Aerosol Particle Emissions from Cooking Burgers

1. Aerosol Particle Emissions from Cooking Burgers Cluster 3: Living Oceans and Global Climate Change By: Annie Wapniarski, Daniel Choi, Kasady Liu, Michelle Mak

2. Background Aerosol particles: suspensions of liquid or solid in vapor Credit: Feliciano, E., ScienceNews, December 4, 2010; Vol. 178 #12

3. Experiment • Beef and vegetable burgers were both cooked on charcoal/propane grills (figure 1) • Filters picked up total organic emissions from the grills in µg/m3 • They were analyzed in the clean room by a FTIR spectrometer (figure 2) • Charcoal Beef (figure 3), picked up the darkest particles. Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 1

4. Results/ Analysis • Propane releases less organic emissions than charcoal • Organic particle concentrations higher when cooking burgers • Veggies burgers release less particles than beef burgers Figure 2 Figure 1 Figure 3 Figure 5 Figure 4 Figure 6

5. Conclusion/ Implication • Conclusion • Expectation: Charcoal/Beef mix would give off more organic material • Reality: Propane/Beef mix gave off more organic material • Charcoal/Beef mix had more alkanes overall • Implications • Fingerprint of emissions

6. Acknowledgements Special thanks to... Professor Lynn Russell Teacher Fellow Megan Jones Lab Assistant Jacob A. Sanchez