Back to news
13 Jun 2017 | Atmosphere Initiative

Creating New Data Sets for Emissions Inventory

Nepal’s energy requirement has increased substantially in recent years due to rapid urbanization and expansion of businesses.

Charcoal, a carbonaceous solid renewable fuel that is obtained as a residue left after the burning of wood and other biodegradable organic matter, is considered an important source of energy for both domestic and industrial purposes. Its demand has been increasing steadily for more than a decade. It is a fuel with a fixed carbon content of 70% or more. Its production varies according to the feedstock that is used for making it.

2 mins Read

70% Complete
Instruments set to measure the emissions of traditional pit system (TPS). Photo: Sagar Adhikari/ICIMOD

In Nepal, many community forests are involved in the production of charcoal from forest materials generated from the annual cutting and pruning cycle. The traditional pit system (TPS) is the most widely used charcoal production technique. It is a low-cost technology which only requires some agriculture-based tools for the excavation a defined pit size and a plate to cover the pit with. “As all the work is done below ground level, the operators of such pits are exposed to high emission and experience high heat stress,” says Sagar Adhikari, Emissions Measurement Research Associate at ICIMOD. The charcoal produced is not of high quality and the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere may be higher than the benefits derived from the charcoal.

The Bioenergy Project was initiated in Nepal to upscale the production and consumption of bioenergy to reduce carbon emissions and enhance local employment. With simple modifications to fixed retorts and kilns to make them more financially feasible, the project has developed a new technology bioenergy kiln. This new kiln, although not very different from TPS in terms of operation, seems more efficient in terms of emissions reduction and produces high quality charcoal. The team approached the Atmosphere Initiative of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) for support to measure emissions by both systems to find out if the new one is less polluting.

2
1. Emission measurement of bioenergy kiln. Photo: Sagar Adhikari/ICIMOD 2. Data collection. Photo: Siva Praveen Puppala/ICIMOD

Adhikari, who is involved in the campaign, has been collecting emissions data on both TPS and bioenergy kilns from Chitwan. Instruments like e-samplers, microaeth, licor, IAQ probes, and gas analyzers were used to measure particulate matter (PM 2.5) and gaseous pollutants like carbon (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), black carbon (BC), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and nitrogen oxide (NOx). The pollution samples were collected in gas canisters to be sent to a laboratory in the United States for characterization of the gases.

“Measurement campaigns such as this one help us fill the knowledge gaps in our emissions inventory,” says Siva Praveen Puppala, an aerosol scientist who is leading the campaign with support from Sujan Shrestha. Both researchers are from ICIMOD. He further explains that the campaign will not only help compare emissions produced by the two systems but will also provide the dataset for each technology in the inventory.

The Bioenergy Project is a four-year (2014–2017) project partnered by HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Asia Network for Sustainable Agriculture and Bioresources (ANSAB), Sustainable Technology Adaptive Research and Implementation Center (STARIC/N), and Winrock International.

Stay current

Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.

Sign Up

Related content

Continue exploring this topic

18 Dec 2015 HKPL
Regional consultation on Karakoram-Pamir-Wakhan Landscape Initiative

A regional consultation workshop on programme development for Karakoram-Pamir-Wakhan Landscape Initiative jointly organised by the Wakhan Corridor Initiative and the ...

17 Apr 2015 News
A new collaboration to manage forests

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) will be collaborating with the World Resources Institute (WRI) through its Global Forest Watch (GFW) initiative ...

10 Dec 2015 News
HICAP South-South Dialogue on Managing Wetlands in the Himalayas

ICIMOD, as a regional intergovernmental learning and knowledge sharing centre in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, has taken various steps ...

10 local solutions for global impact: New book launched

Mountain regions are home to about 15% of the world’s population. Communities in the Hindu Kush Himalaya ...

11 Dec 2015 Water
Springshed Management in the Himalayas

ICIMOD in association with The Mountain Institute, India and Rural Management and Development Department (Dhara Vikas Programme) Govt. of Sikkim ...

3 May 2021 Atmosphere
Investigating air quality in the Kathmandu Valley: The need for data

What could be behind the deterioration in air quality in the Kathmandu Valley and elsewhere in the HKH? The HKH is ...

27 Jul 2018 DFAT Brahmaputra
Bhutan’s First Spring Revival Test Site in Lholing Village, Paro

Several rounds of joint scientific investigation were carried out in Lholing to understand the hydrogeology of its springs and devise ...