmqMlCYIZEL%2BN5JSls8rLynYQjaW1GwwTxC0wgRqAA%3D&reserved=0> by Annabelle Timsat published yesterday on what it is like to raise children in Ulaanbaatar.

>

> There is something very interesting about the frontpiece photo. You can see in the lower portion the homes and their individual little chimneys. That is smoke, meaning mostly PM2.5 and a little water vapour.

>

> [cid:image002.jpg at 01D4D81A.57DC9450]

> Above it is the inversion layer through which you cannot see the surrounding mountains. Above that you can see the steam rising from the cooling towers of power station #4. Notice there is on chimney visible above the smog. It rises 50 m above the inversion layer (which gives you scale for the rest of the photo).  What is coming out of the stack is also mostly water vapour but some smoke as well.  Then notice that the steam (about 95%) and smoke (maybe 5% of what you see) from the power plant remains above the inversion layer which is capped at 200m.

>

> This is the result of good air quality management planning. Virtually nothing from the power station enters the city's airshed. The stack is 250m high.  The pollution you see has three contributors. It looks as if the photo was taken at dawn.  The smog is ice fog, domestic coal smoke from homes, and vehicle emissions (mostly water vapour but some PM). The homes are emitting smoke because all the fires have just been refueled after the family wakes. The smoke from homes is episodic, not continuous so the photo captures it at its worse.

>

> Prof Lodoysamba says that there is an inversion in the city every night, and even during the day if the temperature stays below -30°C.

>

> In the medium term, dealing with this air quality problem requires reducing stove emissions. There is not yet enough electricity available to heat all these homes and there is no gas available yet. Switching to wood is not viable due to the amount needed.  The domestic wood stoves are typically better than the hydronic heaters used in the USA, but that is not saying too much - wood requires more time and attention which at night is an inconvenience. There is quite a lot of opportunity to combine more modern home designs and high-mass, wood-fired heating systems such as those promoted by the MHA<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mha-net.org%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C4d7baa3c61a244c954f208d6a68bca82%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636879516659828444&sdata=%2FO6EGhlUtX3DMgVtlM0vJyoXOQ8HNhBUg1YF7%2FQo9a8%3D&reserved=0>.

>

> This challenge is for stove designers. Perhaps you have ideas that can help.

>

> Regards

> Crispin
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