Illerup, J.B., Nielsen, O-K., Winther, M., Mikkelsen, M.H., Hoffmann, L., Gyldenkærne, S., Fauser, P. & Nielsen, M. 2006. NERI Technical Report No. 604. 717 pp.
Annual report
This report is Denmark’s Annual Emissions Inventory Report due May 2006 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 2004.
The gases reported under the LRTAP Convention are SO2, NOX, NMVOC, CO, NH3 , As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Se, Zn, dioxins/furans, PAHs, TSP, PM2.5 and PM10.
The annual emission inventory for Denmark is reported in the Nomenclature for Reporting (NFR) format as requested in the reporting guidelines. The complete set of NFR files are provided in the report.
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 the NFR tables are available to the public on the National Environmental Research Institute’s homepage http://www.dmu.dk/1_Viden/2_Miljoe-tilstand/3_luft/4_adaei/default_en.asp.
Responsible institute
The National Environmental Research Institute (NERI), under the Danish Ministry of Environment, 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 Danish acidifying gases in terms of acid equivalents. In 1990, the relative contribution in acid equivalents was almost equal for the three gases. In 2004, the most important acidification factor in Denmark was ammonia nitrogen and the relative contributions for SO2, NOX and NH3 were 7 %, 38 % and 55 %, respectively. However, regarding long-range transport of air pollution, SO2 and NOX are still the most important pollutants.
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 2004, the total emission decreased by 95 %. The large reduction is mainly 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 in SO2 emissions, these plants make up 42 % 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 around 11 % of the total SO2 emission. This is due to the use of residual oil with high sulphur content.
NOX
The largest source of emissions of NOX is other mobile sources followed by road transport and combustion in energy industries (mainly public power and district heating plants). The transport sector was the sector contributing the most to the emission of NOX and, in 2004, 39 % of the Danish NOX emission stemmed 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. Emissions from public power plants and district heating plants decreased by 57 % from 1985 to 2004. In the same period, the total emission decreased by 38 %. The reduction is due to the increasing use of catalyst cars and installation of low-NOX burners and de-nitrifying 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. The major part of the emission from agriculture stems from livestock manure (78 %) and the largest losses of ammonia occur during the handling of the manure in stables and in field application. Other contributions come from crops (15 %), use of mineral fertilisers (6 %), sewage sludge used as fertiliser and ammonia used for treatment of straw (less than 1 %). The total ammonia emission decreased by 32 % from 1985 to 2004. 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. The main sources of NMVOC emissions from incomplete combustion processes are road vehicles and other mobile sources such as national navigation vessels and off-road machinery. Road transportation vehicles are still the main contributors, even though the emissions from this source have declined since the introduction of catalyst cars in 1990. Evaporative emissions mainly originate from the use of solvents. Emissions from the energy industries have increased during the nineties because of increasing use of stationary gas engines, which have much higher emissions of NMVOC than conventional boilers. Total anthropogenic emissions decreased by 35 % from 1985 to 2004, mainly due to the increasing use of catalyst cars and reduced emissions from use of solvents.
CO
Transport accounts 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 emissions seen in 1990 was a consequence of a law forbidding the burning of agricultural waste on fields. The emission decreased by 23 % from 1990 to 2004, mainly 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)py-rene, 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 2000-2004. The inventory includes 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 (55 %), road traffic (18 %) and other mobile sources (13 %). For the latter, the most important source is off-road vehicles and machinery in the agricultural/forestry sector (58 %). For the road transport sector, exhaust emissions account for the major part (85 %) of the emission.
The largest TSP emission sources are the agricultural sector and the residential sector. The TSP emissions from transport are also important and include both exhaust emissions and non-exhaust emissions from brake and tyre wear and road abrasion. The non-exhaust emissions account for 26 % 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 over recent years. The reductions span from 18 % to 96 %, for Cu and Pb respectively. The reason for the reduced emissions is mainly the 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, the latter being essential for catalyst cars.
In general, considerable work is being carried out to 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 its expert groups 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.
For total national emissions, the general impact of the recalculations made in 2005 is small. The most important recalculations for the various sectors are mentioned below.
Stationary combustion
Recalculation is mainly a result of an update of fuel rates according to the latest energy statistics. The update included the years 1980-2003. The criteria for including a plant as a point source has been defined and included in this reporting. A number of emission factors for SO2 and NOx have been corrected, see Annex 2, Appendix 4. The emission factor for N2 O for coal-powered plants has been updated based on new research.
Some additional improvements, causing only very limited changes in the estimated total emission from stationary combustion, are discussed in Section 3.2.5.
Transport
The following most important recalculations and improvements of the emission inventories have been made since the emission reporting in 2005.
For road transport, a revision of the 1985-2003 time-series of emissions has been made, based on revised fleet and mileage data from the Danish Road Directorate, and corrections have been made to road transport gasoline fuel use in accordance with a new gasoline fuel use estimate for non-road machinery. Additionally, a new model has been developed at NERI, based on the COPERT methodology and emission factors. This decision was made in order to gain flexibility in output formats and to save working time during inventory update and debugging procedures.
For inland waterways/agriculture/forestry/household-gardening, a complete revision of the 1985-2003 time-series of fuel use and emissions has been made, using results from a specific Danish non-road research project (Winther et al., 2006). This change also affects the 1985-2003 time-series of diesel fuel use and emissions for fisheries.
For military and domestic aviation, smaller inventory changes have been made and, in these cases, further details are presented in Section 3.3.
Industry
NMVOC from roofing and road paving with asphalt is now included in the inventory.
Solvents
A new approach for calculating the emissions of Non-Methane Volatile Organic Carbon (NMVOC) from industrial and household use in Denmark has been introduced. It focuses on single chemicals rather than activities. The procedure is to quantify the use of the chemicals and estimate the fraction of the chemicals that is emitted as a consequence of use. Improvements and additions are continuously being implemented in the new approach, due to the comprehensiveness and complexity of the use and application of solvents in industries and households. The improvements in the 2004 reporting include revisions of the following: 1) Propane and butane use, 2) Refinement of distribution of use categories in industrial branches, and 3) Emission factors for use and for production and processing.
Agriculture
Few changes have been made in relation to the ammonia emission 19850-2003, and they influence the total emission of 2003 and 2004 by less than 1 % (refer to Section 6.7). There are no changes in the particulate matter emission calculations.
Full report in pdf-format (9,427 kB).
