Andrew Grieshop
Bio
Dr. Andy Grieshop is interested in sources and evolution of atmospheric aerosols, characterization of in-use emissions from mobile and stationary combustion sources, linkages between air pollution emissions and climate change, air pollution exposure assessment, technical policy analysis of the environmental impacts of energy systems, and energy and environment in developing countries. He is the faculty advisor for NCSU Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) and a member of the Executive Committee of the Triangle Research Initiative on Household Energy Transitions (TRI-HET).
Dr. Grieshop received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley and his MS in Mechanical Engineering and PhD in Mechanical Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was a member of the multi-disciplinary Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies (CAPS). He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Education
Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy Carnegie Mellon University 2008
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University 2005
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley 1997
Area(s) of Expertise
Dr. Grieshop's research focuses on interactions between energy use and the environment and more specifically on improving our technical understanding of the emission and atmospheric transformations of air pollutants. This work aims to inform effective policies to improve air quality and mitigate climate impacts in both developed and developing countries. Current research includes a collaborative project to quantify the emission, indoor concentration, and health and climate impacts of a cookstove replacement program in rural India and a project to characterize the atmospheric aging of emissions from these household energy systems. Other work has focused on air quality in near-road environments and on characterizing the volatility of organic particulate matter. His work integrates laboratory and field based experimentation with modeling and policy analysis efforts to address environmental problems.
Publications
- Calibration of Low-Cost Particulate Matter Sensors PurpleAir: Model Development for Air Quality under High Relative Humidity Conditions , (2024)
- Carbon Monoxide Exposure and Risk of Cognitive Impairment Among Cooks in Africa , INDOOR AIR (2024)
- Do the Health Benefits of Boiling Drinking Water Outweigh the Negative Impacts of Increased Indoor Air Pollution Exposure? , (2024)
- Evaluating a simplified oxidation flow reactor configuration to characterize fresh and aged emissions from traditional and plancha-type cookstoves under field-like conditions , ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT (2024)
- Performance of Vehicle Add-on Mobile Monitoring System PM2.5 measurements during wildland fire episodes , ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE-ATMOSPHERES (2024)
- Supplementary material to "Calibration of Low-Cost Particulate Matter Sensors PurpleAir: Model Development for Air Quality under High Relative Humidity Conditions" , (2024)
- Customer complaint management and smart technology adoption by community water systems , UTILITIES POLICY (2023)
- Scaling up gas and electric cooking in low- and middle-income countries: climate threat or mitigation strategy with co-benefits? , ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS (2023)
- Toxicity of fresh and aged anthropogenic smoke particles emitted from different burning conditions , SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT (2023)
- Assessing the Effects of Stove Use Patterns and Kitchen Chimneys on Indoor Air Quality during a Multiyear Cookstove Randomized Control Trial in Rural India , ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (2022)
Grants
The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) Ferry Division operates 22 ferry vessels on seven routes that serve over 800,000 vehicles and over 1.8 million passengers per year. These vessels range from typically 10 to 50 years of age with typically two large diesel main engines and one diesel auxiliary engine per vessel. Some engines predate U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emission standards. Many engines, including those certified to emissions standards based on the date of manufacture, have been in service for many years with accumulated wear and differing service or rebuild history; thus, their in-use emissions may differ from emissions certification values. A limited number of new vessels are entering the fleet to replace older vessels. The Ferry Division periodically seeks grants from federal or state agencies or programs to procure funding for vessel modifications or upgrades. Such applications typically require assessment of the energy and environmental impacts of the proposed project including reduction of air pollutant emissions. The Ferry Division has a long-term goal to move toward green, sustainable technology and operations. A baseline emission inventory is needed to assess for which ferry vessels and routes engine emission-reducing interventions would be the most beneficial. However, there are no empirical data based on representative and actual operations upon which to quantify baseline main and auxiliary engine emission rates for the existing NCDOT ferry fleet. The objectives of this project are to: (1) establish a methodological framework to measure real-world ferry main and auxiliary engine exhaust concentrations; (2) quantify real-world ferry engine energy use and exhaust emissions; (3) develop a baseline emission inventory for NC ferry vessel engine fleet; and (4) identify and recommend opportunities to reduce emissions. The research will include the following tasks: (1) develop procedures and scheduling for field measurements of vessel engine emissions; (2) instrument preparation and calibration; (3) measurement of real-world engine emissions under actual operations; (4) data quality assurance; (5) develop baseline emission inventory for vessel engine fleet; and (6) assess emission reductions from upgrading or replacing older vessel engines. This project is highly significant because this will be the first large-scale evaluation and quantification of real-world ferry engine energy use and emissions for the NCDOT ferry fleet. The products of this project will enable the NCDOT Ferry Division to: (1) quantify engine emissions under actual operating conditions for the NCDOT ferry fleet; (2) compare among ferry vessels to identify priorities for interventions to reduce engine energy use and emissions for the highest energy consuming and emitting engines; and (3) quantify the air pollutant emissions reduction potential of upgrading or replacing older vessel engines to demonstrate the benefits of such interventions in applications for federal grants supporting capital acquisition projects, such as for engine or ferry replacement. This project will set a baseline for possible future work, such as to characterize the emissions benefits of alternative fuels or retrofitted emission control systems. In addition, with the developed ferry engine emission inventory, possible future work can quantify the benefits of reductions in onroad vehicle emissions avoided by ferry vessel service as part of grants for capital acquisition and for strategic planning purposes. Moreover, this work can be used to support public messaging regarding the commitment of the NCDOT Ferry Division to environmental awareness and sustainability, and to raise awareness of various stakeholders regarding the environmental benefits associated with ferry operations.
The manufacturers of an asphalt rejuvenator product including titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles for use on road pavements claims the product decreases the net NOx released to the atmosphere from vehicle emissions through an on-road photocatalytic reaction and mitigates the urban heat island (UHI) effect by reflecting solar radiation. The Town of Cary is interested in the potential beneficial aspect of this treatment but would like to explore: (a) the effectiveness of the treatment in reducing NOx emissions,(b) the potential impacts the treatment may have on stormwater runoff from treated pavements, and (c) the potential impacts on ambient air temperature from treated pavements. To address these concerns, we will conduct field research over a year and a half to address the following research questions: 1) Does TiO2 coating of secondary asphalt roads impact near-road NOx concentrations and net emissions from vehicles? 2) Do reactions of NOx from emissions have an appreciable impact on runoff water quality? 3) How does treatment effectiveness vary with environmental conditions (e.g. solar radiation, temperature, humidity) and over time (with repeated measurements)? 4) How does the treatment influence near-road ambient air temperature?
Overview Sub-Saharan Africa is the epicenter of the global challenge of energy poverty, with the absolute number of energy poor projected to increase through 2030. Energy poverty has implications for climate, environmental sustainability, human health, and well-being, with negative impacts realized at individual and collective-scales, and in local, regional, and global contexts. The complex socio-environmental challenge of energy poverty requires contributions from the basic, applied, and social sciences, and integration of evidence and learning using robust interdisciplinary frameworks. We will partner with and facilitate the networking of academic, practitioner, and policy communities in the US and Southern Africa to fill critical gaps in the theoretical and empirical evidence base regarding mitigating energy poverty. International partnership is critical to the identification of important and representative energy poverty innovations to study, to creating a network of institutions using common frameworks, research design, and empirical strategies, and to cultivating long-term interdisciplinary energy poverty research capacity in the Southern Africa region. Intellectual Merit Our aim is to build an interdisciplinary evidence base and network focused on energy poverty in Southern Africa, building capacity for transformative change. We center our research and capacity building around three themes: technology and incentives; space and place; and population and environment dynamics. We will measure the air quality, land use, and human welfare impacts of a representative set of technology and behavioral interventions designed to mitigate energy poverty. Based upon knowledge generated, we test new approaches for using and integrating appropriate technology and incentives to address energy poverty. In the second theme, we will investigate the spatial dimension of energy poverty by analyzing neighborhood effects as determinants of energy poverty, and consider the question of optimal scale of implementation of energy poverty interventions for maximizing environmental benefits and social welfare outcomes. Finally, we will investigate sustainable wood energy systems as a potential strategy for coping with the challenge of population and environment dynamics in the region, and analyze the associated environmental and economic synergies and trade-offs. This PIRE is innovative for several reasons. First, we use rigorous quantitative interdisciplinary impact evaluation as the anchor for our research and training program. We seek to study what works, why it works, and over what spatial and temporal scale. Second, the study of energy poverty is highly fragmented across a large number of disciplines with very little cross-fertilization or engagement with interdisciplinary frameworks including complex socio-ecological systems and population and environment dynamics. We use these important theoretical lenses to shed new light on this highly intractable problem, and to guide a coherent body of empirical research. Third, despite facing a looming crisis, energy poverty in Southern Africa is dramatically understudied. Broader Impacts Research findings from this study will provide new theoretical and empirical knowledge on energy poverty in sub-Saharan Africa to academics, practitioners, and policy makers. We will build new networks and promote collaborative research and exchange among over 50 scientists, graduate, and undergraduate students across the US and Southern Africa, with the aim of creating a robust interdisciplinary network of scholars. To facilitate this, we will coordinate a series of regional training workshops focused on interdisciplinary energy poverty research. A central component of the PIRE is continuous engagement with policy makers and practitioners. We will organize a series of regional policy workshops that will take place at regular intervals during the life of the Energy Poverty PIRE. We propose several innovations in teaching and scholarship that will benefit the academic community including: development of a
Under the direction of Dr. H. Christopher Frey, the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University will develop individual and population-based exposure models for human exposure to air pollution to support the Personalised Real-Time Air Quality Informatics System for Exposure ������������������ Hong Kong (PRAISE-HK) being developed at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).
The proposed study is a four-year project to conduct research on the impacts on land use, air quality and regional climate change of biofuel use in Southern and East regions of Africa. Data collection will occur in southern Malawi, centered on several communities participating in a Structured Conditional Transfer program for household cookstove replacements being initiated by a non-governmental organization. Data collected will include those on land use/land cover change, air pollutant emissions, ambient air pollution concentrations, fuel demand and household behavior and decisions. Dr. Pamela Jagger from UNC-CH is the Principal Investigator of the study. Dr. Grieshop will serve as co-PI on the project and will lead the air pollutant emission and air quality measurement components of the study. Air pollutant measurements will include focused emission measurements on indoor air pollution sources (e.g. cookstoves) and other small biofuel-based sources (e.g. brick and charcoal kilns). A network of small, low-cost air quality monitors will be deployed to examine community and regional air quality and also to examine emission sources (e.g. agricultural burning) via near-field concentration measurements.
For this project, we will assess the climate and environmental benefits and tradeoffs of large-scale transitions from the current ����������������baseline��������������� household fuels to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). To do this, we will look at the impacts arising from current residential stove and fuel choices, extend these out to the future in a ����������������business-as-usual��������������� scenario, and compare that to scenarios in which we will conduct the following assessments. Global - this will provide a rough sketch of impacts resulting from transitions to LPG in all countries where polluting fuels are currently used (based on recent estimates). Two paths will be explored: Full transitions - an unrealistic scenario that provides an upper bound of possible impacts. Partial transitions - more realistic, but still ambitious scenarios in which countries are differentiated based on current levels of access to LPG and other development indicators. The exact specifications of these scenarios will be decided in the early stage of the project. Four ����������������priority��������������� countries - this will provide more detailed analyses of impacts resulting from transitions to LPG in Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, and Haiti. These assessments will mirror the global assessment by exploring both full and partial transition pathways. Transitions will be examined over a timeframe to be determined in consultation with the Alliance. We recommend that we follow examples set by similar analyses such as the IEA������������������s World Energy Outlook, which explores scenarios out to 2040. Examples of potential pathways include scenarios developed for the 2018 World Energy Outlook which include a business-as-usual pathway following stated policies and Sustainable Development Scenarios, which meet SDG7.
In the next several years, the NCDOT Rail Division will add locomotives to the fleet it provides for the Amtrak-operated Piedmont passenger rail service between Raleigh and Charlotte. NCDOT is taking a leadership role in demonstrating new retrofit Blended After-Treatment System (BATS) emission controls for both existing and newly added locomotives. These emission controls are based on selective catalytic reduction (SCR) for control of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions and diesel particle filters for control of particulate matter emissions. NOx and PM are harmful to public health and are regulated with respect to emissions and air quality. The effectiveness of these controls will depend on actual passenger rail service for actual duty cycles on the Piedmont route. Furthermore, SCR effectiveness may depend on exhaust temperature, which varies depending on engine load, and the durability of both SCR and DPF under retrofit conditions for a diesel locomotive has not been quantified.
The goal of this program is to create a new design elective, 'Innovation in Smart and Sustainable Infrastructure' that will be incorporated in the Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering curriculum. The course will be facilitated by PI Grieshop and Co-PI Berglund, who will lead teams of students in course projects. Course projects will be developed in cooperation with faculty who will provide guidance throughout the semester in technical content and design. We will develop course projects around new technologies in water quality sensors, pavement materials, and water treatment that have clear market pathways. We will work with the Entrepreneurial Program at NC State to develop the technologies and connections that are needed to bring new inventions to the market. We plan to offer Innovation in Smart and Sustainable Infrastructure as an elective special topics course, with a long-term goal to develop this into a senior design course. The Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Program recently adopted a new sophomore-level course, Introduction to Sustainable Infrastructure, that is designed to introduce students to principles in problem solving, environmental sustainability, and engineering economics, along with social sustainability. The proposed course will build on principles that are developed at the sophomore level and will provide new training opportunities in entrepreneurship, sustainability, and state-of-the-art smart technologies. We expect that this will add a new dimension to our degrees to attract strong, passionate, and creative students to NC State. We hope to enable a new passion for innovation, smart technologies, and sustainable solutions in the up-coming generation of civil and environmental engineers.
Globally over 3 billion people use solid fuel cookstoves as their main source of household energy (World Health Organization 2018). Emissions from these stoves contribute to household air pollution (HAP) causing negative health impacts to those exposed. According to World Health Organization (WHO), two to four million premature deaths each year are attributed to HAP exposure (World Health Organization 2018). Combustion of solid fuel emits black carbon (BC) that is thought to have the 2nd largest global warming impact after CO2 (Bond et al. 2013). Recent studies suggest that biomass burning also emits light absorbing organic carbon (commonly known as Brown Carbon, BrC), which is still poorly understood (Saleh et al. 2014; Xie et al. 2018).
In 2017, 3.6 billion people were exposed to household air pollution from the use of solid fuels for cooking (Health Effects Institute, 2019). In a field study conducted in Rwanda, a former member of the Grieshop Atmosphere and Environment Lab (GAEL) measured emissions from a variety of biomass stoves, including pellet, wood, and charcoal. Biomass pellet stoves were found to have substantially lower emissions than other biomass stoves and in many cases were comparable to (liquefied petroleum gas) LPG stoves, which are considered the current ����������������gold standard��������������� in terms of reducing cookstove pollutant exposures. However, emission factors (EFs) of particulate matter (PM) and carbon monoxide (CO) during high emitting pellet tests overlap with low emitting wood and charcoal tests. These high emitting pellet tests emitted the most PM and black carbon (BC) at the beginning and end of testing (Champion & Grieshop, 2019). The manufacturer of the stove in this study (the Mimi Moto pellet stove) found similar results during their testing. The use of pellet embers from a previous cooking event to ignite the next cooking event was also associated with higher emissions.
he fundamental question addressed in the proposed work is: What are the net climate and air pollution impacts of current and potential future sources of household cooking and heating energy? Primitive fuel use for household energy provision has massive impacts on human health and the global climate. I propose a research and teaching program that lies at the nexus of an urgent global health problem and fundamental questions being tackled by engineers and atmospheric scientists. The research will build a multi-scale understanding of the impacts of primitive household energy use by focusing on the complex emissions and aging processes biomass burning aerosols undergo and quantifying the potential benefits associated with new technologies. Associated integrated educational activities will expose students to international environmental issues through hands-on activities and data collection. Over 3 billion people globally rely on primitive cooking devices and biomass fuel to meet household energy needs for cooking and heating, with enormous attendant human impacts. Biofuel burning is a major global source of atmospheric black carbon aerosols and other emissions with strong warming impacts on the global climate system. Therefore, reducing emissions from household biomass burning has the potential to provide both enormous global health and climate benefits. However, the impacts of current practices and the potential improvements associated with new technologies are both highly uncertain due to limited scientific understanding and lack of engineering and market solutions appropriate to the conditions in poorer households and nations. Biofuel burning emissions are a function of variables such as fuel type and moisture level and micro-scale heat and mass transfer processes. The emitted smoke contains organic carbon aerosols, which may fully or partly counteract the warming impacts of the co-emitted black carbon through direct (shortwave scattering) and indirect (cloud) climate effects. Therefore, the net climate benefits from reducing emissions are a strong function of the relative prevalence of these different aerosol components. Biomass combustion emissions continually evolve (?age?) via atmospheric chemistry. This aging can more than triple the organic aerosol emitted, while drastically changing its chemical nature and optical properties. Aging may dictate whether biofuel burning emissions have net warming or cooling climate effects. A key question is whether efforts to reduce the health impacts of fuel use lead to solutions that worsen the associated climate impacts, or vice versa. The work proposed here endeavors to minimize such a possibility by enhancing our understanding of household biofuel emissions sources and impacts and providing methods and tools to design effective means to mitigate impacts. The scale of the problem is such that anticipating solutions? effectiveness is of critical importance; missteps at scale will have massive human, environmental and economic costs. An interlinked, iterative program of field and lab experimentation will lead to robust insights and methodologies that neither alone could produce. Standard laboratory tests recreate neither the usage patterns nor performance of domestic energy devices. Therefore, in situ measurement of stove use and the quantity and physicochemical characteristics of emissions in actual kitchens is required. I have developed instrument packages and completed such testing in India during the initiation of my research group. Field measurements with established partners in India will enable detailed in-home measurements to be conducted. Field testing yields data on stove use patterns, important fuel and activity parameters and environmental parameters that influence pollutant production and transformation. In-home measurements will also include a human exposure measurement component. The challenges and limitations associated with field testing in resource-constrained settings make lab testing essential to develop and understand effective technologies
Globally over 3 billion people use solid fuel cookstoves as a source of their household energy causing household air pollution (HAP) and myriad climate impacts. Considering these harmful impacts, a wide range of improved/alternative cookstove models have been introduced and evaluated in laboratory studies, where many show promising performance. However, this promise has frequently not been met during in-home field measurements. Therefore, there is a need to better understand the factors influencing field performance so that standardized tests can better represent real-world conditions. With funding from this scholarship program, Mohammad Maksimul (Maksim) Islam, a 3rd year PhD student in the Grieshop Atmosphere and Environment Lab will explore this topic with a view to identify factors driving lab/field emission variability. This work will be in consultation with researchers at in the National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) at the US EPA labs in Research Triangle Park. In this work, Maksim will apply methods that he and previous students developed to quantify the variation in cooking activity during real-world use. In this activity, he will extend this analysis to more recent field emission measurements conducted in Rwanda and India on a variety of cookstove models (e.g. Mimi-moto, improved and traditional chimney stoves and some rocket and gasifier models). Other activities may be analysis of low performing field tests of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) stoves in an EPA-funded study and characterization of the light absorbing carbon from existing particulate matter samples. Major objectives of the work include explaining lab/field variability in emissions, and support the ISO protocol being evaluated in the EPA lab. It will also give insights into the factors contributing to the high emission of modern fuel (LPG) stoves and help understand the spectral dependence of optical properties (black carbon/brown carbon) in cookstove emissions.
This project has four broad objectives regarding feasible improvements to stoves design and dissemination: (1) to assess why different stove models are (or are not) adopted, (2) to experiment by varying stove price and information dissemination methods to determine the impact of these variables on stove adoption rates, (3) to measure in situ the impacts of stove adoption on indoor air pollution, outdoor air pollution, and climate-forcing, and 4) to model the impacts of widespread stove adoption on regional and global climate through a range of scenarios directly informed by field experiments. The project will be based in two Indian states: Karnataka (South India) and Himachal Pradesh (North India). India contains one of the largest concentrations of solid fuel -dependent households on the world. Approximately 160 million households (90% of rural households, 27% of urban households) use solid fuels for cooking. Stoves offered in our interventions will be drawn from an array of available cleaner-burning fuel-efficient stoves ranging from relatively simple and affordable ?rocket? stoves (already successfully promoted in Karnataka and elsewhere) to sophisticated clean-burning forced-draft stoves and, if appropriate, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) Stoves. Stoves have been selected to represent varying degrees of improvement in fuel consumption, indoor air pollutant emissions, and climate impacts as well as cost, performance, and the degree to which their operation deviates from traditional cooking practices (e.g., fuel preparation, cooking time, and other features). Field measurements will be applied in atmospheric models to quantify the emissions climate-forcing response to regional or global stove adoption under a range of scenarios. North Carolina State University (NCSU) investigators will: 1) lead the effort to measure emissions from the cookstoves in-use in village households during the course of the experimental interventions and, 2) co-lead the measurements of indoor and outdoor air quality with Dr. Julian Marshall from University of Minnesota, 3) lead the analysis of air pollution data and samples collected during the study, and 4) participate in team efforts to analyze study results and disseminate via publications and presentations the results of the project. Custom equipment that has been developed by the PI for measurement of real-time stove emissions, which is currently in use in a randomized control trial of cookstove replacements in Karnataka, India, will be used in both northern- and southern-India experimental sites. Previous to deployment, activities will include designing research and training protocols, calibrating and preparing sampling equipment and preparing filter media for use in sampling. Field work by the NCSU graduate student at the two Indian field sites will include development of field protocols, training field staff and research infrastructure (e.g., central sampling station for outdoor air quality and meteorology in each village location) setup and data collection activities. The graduate student will deploy personal sampling pumps, the RealTime Air Quality (RTAQ, University of Minnesota) and Stove Emission Measurement System (STEMS) instruments and data collection and quality assurance activities that accompany their use. NCSU investigators will conduct laboratory analysis of PM samples collected during field sampling and analyze data from the STEMS and RTAQ instruments. Finally, the NCSU investigators will work with project co-PIs to publishing the results of analysis in archival journals and present the work in national and international settings.
Our proposal will determine the most important variables that explain spatial and temporal variance of near road traffic-related pollutant concentrations: We will explore the relative influence of traffic activity, the built environment (roadways and other built structures), and environmental (e.g. temperature, wind and background concentrations) factors on multi-pollutant transport, differential evolution and how all of these influence human exposure. We will also demonstrate novel surrogates of near-road traffic-related pollution: We will develop data and modeling approaches to quantify exposure concentrations of multiple pollutants emitted from vehicles or formed as secondary pollutants in the near-roadway microenvironment: fine particulate matter (PM), ultrafine particles (UPF), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide. The role of individual pollutants and mixtures of pollutants, and whether some pollutants are good surrogates for others, will be assessed. We will improve inputs for exposure models for traffic-related health: We will explore the implications of our measurement findings by applying them in spatial and temporal analysis of the relationship between human exposure (or surrogates for human exposure) and adverse effects, including evaluation of mixtures of pollutants and other proxies for exposure
The goal of this study is to provide detailed emissions measurements for baseline and replacement stove technologies in use by communities taking part in a stove intervention being conducted by the social enterprise Enyenyeri in Rwanda, which is distributing fan-driven gasifier stoves and pelletized biomass fuels in Rwanda. The work will provide emission factors for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), black carbon (BC), particulate elemental and organic carbon (EC; OC), CO and CO2 for in-home use of both baseline and intervention technologies during wet- and dry-season testing. Tests will be conducted in sufficient numbers to provide some constraint on variability in emission factors across and, to a limited degree, within households. Real-time data will be analyzed to give insight into patterns in household cooking activities and the associated emission characteristics. Extensions to these core activities will include efforts to integrate the use patterns observed into laboratory testing protocols and off-line optical analysis of field-test filters to build on current efforts in my lab to develop a low-cost analysis method suitable for in-field application.
The proposed study is a four-year project to conduct research on the impacts on land use, air quality and regional climate change of biofuel use in Southern and East regions of Africa. Data collection will occur in southern Malawi, centered on several communities participating in a Structured Conditional Transfer program for household cookstove replacements being initiated by a non-governmental organization. Data collected will include those on land use/land cover change, air pollutant emissions, ambient air pollution concentrations, fuel demand and household behavior and decisions. Dr. Pamela Jagger from UNC-CH is the Principal Investigator of the study. Dr. Grieshop will serve as co-PI on the project and will lead the air pollutant emission and air quality measurement components of the study. Air pollutant measurements will include focused emission measurements on indoor air pollution sources (e.g. cookstoves) and other small biofuel-based sources (e.g. brick and charcoal kilns). A network of small, low-cost air quality monitors will be deployed to examine community and regional air quality and also to examine emission sources (e.g. agricultural burning) via near-field concentration measurements.
Our proposal will determine the most important variables that explain spatial and temporal variance of near road traffic-related pollutant concentrations: We will explore the relative influence of traffic activity, human activity, the built environment (roadways and other built structures), and environmental (e.g. temperature, wind and background concentrations) factors on multi-pollutant transport, differential evolution and how all of these influence human exposure. We will also demonstrate novel surrogates of near-road traffic-related pollution: We will develop data and modeling approaches to quantify exposure concentrations of multiple pollutants emitted from vehicles or formed as secondary pollutants in the near-roadway microenvironment: fine particulate matter (PM), ultrafine particles (UPF), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide. The role of individual pollutants and mixtures of pollutants, and whether some pollutants are good surrogates for others, will be assessed. We will improve inputs for exposure models for traffic-related health: We will explore the implications of our measurement findings by applying them in spatial and temporal analysis of the relationship between human exposure (or surrogates for human exposure) and adverse effects, including evaluation of mixtures of pollutants and other proxies for exposure
Our proposal will determine the most important variables that explain spatial and temporal variance of near road traffic-related pollutant concentrations: We will explore the relative influence of traffic activity, the built environment (roadways and other built structures), and environmental (e.g. temperature, wind and background concentrations) factors on multi-pollutant transport, differential evolution and how all of these influence human exposure. We will also demonstrate novel surrogates of near-road traffic-related pollution: We will develop data and modeling approaches to quantify exposure concentrations of multiple pollutants emitted from vehicles or formed as secondary pollutants in the near-roadway microenvironment: fine particulate matter (PM), ultrafine particles (UPF), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide. The role of individual pollutants and mixtures of pollutants, and whether some pollutants are good surrogates for others, will be assessed. We will improve inputs for exposure models for traffic-related health: We will explore the implications of our measurement findings by applying them in spatial and temporal analysis of the relationship between human exposure (or surrogates for human exposure) and adverse effects, including evaluation of mixtures of pollutants and other proxies for exposure
The aims of this project are to demonstrate a method for quantification of spatial and temporal variability in real world air pollutant exposure concentrations, activity patterns, and potential dose. New technologies are emerging for portable and, in some cases, ����������������low cost,��������������� sensing of air quality at the point of contact with humans or other receptors. However, the development of methods for in-use measurement of exposure concentrations is an emerging area and requires research to tailor the measurement methodology to health-relevant metrics of exposure, such as potential dose. The method will be demonstrated by application to an exemplary case study for exposure to air pollution in an urban ����������������green��������������� environment by persons engaged in various levels of activity and exercise, including pedestrians and bicyclists. The methodological approach includes: (a) development of a study design that accounts for choices of study routes, transport modes (pedestrian, cycle), and activity patterns; (b) selection, assembly, and deployment of a portable exposure concentration monitoring instrument package; (c) field data collection of exposure concentrations for the selected study design; (d) quantification of surrogate indicators of ventilation (breathing); (e) data processing; (f) geospatial data analysis to identify locations associated with high exposure and high dose; (g) temporal analysis to determine peak times for exposure and dose; and (h) evaluation of the approach and development of recommendations for improved methods and additional applications. This pilot work will result in a peer-reviewed archival journal paper and serve as the foundation for a larger grant application at a later time.
The goal of this study is to provide detailed emissions measurements for baseline and replacement stove technologies in use by communities taking part in two independent stove intervention programs in rural Malawi: the Cooking and Pneumonia Study (CAPS) being led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and the carbon-finance-funded Chitetezo Mbaula intervention being conducted by the NGO Concern Universal (CU). The work plan described below will provide emission factors for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), BC, particulate elemental and organic carbon (EC; OC), CO and CO2 for in-home use of both baseline and intervention technologies. Tests will be conducted in sufficient numbers to provide some constraint on variability in emission factors across and, to a limited degree, within households. Real-time data will be analyzed to give insight into patterns in household cooking activities and the associated emission characteristics. Extensions to these core activities will include efforts to integrate the use patterns observed into laboratory testing protocols and off-line optical analysis of field-test filters to build on current efforts in my lab to develop a low-cost analysis method suitable for in-field application.
This project has four broad objectives regarding feasible improvements to stoves design and dissemination: (1) to assess why different stove models are (or are not) adopted, (2) to experiment by varying stove price and information dissemination methods to determine the impact of these variables on stove adoption rates, (3) to measure in situ the impacts of stove adoption on indoor air pollution, outdoor air pollution, and climate-forcing, and 4) to model the impacts of widespread stove adoption on regional and global climate through a range of scenarios directly informed by field experiments. The project will be based in two Indian states: Karnataka (South India) and Himachal Pradesh (North India). India contains one of the largest concentrations of solid fuel -dependent households on the world. Approximately 160 million households (90% of rural households, 27% of urban households) use solid fuels for cooking. Stoves offered in our interventions will be drawn from an array of available cleaner-burning fuel-efficient stoves ranging from relatively simple and affordable ?rocket? stoves (already successfully promoted in Karnataka and elsewhere) to sophisticated clean-burning forced-draft stoves and, if appropriate, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) Stoves. Stoves have been selected to represent varying degrees of improvement in fuel consumption, indoor air pollutant emissions, and climate impacts as well as cost, performance, and the degree to which their operation deviates from traditional cooking practices (e.g., fuel preparation, cooking time, and other features). Field measurements will be applied in atmospheric models to quantify the emissions climate-forcing response to regional or global stove adoption under a range of scenarios. North Carolina State University (NCSU) investigators will: 1) lead the effort to measure emissions from the cookstoves in-use in village households during the course of the experimental interventions and, 2) co-lead the measurements of indoor and outdoor air quality with Dr. Julian Marshall from University of Minnesota, 3) lead the analysis of air pollution data and samples collected during the study, and 4) participate in team efforts to analyze study results and disseminate via publications and presentations the results of the project. Custom equipment that has been developed by the PI for measurement of real-time stove emissions, which is currently in use in a randomized control trial of cookstove replacements in Karnataka, India, will be used in both northern- and southern-India experimental sites. Previous to deployment, activities will include designing research and training protocols, calibrating and preparing sampling equipment and preparing filter media for use in sampling. Field work by the NCSU graduate student at the two Indian field sites will include development of field protocols, training field staff and research infrastructure (e.g., central sampling station for outdoor air quality and meteorology in each village location) setup and data collection activities. The graduate student will deploy personal sampling pumps, the RealTime Air Quality (RTAQ, University of Minnesota) and Stove Emission Measurement System (STEMS) instruments and data collection and quality assurance activities that accompany their use. NCSU investigators will conduct laboratory analysis of PM samples collected during field sampling and analyze data from the STEMS and RTAQ instruments. Finally, the NCSU investigators will work with project co-PIs to publishing the results of analysis in archival journals and present the work in national and international settings.
Primitive fuel use for household energy provision has massive impacts on human health and the global climate. I propose a research program that lies at the nexus of an urgent global health problem and fundamental questions being tackled by atmospheric scientists. We will build a comprehensive and multi-scale understanding of the impacts of primitive household energy use, the potential benefits associated with improved technology and the complex aging process that biomass burning aerosols undergo in the atmosphere. The fundamental question addressed in the proposed work is: What are the net climate and indoor and outdoor air pollution impacts of current and potential future sources of household cooking and heating energy? Over 3 billion people globally rely on primitive cooking devices and biomass fuel to provide meet household energy needs for cooking and heating. This has enormous impacts on the health of the household members, especially women and children, along with local ecosystems, and regional and global environmental quality. Roughly 3 million premature mortalities are attributed annually to household air pollution (HAP) exposure due to the primitive use of solid fuels, and globally HAP exposure is the risk factor with the second largest impact on life expectancies (1). Ironically, the energy use of these ?energy poor? has disproportionate environmental and health impacts. The impacts of current practices and the potential improvements associated with new technologies are both highly uncertain due to limited scientific understanding and lack of engineering and market solutions appropriate to the conditions in poorer households and nations. Biofuel burning emissions are one of the largest global sources of atmospheric black carbon aerosols, which are thought to have the second largest positive radiative forcing impact (after CO2) on the global climate system (2). Such burning is also a major source of other products of incomplete combustion (e.g. methane and volatile organic compounds) with strong climate impacts. Therefore, reducing emissions from household biomass burning has the potential to provide both enormous global health and climate benefits. However, biomass burning also emits organic carbon aerosols, which may fully or partly counteract the warming impacts of the emitted black carbon through direct (shortwave scattering) and indirect (cloud) climate effects. Therefore, the net climate benefits from reducing biofuel burning emissions are a strong function of the relative prevalence of these different aerosol components.
Honors and Awards
- NSF CAREER