Aarhus Universitets segl

No. 173: Emission inventory for fugitive emissions from fuel in Denmark

Plejdrup, M.S., Nielsen, O.-K., Nielsen, M. 2015. Emission inventory for fugitive emissions from fuel in Denmark. Aarhus University, DCE – Danish Centre for Environment and Energy, 52 pp. Scientific Report from DCE – Danish Centre for Environment and Energy No. 173 http://dce2.au.dk/pub/SR173.pdf 

Summary

The Danish Centre for Environment and Energy (DCE), Aarhus University prepares the national inventories of emissions to the air and carries out the reporting to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention Climate Change) and to the UNECE CLRTAP (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Convention on Long-range Transboundary Pollutants) on an annual basis. Furthermore, the greenhouse gas emission inventory is reported to the EU monitoring mechanism and the Kyoto Protocol, while the air pollution inventory forms the basis of the reporting under the NEC directive (National Emission Ceilings for certain atmospheric pollutants).

The national emission inventories covers five sectors as defined in the international guidelines and reporting templates (IPCC, 2000; IPCC, 2006; EMEP/EEA, 2013). “Fugitive emisisons from fuels” is a sub-sector in the Energy sector. This report document the metodologies use in the emission inventory for fugitive emissions from fuels, including information on activity data, emission factors and emissions for the timeseries 1990-2013. This report updates the version published in 2009 (Plejdrup et al., 2009).

The fugitive sector covers emissions from extraction, handling, storage, transmission and distribution of solid, liquid, and gaseous fuels, and from flaring and venting. Among the major sources in the fugitive sector is offshore installations in upstream oil and gas production, and the refineries.

The total Danish GHG emission in 2013 is 54 584 kt CO2 equivalents (CO2 eqv.) excluding Land use, Land use change and forestry (LULUCF). In the same year the GHG emission from the energy sector is 41 005 kt CO2 eqv., corresponding 75 %. The majority of the GHG emissions is in the energy sector and stem from fuel combustion in energy industries and transport. The fugitive sector accounts for 0.94 % of the GHG emissions from the energy sector as a whole.

Besides the greenhouse gases CO2, CH4 and N2O the inventory on fugitive emissions from fuels also includes emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxide (NOx), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM), black carbon (BC), heavy metals (HM), and persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Emissions of particulate matter are estimated in three size fractions; total suspended particulate matter (TSP) and particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm (PM10) and less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5). The fugitive sector contribute 9.9 % , 8.1 % and 5.0 % to the national total emissions of BC, NMVOC and SO2, respectively. For the remaining pollutants the fugitive sector contributed only little  to the national total (< 1 %).