Henriksen, T.C., Illerup, J.B. & Nielsen, O.-K. 2006. NERI Technical report No. 602. 90 pp.
The purpose of this dioxin inventory has been to update previous studies on the Danish dioxin emission and add new knowledge and research. The scope of the project was, furthermore, to set up a framework against which annual updates can be made with revision of relevant emission factors and the basic activity data provided by official Danish statistics.
Especially the sections on dioxin emissions from municipal solid waste incineration and residential wood burning have been improved, with technological considerations and field measurements, in order to reduce the uncertainty surrounding two of the most important sources in the inventory.
The present Danish dioxin air emission inventory shows that the emission has been reduced from 68.6 g I-TEQ in 1990 to 22.0 g I-TEQ in 2004, or about 68% over this period. The major emission sources for 1990 were municipal waste incineration, steel reclamation and residential wood burning, while in 2004 the major sources had changed to residential wood burning and fires. Fires include landfill fires and fires in buildings and vehicles.
A large part of the significant reductions have been achieved in the industrial sector, where emissions have been reduced from 14.67 g I-TEQ in 1990 to 0.17 g I-TEQ in 2004; a reduction of almost 99%. The main reasons for the significant decrease in the emission are stricter emission regulation with required dioxin abatement in e.g. steel and aluminium reclamation industries and the total stop of steel reclamation processes in Denmark from 2002-2004.
Emissions from waste incineration reduced from 32.5 g I-TEQ in 1990 to 2.1 g I-TEQ in 2004; which is approx. 94% in spite of an increase in fuel consumption of 138% from 1990 to 2004. This was due to installation of dioxin abatement equipment and modification of the combustion process in incineration plants.
The major source in the non-industrial category is combustion of wood in the residential sector and in 2004 it was the most important source of emission, at 8.5 g I-TEQ, or around 40% of the total emission. The emission from wood use has increased by 37% from 1990 to 2004 due to a larger consumption of wood.
In 2004, accidental fires, which are estimated to emit 6.1 g I-TEQ/year, are the second most important source, contributing with around 28% of the total emission.
Figure S1. Dioxin emission in 1990, 2000 and 2004, distributed according to sector. Total is 68.6 g I-TEQ for 1990, 33.0 g I-TEQ for 2000 and 22.0 g I-TEQ for 2004.
The comparison of the inventories in 1990, 2000 and 2004 in Figure S1 illustrates the large emission reduction in the energy and industrial sectors.
When reporting to international conventions, single-figure estimates are requested, and one of the tasks of the present inventory was to provide a single estimate for the total dioxin emission to air in Denmark. This does, however, not reduce the general uncertainty when estimating dioxin emissions, reflected both in the broad intervals in previous studies and the variability in measurements, as discussed in this report.
Full report in pdf-format (963 kB).
