Field Measurements of some Criterion Pollutants using Filter Collection in Botswana, Africa

Biomass burning (BB) emissions can degrade air quality on local, regional, and global scale. The continent of Africa is the largest source of BB emissions, contributing about 55% of global BB. Moreover, Africa is experiencing rapid urbanization, population growth, and a growing economy. These lead to increased demand for energy resulting in growing fossil fuel use, clearing of forests for agriculture to ensure food security and development of urban infrastructure that includes air polluting industries. That combined with poor waste management and an overall lack of environmental regulations leads to substantial air pollution problems on the continent. As part of the IRES initiative and an international effort to understand the scale of the air quality problems in the continent, two forms of sample collection were conducted at Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) in Palapye, Botswana over a period of five weeks. Results of the chemical analysis of the samples and comparison with laboratory filter analysis using fuels from the same region will be presented. Measurement of the micro-aethalometer-based background equivalent black carbon (BC) mass during the field study will also be presented. Purple air data will be used to determine particle loading onto the filters.

Sample collection in Botswana was made possible through funding by NSF under award number NSF-OISE-1559308