| Summary: | Student Number : 0306319G -
MSc Research Report -
School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies -
Faculty of Science === Combustion of fuel wood, charcoal and non-woody biofuels is a daily practice for
about half of the world’s population. Combustion of biofuel is a major source of trace
gases, with domestic biomass burning contributing about 17% carbon dioxide (CO2),
13% carbon monoxide (CO) and 6% nitrous oxide (N2O) to the global budget. In
Africa, where there is a growing population, domestic biofuel emissions are a
particularly important source of trace gases. The most important source of biomass
fuels in Africa is wood fuel (wood and charcoal), crop residues and animal dung. In
this project, the amount of domestic biofuel used in rural households across southern
Africa was measured daily over a nine month period. This data was used to estimate
the trace gas production from domestic fires throughout Southern Africa. Results
indicate that RSA contributed the most trace gases to the regional budget (9.12 Tg C
yr-1 of CO2, 0.89 Tg C yr-1 of CO, 10.77 Gg N yr-1 of NO and 30.25 Gg C yr-1 of CH4)
and Botswana the least (0.25 Tg yr-1 of CO2, 0.02 Tg yr-1 of CO, 0.29 Gg yr-1 of NO
and 0.83 Gg yr-1 of CH4). Fuel wood is the dominant fuel type used in all southern
African countries, whereas charcoal was used in RSA, Mozambique and Zambia and
maize residues in Malawi only. CO2 was the gas emitted in the largest quantities, with
fuel wood and charcoal in RSA contributing the most (8.71 Tg yr-1 and 0.41 Tg yr-1
respectively), while CO2 from maize residue was highest in Malawi (0.82 Tg yr-1).
More trace gases were emitted in the dry season than wet season particularly in
Malawi and Mozambique. For the entire region the annual CO2, CO, NO and CH4
emissions produced 23.0 Tg C, 2.2 Tg C, 29.4 Gg N and 81.4 Gg C, respectively.
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