Fossil fuel-fired emission factors

ABSTRACTCH4 and CO2 emissions from geologic sources, which are devoid of radiocarbon (14C), dilute the atmospheric 14C/C ratio. Observations of 14C/C can be used to estimate fossil fuel-derived CH4 and CO2. However, the atmospheric 14C/C ratio is perturbed by emissions of 14C from nuclear power plants (NPPs) and fuel reprocessing sites, which may affect such 14C/C-based estimation if they are not correctly quantified. We calculate NPP 14C emissions for CO2 and CH4 from 1972–2016 using standard emission factors (14C emitted per unit of power produced) and analyze trends in global and regional emissions. We use available observations of 14C emissions and power generation in Europe to assess emission factors for different reactor types, as well as potential differences related to the age or manufacturer of the NPPs. Globally, nuclear 14C emissions increase until 2005 and then decrease, mostly because of the closure of gas-cooled reactors in the United Kindom and the shutdown of light water reactors after the Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011. Observed emission factors in Europe show strong variability, spanning values from 0.003 to 2.521 TBq/GWa for PWR and from 0.007 to 1.732 TBq/GWa for BWR reactors, suggesting more information and more sophisticated models are needed to improve estimates of 14C emissions.

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Evaluating China's fossil-fuel CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from a comprehensive dataset of nine inventories

10.5194/acp-2019-643 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Pengfei Han ◽

Ning Zeng ◽

Tom Oda ◽

Xiaohui Lin ◽

Monica Crippa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Carbon Budget ◽

Fossil Fuel ◽

Statistical Data ◽

Emission Factors ◽

Accurate Estimate ◽

Point Sources ◽

Major City ◽

Activity Data ◽

Grid Level

Abstract. China's fossil-fuel CO2 emissions (FFCO2) account for 28 % of the global total FFCO2 in 2016. An accurate estimate of China’s FFCO2 is a prerequisite for global and regional carbon budget analyses and monitoring of carbon emission reduction efforts. However, large uncertainties and discrepancies exist in China’s FFCO2 estimations due to lack of detailed traceable emission factors and multiple statistical data sources. Here, we evaluated China's FFCO2 emissions from 9 published global and regional emission datasets. These datasets show that the total emission increased from 3.4 (3.0–3.7) in 2000 to 9.8 (9.2–10.4) Gt CO2 yr−1 in 2016. The variations in their estimates were due largely to the different emission factors (0.491–0.746 for coal) and activity data. The large-scale patterns of gridded emissions showed a reasonable agreement with high emissions concentrated in major city clusters, and the standard deviation mostly ranged 10–40 % at provincial level. However, patterns beyond the provincial scale vary greatly with the top 5 % of grid-level account for 50–90 % of total emissions for these datasets. Our findings highlight the significance of using locally-measured EF for the Chinese coals. To reduce the uncertainty, we call on the enhancement of physical CO2 measurements and use them for datasets validation, key input data sharing (e.g. point sources) and finer resolution validations at various levels.

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98/00710 Determination of specific emission factors and diurnal cycles for fossil-fuel burning power utilities

Fuel and Energy Abstracts ◽

10.1016/s0140-6701(97)85968-1 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 39 (1) ◽

pp. 59

Keyword(s):

Fossil Fuel ◽

Emission Factors ◽

Diurnal Cycles ◽

Fossil Fuel Burning ◽

Fuel Burning ◽

Power Utilities

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Experimental analysis of CO2, CO, SO2 and NOx emission factors of Iran's fossil fuel fired power plants

2010 IEEE International Energy Conference ◽

10.1109/energycon.2010.5771785 ◽

2010 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Hamed Shahsavari Alavije ◽

Hamid Shahsavari Alavijeh ◽

A. Kiumarsi Oskuei ◽

M. H. Asheri

Keyword(s):

Experimental Analysis ◽

Power Plants ◽

Fossil Fuel ◽

Emission Factors

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Uncertainty in projected climate change arising from uncertain fossil-fuel emission factors

Environmental Research Letters ◽

10.1088/1748-9326/aab304 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 044017 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Y Quilcaille ◽

T Gasser ◽

P Ciais ◽

F Lecocq ◽

G Janssens-Maenhout ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Fossil Fuel ◽

Emission Factors ◽

Fossil Fuel Emission

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Relevant methane emission to the atmosphere from a geological gas manifestation

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-83369-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Adriano Mazzini ◽

Alessandra Sciarra ◽

Giuseppe Etiope ◽

Pankaj Sadavarte ◽

Sander Houweling ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Fossil Fuel ◽

Ice Core ◽

Regional Scale ◽

Ice Cores ◽

Emission Factors ◽

Substantial Contribution ◽

Bottom Up ◽

Order Of Magnitude ◽

Fossil Fuel Industry ◽

Fuel Industry

AbstractQuantifying natural geological sources of methane (CH4) allows to improve the assessment of anthropogenic emissions to the atmosphere from fossil fuel industries. The global CH4 flux of geological gas is, however, an object of debate. Recent fossil (14C-free) CH4 measurements in preindustrial-era ice cores suggest very low global geological emissions (~ 1.6 Tg year−1), implying a larger fossil fuel industry source. This is however in contrast with previously published bottom-up and top-down geo-emission estimates (~ 45 Tg year−1) and even regional-scale emissions of ~ 1–2 Tg year−1. Here we report on significant geological CH4 emissions from the Lusi hydrothermal system (Indonesia), measured by ground-based and satellite (TROPOMI) techniques. Both techniques indicate a total CH4 output of ~ 0.1 Tg year−1, equivalent to the minimum value of global geo-emission derived by ice core 14CH4 estimates. Our results are consistent with the order of magnitude of the emission factors of large seeps used in global bottom-up estimates, and endorse a substantial contribution from natural Earth’s CH4 degassing. The preindustrial ice core assessments of geological CH4 release may be underestimated and require further study. Satellite measurements can help to test geological CH4 emission factors and explain the gap between the contrasting estimates.

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