The Governors of the University of Alberta

Published purpose

This collaboration will develop carbonaceous particle generators that are representative of particles in real-world applications, in particular, generators representing (1) aged atmospheric soot and (2) biomass-burning particulate. Aged soot is primarily elemental carbon on which secondary organic aerosol has condensed, which causes a restructuring of the soot. Biomassburning particulate, or “smoke”, can have a spectrum of physical and optical properties (ranging from mostly light-absorbing elemental carbon to mostly absorbing or non-absorbing organic carbon) depending the combustion conditions. These two types of particles are extremely important because together they are important climate-warming aerosols in the atmosphere. The aged soot generator will be accomplished using a soot generator and an oxidation reactor. The biomass-burning particulate generator will be constructed with a powder dispersion system and pyrolysis/combustion reactor.