A dataset of emission factors Dataset from household solid fuel use in rural communities of Northwest and Southwest China

<p indent="0mm">Solid fuels remain a significant energy source for cooking and heating in China, with rural areas exhibiting a substantially higher usage rate than urban areas, particularly in the northwest and southwest regions. The combustion of these fuels releases large amounts of pollutants, which serve as major sources of regional air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, thereby exerting considerable impacts on indoor air quality and associated health risks for rural residents. This study addresses the critical lack of data on emissions from traditional solid fuel combustion in rural areas of northwest and southwest China. Based on field surveys and combustion experiments conducted between 2018 and 2019, we developed a dataset of emission factors for solid fuels used in rural households. The study covers typical regions such as the Loess Plateau, the arid of Northwest China, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and includes major fuel types such as firewood, crop residues, raw coal, and livestock manure. Emission data were collected for nine types of pollutants, including carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), and fine particulate matter (PM_2.5). The dataset was established using a self-developed portable dilution sampling system that combines real-time monitoring of pollutant concentrations with laboratory analysis, ensuring localized and high-precision emission factors. For quality control, we employed measures such as blank filter correction to eliminate background interference, multi-channel parallel sampling, and regular instrument calibration to ensure data reliability. This dataset provides fundamental support for the construction of regional air pollution models, regional atmospheric emission inventories, and assessments of rural energy consumption and its environmental health impacts. Additionally, it offers quantitative evidence for optimizing rural clean heating transformations and carbon reduction pathways, thereby facilitating the scientific decomposition of the “dual-carbon” goals and promoting the transition of rural energy use towards a greener and low-carbon direction.