Correlation between calcium carbonate content and emission characteristics of incense

In Taiwan and China, calcium carbonate is commonly added as a filler during incense production to lower the cost. This study has found an unexpected benefit for this practice: it reduces particulate emission. Nine types of the popular incense on the local market were chosen for this study. The calcium content in raw material incense was analyzed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry, followed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy. The correlation between the calcium content and emission characteristics of incense was investigated. The calcium content varied from 1.8 to 60 mg/g (incense burned) among those nine different types of incense. Very little calcium (< 1%) was found in natural wood or plants, which is mainly the raw material of incense. Instead, most calcium was artificially added in the form of CaCO3 during manufacturing. The combustion characteristics, including burning rate, emission factors of particulate, ash, and solid-phase polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (S-PAHs), varied significantly among the nine types of incense. Incense containing 2% calcium would emit 30% less S-PAHs, compared with those with little (< 0.2%) calcium. More importantly, increasing the calcium content from 0.5 to 5% by adding CaCO3 reduced the particulate emission from incense by approximately 50%.