CO2 from non-energy use of fuels: A global, regional and national perspective based on the IPCC Tier 1 approach

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Abstract

Based on the EDGAR 3.2 emission datasets, we present the relative importance of this source globally, regionally, and for individual countries as part of total fossil fuel-related emissions, based on the IPCC Tier 1 reference calculation using IEA/UN data for 1970–1995. Thus, we also show the trends of these shares as well as the type of non-energy source (chemical feedstock, industry in general, transport, other sectors) and the fuel type (solid, liquid, gaseous). The share of CO2 from non-energy use (NEU) is increasing over time; globally from 1% in 1970 to almost 3% of total fossil fuel emissions of CO2 in 1995. Expressed as fraction of total CO2 emissions from the industry sector, the shares were about 4% in 1970, 7% in 1990 and 12% in 1995 for global total emissions. In most regions chemical feedstock emissions of CO2 have become increasingly important. The share of CO2 from feedstocks in total CO2 from NEU has increased globally from about 55% in 1970 to 65% in 1990 and even 80% in 1995. This large increase is largely responsible for the increasing share of total CO2 NEU emissions. With an uncertainty of the order of 10–30% in CO2 from NEU of oil products there should be ample room for improvement.

Introduction

In the IEA statistics, non-energy use (NEU) of fossil fuels is recorded under two end-use sectors: non-energy use as feedstock in the chemical industry (as raw material) and other so-called non-energy use. The latter is subdivided into four categories: industry, transport, other (i.e. residential and services sectors), and non-specified. For each of these sub-sectors, a range of fuel types can be specified (IEA, 2001). The most common are the so-called other oil products such as lubricants, paraffin waxes, etc., and naphtha, which are almost completely used for non-energy purposes, followed by LPG/ethane, petroleum coke and refinery gas, each with 40–70% of total industrial consumption of these energy carriers. Table 1 shows the amounts of energy carriers used for non-energy purposes in the OECD in 1995.

It also clearly shows that all non-energy use of oil products is labelled as feedstock for the chemical and petrochemical industry, except for most ‘other oil products’ and petroleum coke. The ‘other oil products’ category also includes aromatics (e.g., BTX or benzene, toluene and xylene), olefins (e.g. propylene) produced within refineries, white spirit and industrial spirit (SBP), tar and sulphur. Paraffin waxes are residues extracted when dewaxing lubricant oils. Petroleum coke is used as feedstock in coke ovens for the steel industry, for heating purposes, for electrode manufacture and for production of chemicals (IEA, 2001). National gas used as feedstock is usually consumed for manufacturing ammonia.

Section snippets

Estimating CO2 emissions associated with non-energy use

The estimation of CO2 emissions related to non-energy use of fuels was part of the construction of the EDGAR (Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research) version 3.2 information system, which provides global annual emissions of greenhouse gases per country and on a 1 × 1 grid. The EDGAR project has been carried out jointly by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) (Olivier et al., 1996,

Activity data

The accuracy of national statistics on activity data used for estimating emissions depends on many and highly variable local and source-specific circumstances. Nevertheless, for a qualitative evaluation they can be classified in the following determining aspects:

  • world region: often the world can be split into three regions, notably the more industrialised OECD’90 countries, economies-in-transition (EIT), i.e., countries of the former Soviet Union and of Eastern Europe, and the less developed

Global and regional trends of CO2 from total NEU and its share in total CO2 emissions

The share of CO2 from non-energy use is increasing over time, as illustrated in Fig. 1. Globally it increased from 1% in 1970 to almost 3% of total fossil fuel emissions of CO2 in 1995 (Table 3). At present the regions with the highest shares are the OECD’90 regions, on average 3.5% in 1995, with Canada having the highest share of 5.4% caused by a strong growth of 2.6% points in the 1990–1995 period (Table 4). However, in LDC regions the share is increasing fast since 1980 at a rate of 1% point

Importance and uncertainty estimate for CO2 from non-energy use

Apart from the large share in annual CO2 industrial emissions discussed above, the often fast increasing share make it likely that this source is a so-called trend key source according to the IPCC good practice guidance (IPCC, 2000). An IPCC key source is defined a source, which is amongst the 95% largest sources of annual emissions (level key source) or amongst the 95% largest contributors to the national total trend in emissions (trend key source). This means that for reporting to the UN

Conclusions

The share of CO2 from NEU is increasing over time; globally from 1% in 1970 to almost 3% of total fossil fuel emissions of CO2 in 1995. At present the regions with the highest shares are the OECD’90 regions, with Canada having the highest share of more than 5% caused by a strong growth of almost 3% points in the 1990–1995 period. Expressed as fraction of total CO2 emissions from the industry sector, the shares are about 7% in 1990 and 12% in 1995 for global total emissions. Within NEU, CO2 from

Acknowledgements

Constructing these global emission inventories would not have been possible without the funding and co-operation of many organisations and individuals. Besides acknowledging the funding by the Dutch National Research Programme on global air pollution and climate change, project no. 954222, we would also like to thank the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) for funding. The inventory construction also comprise part of the International Geosphere–Biosphere

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