Household Energy and Indoor Particulate
Pollution—Investigation and Measurement at
Villages-in-town of Taiyuan, China
Li Hongge and Fang Jinghua
Taiyuan University of Technology
Taiyuan, Shanxi, China
Workshop in Oslo, Norway
2004.10.17-19
Background

Great efforts put into fighting air pollution in Taiyuan
in the past decade. In the central part of the city, town-gas
covered 77.5% residents and 63.5% of the total constructed area were
heated by co-generations and district boiler houses.

Significant progress in improving air quality. PM10 from
0.349 mg/m3 in 1992 to 0.172 mg/m3 in 2003 and SO2 from 0.331
mg/m3 in 1992 to 0.099 mg/m3 in 2003. Ranking from No.1 in 47
cities in 1998-2000 to No.21 in 105 cities in 2003.

Air quality is still poor in terms of National Standard
2nd class (PM10-0.10 mg/m3; SO2-0.06 mg/m3 )
 Most attention has been put to control emissions from
industrial pollution sources since long
 Emissions from widely scattered low-height chimneys
in so-called “villages-in-town” are now believed one of
the main reasons for the severe air quality.
Trend of air pollution in Taiyuan
(1996-2003)
mg/m
SO2
NOx
PM10
降尘
3
0.400
吨/平方公里
·月
45.00
40.00
0.350
35.00
0.300
30.00
0.250
25.00
0.200
20.00
0.150
15.00
0.100
10.00
0.050
5.00
0.000
0.00
1996年
1997年
1998年
1999年
2000年
2001
图4-12 太原市环境空气污染物浓度年际变化图
2002年
2003年
Investigation on Villages-in-town

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
The Great Taiyuan consists of 6 districts, 3 counties and 1
sub-city, covering 6988 km2 and residing 3.3 million
people.
The area of 6 districts is commonly called Taiyuan city,
covering 1460 km2 with population of 2.46 million plus
temporary moving-in people of 0.239 million, who are
mostly farmer-workers.
In the central part of Taiyuan of 197 km2, there are 75 socalled “villages-in-town”with area of 88 km2 and
population of 117324. Among the 75, there are 31 villages
fully surrounded by urban construction, covering 22.2
km2 and residing 52773 villagers plus moving-in
population of about 150,000.
Distribution of Villages-in-town in Taiyuan
Village “Xiao Wang”
Investigation on Villages-in-town (cont.)

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





Villages-in-town are the result of the long-term dualstructure policy (separation between urban and rural
residents) and rapid urbanization
Rich and Poor phenomena in the villages
Rich as income and space occupied:
The average income (about RMB11,000) of the villagers is higher than
common citizens ( not as in the previous decades).
The main source of income is from services section, such as land rent,
room rent, business of restaurants and retails, small processing,
transportation, etc.
Agriculture becomes less and less important.
Lager part of households have retrofitted their own yards ( around 250350 m2) into 3-6 story buildings with 20 to 60 rooms for rent. ( joke:
changing their job from planting crops into planting rooms)
Advanced positions of the villages, convenient transportation and utility.
Investigation on Villages-in-town (cont.)
 Poor as surroundings and social position:







Illegal construction has been continuing
Crowded living space: “well-like buildings”and “handsshaking buildings”,
Dusty alley, dirt road, mess piled coal and construction
material, noisy, unsuitable planning for construction
Bad habits: smoking, spitting, short schooling…
Some unhealthy and unsafe phenomena: gambling, drug,
prostitute, and even criminal
Kind of narrow-mind, lazy and greedy, local accent and
dialect, interiority complex
Poor management in the community
Household energy and air quality
in the villages



Most of households use LPG for their cooking, some still
use raw coal or honeycomb briquette for cooking.
All household use raw coal for heating in the winter
Each household has one small indigenous boiler burning
raw coal for heating their family and guests.


The boiler consumes more coal because of low efficiency
and pollutes the air seriously due to burning dirty fuel and
low-height chimney and without any cleaning device.
The air quality in the area of the villages is clearly lower
than common place of the city, especially in the winter.
A glimpse of the village “Xiao Wang”
An original villager’s yard(A)
An original villager’s yard(B)
Instruments

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PM10, PPAHs (Particle-bound Poly-Aromatic Hydrocarbons) and AS
(Active Surface of particles) were chosen as the indicators of the aerosol
pollution.
Three portable monitors: LS (Laser Scattering), PC（Photoelectric
Charging) and DC (Diffusion Charging) were used for PM10 (mg/m3 ),
PPAHs (ng/m3 ) and AS ( mm2/m3 ), respectively.
PC records the mass concentration of PPAHs with 4 and more benzene
rings, which are adsorbed on the surface of tiny particles at the ambient
temperature, some of which are considered very harmful to health.
DC gives data of AS that can relatively reflect the fraction of tiny
particles.
The three sensors can record data at the adjustable intervals, 5,10,30 and
60 seconds, and can store data for later retrieval and treatment in a
computer.
With the three portable monitors we can get the real-time data of PM,
PPAHs and AS anytime and anywhere.
(The principle and instruction of the three monitors can be found in
reference.)
Measurements
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The village “Xiao Wang” was chosen as the object of our
research, who has 92 ha and 3002 residents plus moving-in
people of about 20,000. There are 935 households with 943
small boilers, consuming coal of about 10,000 tones
annually.
80% of households use LPG, 10% use raw coal and the
rest use briquette. Three households in Village Xiao Wang,
according to their fuel types burned for cooking: raw coal,
honeycomb briquette and LPG, were selected in this study.
Measurements were carried out in the middles of Dec. and
Sept, representing heating and non-heating season,
respectively. Each test lasted three continuous days.
Recording time interval was 60 second.
The three monitors were put in their kitchens on the same
level of ranges within 1 meter distance. Other three
monitors put outside of the kitchen.
Monitoring in a LPG use household
Monitoring in a raw coal household(A)
Monitoring in a raw coal household(B)
Monitoring in a honeycomb briquette
household(A)
Monitoring in a honeycomb briquette
household(B)
Fig.2
Data of PM10、PPAHs and AS burning raw coal
in a day of non-heating season
1800
7
1600
6
PPAHs(ng/m ),AS(mm /m )
1400
3
5
800
3
3
4
PM10(mg/m )
1000
3
2
1200
600
2
400
1
200
0
11:00
0
13:50
16:40
19:30
PPAHs
22:20
1:10
DC
time
4:00
PM10
6:50
9:40
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
21:50
0:40
3:30
time
6:20
9:10
PPAHs
12:00
DC
14:50
PM10
17:40
3
2000
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
19:00
PM 10 (mg/m )
m )
3
3
2
PPAHs(ng/m ),DC(mm /
F i g 3 P M 1 0 、P P A H s a n d D C d a t a b u r n i n g b r i q u e t t e
in a day of non-heating season
Fig.4 Comparis on of PPAHs buring coal, briquette
LPG in a day of the heating season
800
and
700
3
PPAHs(ng/m )
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
9:47
12:27
16:43
19:23
散煤
0:30
time
蜂窝煤
3:10
5:50
8:30
液化气
PM 10 （mg/m 3 )
Fig.5 Comparison of PM10 burning coal, briquette and
LPG in a day of the heating season
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
9:57
12:39
15:57
炭
18:37
蜂窝煤
21:17
23:57
液化气
2:37
5:17
T ime
8:45
Table 1. Concentration of PPAHs and PM10 in heating season
PM10（mg/m3）
PPAHs(ng/m3)
Fuel
AVE.
MAX.
MIN.
Raw coal
1.477
7.736
0.311
Briquette
1.167
2.349
0.789
LPG
0.674
1.589
0.096
AVE.
MAX.
353.0
1291
20
0.919
312.7
938
30
0.726
157.8
429
1
（outdoor）AVE.
1.610
MIN.
Table 2. Concentration of PM10 ,PPAHs and DC in non-heating season
PM10（mg/m3）
PPAHs(ng/m3)
AS (mm2/m3)
Fuel
MAX
MIN
AVE. （ out ）
AVE
MIN
AVE.（out）
3366
120
466.7
193.2
3787
20
255.0
293.6
1692
102
538.1
AVE
MAX
MIN
AVE.（out）
AVE
Raw coal
0.895
5.796
0.475
0.854
165.6
1615
19
125.4
281.8
Briquette
0.481
5.48
0.09
0.548
132.5
5283
17
164.8
LPG
0.733
3.807
0.1
0.720
84.9
385
13
48.3
MAX
Conclusions and discussions

1． The indoor particulate pollution, as well as outdoor, is very
serious in all three households during our tests. In comparison with the
annual average of PM10 in 2003 in Taiyuan (0.215mg/m3 in heating season and
0.141 mg/m3 in non-heating season, according to the report of 2003), the data
measured for burning raw coal, briquette and LPG are 3.1 to 6.8 times higher than
city’s data both in heating season and in non-heating season. Furthermore, the data
recorded in this study are 4.8 to 14.7 times higher than the national standard 2nd
class. The averages of PPAHs and AS are also recorded high.

2. For the PPAHs, burning coal is slightly higher than burning
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briquette, but 2 times higher than burning LPG.
3． In terms of emission, the rank is coal >briquette >LPG,
according to all data in heating season and PPAHs data in non-heating season.
however, data monitored in non-heating season showed the PM10 and AS of burning
briquette is less than burning LPG. This is because weather condition has a
significant influence on the data, as the two days were rainy and windy during the
three testing days.
Conclusions and discussions (cont.)
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4. The PM10 data for burning raw coal is 1.65 times higher in the
heating season than those of non-heating season, and 2.43 times for
burning briquette. However, for burning LPG the PM10 and AS level
looks no big change between the two seasons, for which the reason is
worth to further study.
5. It is necessary to have a comprehensive measure to improve the
village’s environment because the severely high concentration of
particulate pollutants results not only from fuel used but also from the
dirty surroundings.
6. Due to the limitation of time and number of household monitored,
the results presented here are very preliminary and the arrangement
of tests should be further modified.
Further work in this winter
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Continue the ongoing measurements on household energy
and aerosol pollutants in the three households
Monitor the aerosol pollutants in a village and a nearby
place at the same time to compare the air pollutions
between areas of villages-in-town and common places of
the city
Find the real influence of household coal-firing boilers on
local environment.
Evaluate the impact of household energy policy to local
and global environment based on our measurements and
other researches in China.
Thank you