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06/09/2023 Research and Economic Development, College of Science and Technology
EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (June 9, 2023) – Research teams from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico have initiated the first phases of the African Combustion Aerosol Collaborative Intercomparison Analysis (ACACIA) pilot study. The project titled “Studies of optical and chemical properties of aged and fresh biomass burning absorbing aerosols for climate models” is funded by the Department of Energy.
Principal investigator (PI) Solomon Bililign, Ph.D., a professor in N.C. A&T’s departments of physics and applied science and technology (AST), co-PI Marc Fiddler, Ph.D., and LANL lab group leader Manvendra Dubey, Ph.D., established the collaboration, enhancing the university’s leading expertise in air quality and African biomass fuel burning through the use of LANL’s advanced instrumentation to validate measurements taken at the university’s laboratory.
Although the research project focuses on burning biomass fuels native to Africa – the least-studied region in the world – the findings also will inform global air pollution implications and strategies, since wildfires affect various areas.
“The work in our group looks at detailed characterization of the chemical composition and their light-absorbing scattering properties to be able to understand their impact on health and climate,” Bililign noted in the grant’s abstract.
This project also creates opportunities for team members like Vaios Moschos, Ph.D., an A&T postdoctoral research fellow and LANL visiting scientist, and Megan Mouton, an AST Ph.D. candidate, to enhance their research portfolios while collaborating with other experts at a national laboratory. The pair visited LANL for two weeks in the spring. Moschos designed the experiments, while Mouton was responsible for analyzing the optical measurements.
The first phase of the ACACIA pilot study included “analyzing particle emissions produced by burning multiple African biomass fuels at LANL – including acacia, eucalyptus, mopane, wanza, cow-dung and savanna grass that have a moisture content below 15% as measured at LANL – and focusing on various combustion conditions, by adjusting the temperature of a tube furnace, according to gas analyzer data and modified combustion efficiency calculations.”
LANL postdoctoral research associates Kyle Gorkowski, Ph.D., and Abu Sayeed Md Shawon, Ph.D., were responsible for overseeing the combustion system and operating the LANL instruments and were assisted by postdoctoral researcher Nevil A. Franco, Ph.D.
Here are the team’s reported methods and initial findings:
The team will share these initial findings at The American Association for Aerosol Research Conference in Portland, Oregon this fall. Bililign and Fiddler will initiate the pilot’s second phase with MarkieSha James, an AST applied chemistry Ph.D. candidate, by visiting LANL for a new measurement campaign this July.
Media Contact Information: jicrockett@ncat.edu