Woodsmoke emissions being monitored in region by NESCAUM
HEATHER SACKETT, News Staff Writer
LAKE PLACID — Officials from the Boston-based Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM) and local volunteers are working together to monitor how emissions from woodsmoke are distributed throughout the region.
“It’s not so much a monitoring project as it is a mapping project,” said NESCAUM Deputy Director Paul Miller. “Upstate New York is our pilot case.”
NESCAUM is a nonprofit organization of air quality agencies in the Northeast. In addition to a testing site in the town of Keene, there will be volunteers monitoring the air this winter at locations in Ticonderoga, Port Henry and at other places in Essex, Hamilton and Warren counties.
The results of the study, which is being funded through the New York State Energy and Research Development Agency (NYSERDA) will be used, in part, to develop more energy-efficient ways of burning wood.
“With high oil prices, people are looking to heat with wood,” said Ellen Burkhard, a project manager with NYSERDA. “Wood is a renewable resource, but even if something is renewable, we want to maximize energy efficiency.”
An optical device will be used for measuring woodsmoke in the air because, Miller said, the carbon component of the smoke absorbs some types of light more than others. It does not pick up emissions from cars or other sources of air pollution. The device, Miller said is about the size of the proverbial breadbox and is not much trouble to the volunteers.
“It’s largely a hands-off kind of thing,” he said. “They just need to give us a warm place to put it and make sure the lights are blinking like they are supposed to.”
Miller said NESCAUM is looking to site six fixed monitors, in addition to mobile monitors on cars that will drive around the region a total of 10 times on cold, clear nights to monitor the smoke emissions in between the fixed points.
Miller said the Adirondacks were chosen as part of this test study because of the extreme topography associated with the mountains and valleys. Earlier this year, NESCAUM looked at census data that indicated a building’s method of heating and generated a map of projected wood smoke emissions to determine where it should monitor.
“We want a hard test in an area in which the altitude changes are pretty robust,” he said. “We are looking for a lot of variations to see how well the mapping techniques work. If we can show (the mapping) works in a place that is relatively difficult, we hope it can be applied throughout the Northeast.”
If the tests, which will run through the end of March, work as planned, Miller hopes the technique can be used as a screening tool for public health organizations and local municipalities to identify areas that have high concentrations of wood smoke. The mapping system won’t, Miller said, necessarily identify the source of the wood smoke emissions.
But with so much local interest recently in outdoor wood boilers, this study may provide valuable information to local municipalities about smoke emissions. According to Burkhard, outdoor wood boilers have a 40 percent efficiency rate.
“In looking at all the renewables, we look at them in comparison to a modern fossil (oil combustion) unit,” Burkhard said. “We are hoping it will come down to the (efficiency) range of an oil fire. We want these renewable energies to be over 85 percent efficient, and we can do it.”
POSTED: November 20, 2008
LAKE PLACID — Officials from the Boston-based Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM) and local volunteers are working together to monitor how emissions from woodsmoke are distributed throughout the region.
“It’s not so much a monitoring project as it is a mapping project,” said NESCAUM Deputy Director Paul Miller. “Upstate New York is our pilot case.”
NESCAUM is a nonprofit organization of air quality agencies in the Northeast. In addition to a testing site in the town of Keene, there will be volunteers monitoring the air this winter at locations in Ticonderoga, Port Henry and at other places in Essex, Hamilton and Warren counties.
The results of the study, which is being funded through the New York State Energy and Research Development Agency (NYSERDA) will be used, in part, to develop more energy-efficient ways of burning wood.
“With high oil prices, people are looking to heat with wood,” said Ellen Burkhard, a project manager with NYSERDA. “Wood is a renewable resource, but even if something is renewable, we want to maximize energy efficiency.”
An optical device will be used for measuring woodsmoke in the air because, Miller said, the carbon component of the smoke absorbs some types of light more than others. It does not pick up emissions from cars or other sources of air pollution. The device, Miller said is about the size of the proverbial breadbox and is not much trouble to the volunteers.
“It’s largely a hands-off kind of thing,” he said. “They just need to give us a warm place to put it and make sure the lights are blinking like they are supposed to.”
Miller said NESCAUM is looking to site six fixed monitors, in addition to mobile monitors on cars that will drive around the region a total of 10 times on cold, clear nights to monitor the smoke emissions in between the fixed points.
Miller said the Adirondacks were chosen as part of this test study because of the extreme topography associated with the mountains and valleys. Earlier this year, NESCAUM looked at census data that indicated a building’s method of heating and generated a map of projected wood smoke emissions to determine where it should monitor.
“We want a hard test in an area in which the altitude changes are pretty robust,” he said. “We are looking for a lot of variations to see how well the mapping techniques work. If we can show (the mapping) works in a place that is relatively difficult, we hope it can be applied throughout the Northeast.”
If the tests, which will run through the end of March, work as planned, Miller hopes the technique can be used as a screening tool for public health organizations and local municipalities to identify areas that have high concentrations of wood smoke. The mapping system won’t, Miller said, necessarily identify the source of the wood smoke emissions.
But with so much local interest recently in outdoor wood boilers, this study may provide valuable information to local municipalities about smoke emissions. According to Burkhard, outdoor wood boilers have a 40 percent efficiency rate.
“In looking at all the renewables, we look at them in comparison to a modern fossil (oil combustion) unit,” Burkhard said. “We are hoping it will come down to the (efficiency) range of an oil fire. We want these renewable energies to be over 85 percent efficient, and we can do it.”
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