Emission factors of atmospheric and climatic pollutants from crop residues burning.

Biomass burning is a common agricultural practice, because it allows elimination of postharvesting residues; nevertheless, it involves an inefficient combustion process that generates atmospheric pollutants emission, which has implications on health and climate change. This work focuses on the estimation of emission factors (EFs) of PM2.5, PM10, organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4) of residues from burning alfalfa, barley, beans, cotton, maize, rice, sorghum, and wheat in Mexico. Chemical characteristics of the residues were determined to establish their relationship with EFs, as well as with the modified combustion efficiency (MCE). Essays were carried out in an open combustion chamber with isokinetic sampling, following modified EPA 201-A method. EFs did not present statistical differences among different varieties of the same crop, but were statistically different among different crops, showing that generic values of EFs for all the agricultural residues can introduce significant uncertainties when used for climatic and atmospheric pollutant inventories. EFs of PM2.5 ranged from 1.19 to 11.30 g kg-1, and of PM10 from 1.77 to 21.56 g kg-1. EFs of EC correlated with lignin content, whereas EFs of OC correlated inversely with carbon content. EFs of EC and OC in PM2.5 ranged from 0.15 to 0.41 g kg-1 and from 0.33 to 5.29 g kg-1, respectively, and in PM10, from 0.17 to 0.43 g kg-1 and from 0.54 to 11.06 g kg-1. CO2 represented the largest gaseous emissions volume with 1053.35-1850.82 g kg-1, whereas the lowest was CH4 with 1.61-5.59 g kg-1. CO ranged from 28.85 to 155.71 g kg-1, correlating inversely with carbon content and MCE. EFs were used to calculate emissions from eight agricultural residues burning in the country during 2016, to know the potential mitigation of climatic and atmospheric pollutants, provided this practice was banned. IMPLICATIONS: The emission factors of particles, short-lived climatic pollutants, and atmospheric pollutants from the crop residues burning of eight agricultural wastes crops, determined in this study using a standardized method, provides better knowledge of the emissions of those species in Latin America and other developing countries, and can be used as inputs in air quality models and climatic studies. The EFs will allow the development of more accurate inventories of aerosols and gaseous pollutants, which will lead to the design of effective mitigation strategies and planning processes for sustainable agriculture.

Effect of Zirconia Nanoparticles in Epoxy-Silica Hybrid Adhesives to Join Aluminum Substrates.

This research presents the interaction of the epoxy polymer diglicydil ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) with silica (SiO2) nanoparticles plus zirconia (ZrO2) nanoparticles obtained via the sol-gel method in the synthesis of an epoxy-silica-zirconia hybrid adhesive cured with polyamide. ZrO2 nanoparticles were added to the epoxy-silica hybrid adhesive produced in situ to modify the apparent shear strength of two adhesively bonded aluminum specimens. The results showed that the addition of different amounts of ZrO2 nanoparticles increased the shear strength of the adhesively bonded aluminum joint, previously treated by sandblasting, immersion in hot water and silanized with a solution of hydrolyzed 3-glycidoxipropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS). The morphology and microstructure of the nanoparticles and aluminum surfaces were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and elemental analysis was performed with the Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) detector; the chemical groups were investigated during the aluminum surface modification using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).