The Impact of Biomass-Fired Stoves on Air Pollution in Urban Areas

The usage of biomass as a regionally available renewable energy source is one of the key steps towards decarbonisation and the achievement of sustainable development. Biomass used in a sustainable way is considered as a carbon-neutral fuel. Due to its properties, it is considered an energy source that can help achieve carbon neutrality. Although, compared with fossil fuels biomass results i lower pollutant emissions during a controlled complete combustion process, problems arising from inadequate use of biomass are becoming more common. In many developing countries, biomass, especially wood, is often used in a traditional and inefficient way for cooking and space heating in stoves with minimal control possibilities over the combustion process. Such an inefficient way of using biomass can cause serious environmental problems. The incomplete combustion of woody biomass can result in the emission of harmful matters, including particulate matter (a mixture of smoke, soot and acid) and carbon monoxide (CO). These substances are dangerous to human health and have negative effects on air quality. In addition, burning biomass at high temperatures can generate nitrogen oxides (NOx), further exacerbating the environmental impact. According to the 2022 census, just 20% of dwellings are connected to district heating systems, while 77% have individual heating systems (31% of individual systems are dwellings with central heating installations) in Serbia. Of the total of occupied dwellings in urban areas that are not connected to the district heating system, 47.60% use wood, 2.07% coal, 17.40% natural gas, and 29.00% electricity for space heating. In the paper, 15 urban areas in Serbia with III category of air quality have been analysed. The district heating systems of th analysed cities are based on natural gas usage (11 cities), while coal is the predominant fuel in three cities and heating oil in one city. Individual heating systems often account for more than 70% of the total share in most of the analysed cities, and they are mostly fuelled by solid biomass. Daily excesses of PM particle emissions, which are several times above the limit, are over 95% during the heating season