In-use emissions from biomass and LPG stoves measured during a large, multi-year cookstove intervention study in rural India

More than 3 billion people use solid fuel cookstoves as a source of household energy. The resulting emissions lead to household air pollution (HAP) and linked to 1.6 million deaths and 59 million years’ worth of premature death and disability (known as disability-adjusted life years) in 2017 alone.

Cookstove emissions, which contain long-lived greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, also affect the climate.

This study presents results from a multi-year cookstove intervention trial in India encompassing socio-economic (stove adoption, fuel choice and use) and technical (emission, indoor air quality and exposure) aspects. During the intervention, study participants were given a choice of fuel-efficient biomass stoves, as well as gas and electric options.

The data collected over three measurement campaigns in each study site represent the largest sample of in-home emission tests presented to date, with 253. To our knowledge, this is the first large-scale study of in-home emissions of LPG stoves.

This paper has six objectives:

• Present in-home measurements of pollutant emission factors from traditional and alternative biomass cookstoves;
• Evaluate in-home emissions from LPG stoves;
• Compare emissions across different stove types: traditional versus alternative biomass stoves, chimney versus non-chimney stoves, and alternate biomass stoves versus LPG;
• Explore emission variability over time and between locations
• Quantify which aspects of individual tests and households correlate with emissions; and
  
• Analyze the optical properties of emitted particles.