Demand for charcoal in Africa is growing at a rate of 7 percent per year. Its production and use releases large quantities of pollutants. This includes burning plastic to initiate combustion and transport to urban centres in diesel trucks. We develop a new inventory of emissions of these pollutants and precursors and apply it to the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model to determine the impact of the charcoal supply chain on air quality and reagional climate in 2014 and in the future (2030).

Emissions of black carbon from charcoal production in Africa in 2014

People: Alfred Bockarie

Funding: Islamic Development Bank PhD Scholarship awarded to Alfred

External Collaborators: Rob MacKenzie

Tools: GEOS-Chem, ArcGIS, OpenStreetMap, UN Energy Statistics

New Datasets: Charcoal Emission Inventory for Africa in 2014

References:

Bockarie, A. S., E. A. Marais, A. R. MacKenzie, Air quality and climate impact of charcoal use in Africa, in progress.