SAFARI 2000 Gas Emissions from Biofuel Use and Production, September 2000

Domestic biomass fuels (biofuels) are estimated to be the second largest source of carbon emissions from global biomass burning. Wood and charcoal provide approximately 90% and 10% of domestic energy in tropical Africa, respectively. As part of the Southern Africa Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000), the University of Montana participated in both ground-based and airborne campaigns during the southern African dry season of 2000 to measure trace gas emissions from biofuel production and use and savanna fires, respectively.In September of 2000, ground-based, open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (OP-FTIR) was used to quantify 18 of the most abundant trace gases emitted by wood and charcoal cooking fires and an earthen, charcoal-making kiln in Zambia. These are the first, in-situ measurements of an extensive suite of trace gases emitted by tropical biofuel burning.This data set provides biofuel burning emission ratios and emission factors from field measurements for the following trace gases (in order of abundance): carbon dioxide (CO2); carbon monoxide (CO); methane (CH4); acetic acid (CH3COOH); methanol (CH3OH); formaldehyde (HCHO); ethene (C2H4); ammonia (NH3); acetylene (C2H2); nitric oxide (NO); ethane (C2H6); phenol (C6H5OH); propene (C3H6); formic acid (HCOOH); nitrogen dioxide (NO2), hydroxyacetaldehyde (HOCH2COH); and furan (C4H4O). The files are ASCII text files in comma-separated-value format. All emission factors units are grams of compound emitted per kilogram of dry fuel. Emission ratios are dimensionless.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated February 17, 2026, 03:20 (UTC)
Created April 1, 2025, 18:38 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id da187dc6-7b84-4d15-b554-8ebf670899e3
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.3334/ORNLDAAC/753
landingPage https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/search?q=biofuel_emissions_753&ac=true
modified 2026-02-16
programCode {026:000}
publisher ORNL_DAAC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash cba96cbaa76c8829722aa7bde339dbf602f4b220e665938fd11cd5e2c1b7ab16
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial [[{"WestBoundingCoordinate":24.82,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":-14.86,"EastBoundingCoordinate":24.82,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-14.86}],"CARTESIAN"]
temporal 2000-09-10/2000-09-10
theme {"Earth Science"}