Measuring wood smoke together
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Short content
What: Measuring wood smoke
Where: Throughout the Netherlands
Registration: Check the websites of the individual projects
Citizen Science project CHARRED – Feb 2020
Utrecht University started a large citizen science project on wood burning in 2019 as part of the European project CitieS-Health. The aim of the project is to incorporate citizen science into environmental epidemiological studies. These are studies that look at the effects of the physical living environment on people's health. In the Netherlands, the theme of wood burning was chosen because there is increasing interest in it. The Dutch project has been given the appropriate name “CHARRED”.
In the project, citizens are not only suppliers of their measurement data, but also play a role in all phases of the research. From research questions, plan and implementation to publishing the results. “Citizens sometimes come up with different questions than we can think of as scientists and, moreover, they know the local situation well,” says Fleur Froeling, who is associated with the project as an AIO. “If people stay connected throughout the entire process, the project is a success for me.”
The project started with talks with RIVM, GGD Amsterdam, Stichting HoutrookVrij and the Longfonds. After that, two routes were started. Firstly, questions that citizens have about wood burning are collected via an online questionnaire. Several responses have already been received. The researchers are now looking at how they can shape this further.
In addition, they have started a concrete project with citizens in the IJburg district in Amsterdam. Several meetings have been organized for this project. On those evenings, researchers and citizens formulated questions and incorporated them into an action plan. The measurements will start in March 2020. Both advanced measuring instruments and cheaper sensors are used for this. Various fractions of particulate matter are measured, including ultrafine particulate matter. The measurements cannot be followed in real time for people outside the project. This will be reported in subsequent publications. Fleur Froeling indicates that they want to set up such projects in more places in the Netherlands in the coming years.
HoutrookVrij Foundation measures fine dust itself
The HoutrookVrij foundation uses citizen measurements to increase awareness among the population about the effects of wood burning on air quality. Dieter Pientka is a board member of the foundation and a real citizen scientist. He himself measures particulate matter on both sides of his house and sees clear differences between the sensor where the smoke from wood stoves blows and the sensor that is not suspended in the wood smoke. This is reflected in his playful blog with a report of the match between a wood-burning stove and the fireworks at the turn of the year.
Ultrafine dust
The HoutrookVrij Foundation has also purchased a handy monitor for ultrafine dust . Ultrafine particles are particles in the air that are smaller than 0.1 µm (or 100 nanometers). In a blog , Dieter Pientka describes the results of measurements when firing a pellet stove and a wood stove. The measurements were taken both inside the chamber and outside directly on the pipe. High concentrations have been measured, also inside the wood-burning stove. The measured values are higher than 100,000 particles per cm 3 , the limit to which the monitor can reliably measure the numbers. Above that, the values are uncertain.
The measurements on the pipe gave very high values (around 600,000 particles/cm 3 ), outside the reliable measuring range. This is one of the reasons why it is better to use the monitor further away from the source. There are plans to use a new measurement to look at the concentrations in the outside air a little further away from the pipe. Then we get a picture of the concentrations to which the neighbors are exposed.
Small biomass plants
People in their residential areas are not only bothered by private wood burning, but also increasingly from heating for small biomass plants. They are used, for example, to heat swimming pools. In 2019, people in Winschoten were bothered by this and started measuring particulate matter themselves. They were helped by André van der Wiel. Under the company name Scapler, he supports citizen measurement projects with, among other things, particulate matter sensors and the visualization of the measurement data. Creative solutions to social problems is what drives him. André: “I think air quality is an important social theme. By visualizing measurements I want to make the invisible visible and thus gain more awareness”.
In a blog he discusses the results of the measurements on site. By displaying the readings on a graph every 20 seconds, the short-term local increases on top of the slower changing background level are clearly visible. The peak concentrations of particulate matter are strongly related to wind from the direction of the biomass plant. The short-term peaks disappear from the moment the power plant has switched to gas.
What does RIVM do?
From the Measuring Together team, we are looking at what we can do with the measurements of citizens in places with wood burning. In the hourly average measurement data of the entirety of particulate matter sensors on the Samen Meten data portal .
the influence of wood smoke is often not so easy to recognize. But the examples in this item show that wood smoke can indeed be detected with cheap (and somewhat more expensive) measuring devices. We support citizen science initiatives by citizens, governments and knowledge institutions. For example, we contribute to the Charred project of Utrecht University, among other things by using sensors.
In addition, RIVM is commissioned to conduct research into various aspects of wood burning, see https://www.rivm.nl/houtrook . For some time now, RIVM, in collaboration with KNMI, has issued a heating alert when the weather forecast is unfavorable or the air quality is bad. The heating alert contains a call not to burn wood. More information and sign up for the Stookalert: https://www.rivm.nl/stookalert .
