Date of Award

Summer 8-2017

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Program

Civil Engineering

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Major Professor

Dr. Bhaskar Kura

Second Advisor

Dr. Enrique J. La Motta

Third Advisor

Dr. Guillermo J. Rincon

Abstract

Indoor air quality is a growing concern in the world. People spend a considerable amount of time in indoor environments such as homes, workplaces, shopping malls, stores, and so on. Indoor sources like incense and candle burning, cooking contribute a significant amount of indoor air pollutants such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide (CO), volatile organic compounds. Exposure to these kinds of pollutants can result in adverse health effects.

The purpose of this research is to determine the particulate matter and carbon monoxide emission factors (EFs) from incense stick burning. A test chamber with a rectangular exhaust duct, a fan to exhaust air with pollutants in it, and pollutant sensors were used to achieve the project goals. Several experiments were performed with different cases/scenarios to accurately estimate the EFs and several test runs were conducted for each case to test the repeatability of the results.

The CO, PM2.5 (mass), PM2.5 (number), PM10 (mass), PM10 (number) EFs developed in this research are between 110-120 mg/g of incense, 2.5-3 mg/g of incense, 800-1100 #particles/µg of incense, 32-33 mg/g of incense, 1200-1400 #particles/µg of incense respectively.

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

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