In this study, we investi
gated the emissions, includin
g odor, from lo
g wood stoves, burnin
g wood types indi
genous to mid-European countries such as Austria, Czech Republic, Hun
gary, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland, as well as Baden-W眉rttember
g and Bavaria (Germany) and South Tyrol (Italy). The investi
gations were performed with a modern, certified, 8 kW, manually fired lo
g wood stove, and the results were compared to emissions from a modern 9 kW pellet stove. The examined
wood types were deciduous species: black locust, black poplar, European hornbeam, European beech, pedunculate oak (also known as 鈥渃ommon oak鈥?, sessile oak, turkey oak and conifers: Austrian black pine, European larch, Norway spruce, Scots pine, silver fir, as well as hard
wood briquettes. In addition, 鈥済arden biomass鈥?such as pine cones, pine needles and dry leaves were burnt in the lo
g wood stove. The pellet stove was fired with soft
wood pellets.
The composite average emission rates for log wood and briquettes were 2030 mg MJ鈭? for CO; 89 mg MJ鈭? for NOx, 311 mg MJ鈭? for CxHy, 67 mg MJ鈭? for particulate matter PM10 and average odor concentration was at 2430 OU m鈭?. CO, CxHy and PM10 emissions from pellets combustion were lower by factors of 10, 13 and 3, while considering NOx - comparable to the log wood emissions. Odor from pellets combustion was not detectable. CxHy and PM10 emissions from garden biomass (needles and leaves) burning were 10 times higher than for log wood, while CO and NOx rise only slightly. Odor levels ranged from not detectable (pellets) to around 19,000 OU m鈭? (dry leaves). The odor concentration correlated with CO, CxHy and PM10. For log wood combustion average odor ranged from 536 OU m鈭? for hornbeam to 5217 OU m鈭? for fir, indicating a considerable influence of the wood type on odor concentration.