Nielsen, O-K., Winther, M., Mikkelsen, M.H., Hoffmann, L., Nielsen, M., Gyldenkærne, S., Fauser, P., Plejdrup, M.S., Albrektsen, R. & Hjelgaard, K.
I Background information on emission inventories
Annual report
This report is Denmark’s Annual Informative Inventory Report (IIR) due March 15, 2009 to the UNECE-Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP). The report contains information on Denmark’s inventories for all years from the base years of the protocols to 2007.
The gases reported under the LRTAP Convention are SO2, NOx, NMVOC, CO, NH3 , As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Se, Zn, dioxins/furans, HCB, PAHs, TSP, PM10 and PM2.5.
The annual emission inventory for Denmark is reported in the Nomenclature for Reporting (NFR) format as requested in the reporting guidelines.
The issues addressed in this report are: trends in emissions, description of each NFR category, uncertainty estimates, recalculations, planned improvements and procedures for quality assurance and control. The structure of the report is, as far as possible, the same as the National Inventory Report to UNFCCC.
This report and NFR tables are available to the public on NERI’s homepage: http://www.dmu.dk/Luft/Emissioner/Home+of+Inventory/
and on the Eionet central data repository:
http://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/dk/Air_Emission_Inventories/Submission_EMEP_UNECE
Responsible institute
The National Environmental Research Institute (NERI), Aarhus University, is responsible for the annual preparation and submission to the UNECE-LRTAP Convention of the Annual Danish Emissions Report and the inventories in the NFR format in accordance with the guidelines. NERI participates in meetings under the UNECE Task Force on Emission Inventories and Projections and the related expert panels, where parties to the convention prepare the guidelines and methodologies on inventories.
Acidifying gases
Figure S.1 shows the emission of acidifying gases in terms of acid equivalents. In 1990, the relative contribution in acid equivalents was almost equal for the three gases. In 2007, the most important acidification factor in Denmark was ammonia nitrogen and the relative contributions for SO2, NOx and NH3 were 8.3 %, 41.3 % and 50.4 %, respectively. However, regarding long-range transport of air pollution, SO2 and NOx are still the most important pollutants.
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Figure S.1 Emissions of NH3, NOX and SO2 in acid equivalents. |
SO2
The main part of the SO2 emission originates from combustion of fossil fuels, i.e. mainly coal and oil, in public power and district heating plants. From 1980 to 2007, the total emission decreased by 95 %. The large reduction is largely due to installation of desulphurisation plant and use of fuels with lower content of sulphur in public power and district heating plants. Despite the large reduction of the SO2 emissions, these plants make up 39 % of the total emission. Also emissions from industrial combustion plants, non-industrial combustion plants and other mobile sources are important. National sea traffic (navigation and fishing) contributes with about 6 % of the total SO2 emission. This is due to the use of residual oil with high sulphur content.
NOx
The largest sources of emissions of NOx are transport followed by other mobile sources and combustion in energy industries (mainly public power and district heating plants). The transport sector is the sector contributing the most to the emission of NOx and, in 2007, 45 % of the Danish emissions of NOx stems from road transport, national navigation, railways and civil aviation. Also emissions from national fishing and off-road vehicles contribute significantly to the NOx emission. For non-industrial combustion plants, the main sources are combustion of gas oil, natural gas and wood in residential plants. The emissions from public power plants and district heating plants have decreased by 65 % from 1985 to 2007. In the same period, the total emission decreased by 43 %. The reduction is due to the increasing use of catalyst cars and installation of low-NOx burners and denitrifying units in power and district heating plants.
NH3
Almost all atmospheric emissions of NH3 result from agricultural activities. Only a minor part originates from road transport. This part is, however, increasing due to increasing use of catalyst cars. In 2007 the major part of the emission from agriculture stems from livestock manure (87 %) and the largest losses of ammonia occur during the handling of the manure in stables and in field application. Other contributions come from crops (7 %), use of mineral fertilisers (6 %) and sewage sludge used as fertiliser (less than 1 %). The total ammonia emission decreased by 41 % from 1985 to 2007. This is due to the active national environmental policy efforts of the past twenty years.
Other air pollutants
NMVOC
The emissions of NMVOC originate from many different sources and can be divided into two main groups: incomplete combustion and evaporation. Road vehicles and other mobile sources such as national navigation vessels and off-road machinery are the main sources of NMVOC emissions from incomplete combustion processes. Road transportation vehicles are still the main contributor, even though the emissions have declined since the introduction of catalyst cars in 1990. The evaporative emissions mainly originate from the use of solvents. The emissions from the energy industries have increased during the nineties due to the increasing use of stationary gas engines, which have much higher emissions of NMVOC than conventional boilers. The total anthropogenic emissions have decreased by 48 % from 1985 to 2007, largely due to the increased use of catalyst cars and reduced emissions from use of solvents.
CO
Transport is responsible for the dominant share of the total CO emission. Also other mobile sources and non-industrial combustion plants contribute significantly to the total emission of this pollutant. The drop in the emissions from 1989 to 1990 was a consequence of a law banning the burning of agricultural crop residues on fields. The emission decreased further by 38 % from 1990 to 2007, largely because of decreasing emissions from road transportation.
PAHs
The present emission inventory for PAH (poly aromatic hydrocarbons) includes the four PAHs reported to UNECE: benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(b)-fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene and indeno-(1,2,3-cd) pyrene. The most important sources of the PAH emission are combustion of wood in the residential sector and road transportation. The increasing emission trend is due to increasing combustion of wood in the residential sector.
Particulate Matter
The particulate matter (PM) emission inventory has been reported for the years 2000-2007. The inventory includes the total emission of particles TSP (Total Suspended Particles), emission of particles smaller than 10 µm (PM10) and emission of particles smaller than 2.5 µm (PM2.5).
The largest PM2.5 emission sources are the residential sector (70 %), road traffic (16 %) and other mobile sources (6 %). For the latter, the most important source is off-road vehicles and machinery in the industrial sector and the agricultural-/forestry sector (39 and 37 % respectively). For the road transport sector, exhaust emissions account for the major part (75 %) of the emissions.
The largest TSP emission sources are the residential sector and the agricultural sector. The TSP emissions from transport are also important and include both exhaust emissions and the non-exhaust emissions from brake and tyre wear and road abrasion. The non-exhaust emissions account for 49 % of the TSP emission from road transport.
Heavy metals
In general, the most important sources of heavy metal emissions are combustion of fossil fuels and waste. The heavy metal emissions have decreased substantially in recent years. The reductions span from 2 % to 95 % for Cu and Pb, respectively. The reason for the reduced emissions is mainly increased use of gas cleaning devices at power and district heating plants (including waste incineration plants). The large reduction in the Pb emission is due to a gradual shift towards unleaded gasoline.
In general, considerable work is being carried out to improve the inventories. New investigations and research carried out in Denmark and abroad are, as far as possible, included as the basis for the emission estimates and included as data in the inventory databases. Furthermore, the updates of the EMEP/CORINAIR guidebook and the work in the Task Force on Emission Inventories and Projections and its expert panels are followed closely in order to be able to incorporate the best scientific information as the basis for the inventories. Further important references in this regard are the IPCC guidelines and IPCC good practice guidance.
Implementation of new results in inventories is made in a way so that improvements better reflect Danish conditions and circumstances. In improving the inventories, care is taken to consider implementation of improvements for the whole time-series of inventories, to promote consistency. Such efforts lead to recalculation of previously submitted inventories.
The most important recalculations for the various sectors are mentioned below.
Energy
Stationary Combustion
The national energy statistics has been updated for the years 1980-2006. This has primarily resulted in small differences, however a larger recalculation of the residential wood consumption was made by the DEA resulting in higher emissions of a number of air pollutants in 2006.
The NMVOC emission factor for cereal straw in residential plants has been updated to reflect the value provided in the EMEP/Corinair Guidebook. The emission factor was reduced from 600 g pr GJ to 400 g pr GJ. This change was made for the whole time-series.
The emission factor for CO for residential wood combustion was updated based on the technology distribution of stoves and boilers together with default emission factors from the EMEP/Corinair Guidebook. This reduced the emissions factor from 6000 g pr GJ to 3441 g pr GJ in 2007. A time-series for the emission factor was elaborated and is included in annex 2A.
HCB emissions were estimated for the first time. Default emission factors from the EMEP/Corinair Guidebook were used in the calculations.
Mobile sources
For heavy duty vehicles new information from the Danish Car Importers Association has enabled a more precise distribution of vehicles into Euro levels. Also, a more realistic development from 2005 to 2006 in the total mileage for passenger cars has been introduced in the calculations. For 2005 and 2006, DEA have made small changes in a downward direction for the annual diesel fuel consumption statistics.
Recalculations have been made from 1985-2006 resulting in minor emission differences between 0 and -1 %, for all emission components other than the fuel related ones. For these latter components, the emissions remain the same.
National sea transport
Fuel consumption and emission factors directly measured for the ferries used by Mols Linien have now been implemented in the inventory calculations, and small activity changes have been made for two smaller Danish ferry companies.
This has caused the fuel consumption and emissions to change from 1996 onwards. Most significantly the emission changes for NOx are between -3 and -20 %, whereas the emission changes for other components are between -3 and 3 %. The fuel consumption increases are between 0 and 2 % in the period.
Fishery
Due to the change in fuel consumption for national sea transport, fuel adjustments are made for gas oil used by fishing vessels, and the emissions for this sector are also affected. Also, an error in the energy statistics for the year 2006 has been corrected by the DEA, thus reducing the gas oil fuel consumption for fisheries by 0.4 PJ.
Fishery is a part of the CRF-NFR code 1A4c consisting of agriculture, forestry and fisheries activities, and hence the fuel consumption and emission impacts are somewhat smaller for the sector as a whole.
From 1996-2005 the fuel consumption and emission changes are between 0 and -2 %. For 2006 the emission changes are between -3 and -1 %. For SO2 though the emission change is -7 %, due to the relatively high sulphur content in marine gas oil.
Military
Emission factors derived from the new road transport simulations have caused minor emission changes from 1985-2006. The emission differences are between -1 and 2 %, for all emission components other than the fuel related ones. For these latter components, the emissions remain the same.
Residential
No changes have been made.
Railways
No changes have been made.
Aviation
No changes have been made.
Industrial processes
No changes have been made.
Solvent
The main improvements in the 2009 submission include the following
Agriculture
Compared with the previous NH3 and PM emissions inventory (submission 2007), some changes and updates have been made. These changes cause a decrease in the NH3 emission (1985 – 2006) and an increase in the PM emission (2004 – 2006), please see chapter 6 on agriculture for more information.
There have been no changes in the methodology. Emission factors for synthetic fertilizers the have been changed to the values given by EMEP/EEA (2009) and recalculations is done for 1985-2006. This results in a decrease in the ammonia emission from synthetic fertilizers of 10-26 %.
The emission factors for crops are lowered from 5 to 2 % for crops and from 3 to 0.5 % for grass based on a literary survey. Recalculations have been done for the years 1985-2006. This results in a decrease in the ammonia emission from crops of 62-64 %.
Updated data from The Danish Environmental Protection Agency for the use of sewage sludge as fertilizers for the years 2004-2006 have been received and therefore recalculations. This results in an increase in the emission from sewage sludge used as fertilizer of 11 – 25 %.
Emission factors for fur farming have been raised from 25 to 36 % in agreement with DJF and recalculation is done for the years 1985-2006.
Data for dairy cattle and heifer’s time on pasture have been lowered with 10 % in 2007. In order to remove time-series inconsistency the data are interpolated for the years 2003-2006. This is the main cause to the changes in the PM emission.
Calculations of nitrogen loss from livestock have partly been adjusted to TAN for the years 2003-2006. This together with the changes in time on pasture is the main cause to the additional decrease in the total NH3 emission.
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