Environmentally friendly candles with reduced particle emissions

To support the development of low emission candles a series of emission measurements were conducted on a number of candles commonly used in Denmark.

Here, it was observed, that the number of emitted particles and total particle mass depends on the burn rate and the amount of salts necessary for wick protection. The studies also show, that when candles are protected from draught, the level of black carbon is very low and a large part of the emitted particle mass consist of the salts used for wick protection. Measurements of metals, such as lead and nickel under similar conditions, showed no emissions above the detection limit, and the measurement of emitted (semi) volatile organic compounds, (S)VOC, was unremarkable. Modifying the composition of these candles resulted in a change of the observed emission, but a candle composition exhibiting reduction of all emissions was not achieved.