Contribution of Gas and Electric Stoves to Residential Ultrafine Particle Concentrations between 2 nm and 64 nm: Size Distributions and Emission and Coagulation Rates

Published

October 29, 2008

Author(s)

Lance L. Wallace, Wang Fang, Cynthia H. Reed, Andrew K. Persily

Abstract

Three indoor sources of ultrafine particles (a gas stove, an electric stove, and an electric toaster oven) have been studied in an instrumented test house on the campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Previous studies have reported the concentration of ultrafine particles (UFP) indoors due to cooking, but have been limited to particles with diameters greater than 10 nm. New technology now makes it possible to measure particles as small as 2 nm. Therefore, NIST conducted a study to measure typical concentrations and estimate emission rates and coagulation rates of UFP in the size range from 2 nm to 64 nm. More than 150 tests were completed. Peak concentrations from the gas and electric stovetop burners/coils occurred at a particle size of approximately 5 nm and total number concentrations were as much as 10 times greater than reported in previous studies of particle sizes above 10 nm. Because of these high concentrations of very small particles, coagulation was the dominant process affecting the evolution of the size distribution after the source was turned off. Observed number concentration changes due to coagulation were fit by models including corrections for van der Waals and viscosity forces and fractal shapes.

Citation

Environmental Science & Technology

Volume

42

Issue

23

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

ultrafine particle, indoor air, cooking, gas stove, coagulation, air change rate, emission rate

Citation

Wallace, L. , Fang, W. , Reed, C. and Persily, A. (2008), Contribution of Gas and Electric Stoves to Residential Ultrafine Particle Concentrations between 2 nm and 64 nm: Size Distributions and Emission and Coagulation Rates, Environmental Science & Technology, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=861579 (Accessed October 27, 2025)