Monday, February 09, 2009

Transport Emissions Inventory in China Using Average Emission Factors

This article is also summarized in the SIM working paper (19-2009), "A Review of Air Pollution from Transport Sector in China".

The article in the Atmospheric Environment by Cai et al. titled, "Estimation of Vehicular Emission Inventories in China from 1980 to 2005", is an indication that average emission factors are enough for developing a reasonable and dependable emissions inventory.

Using average emission factors and other parameters, the authors conclude that the CH4, CO, CO2, NMVOC, NOx, PM10, and SO2 emissions increased from 5, 1066, 19 893, 169, 174, 26, and 16 thousand tons in 1980 to 377, 36 197, 674 629, 5911, 4539, 983, and 484 thousand tons in 2005, respectively.

Attached below are two tables from the journal article (click on the images to enlarge view size) summarizing the total transport emissions and geographical percentages by species.




The goal of this paper was not only to establish a baseline for the transport emissions in China, but also to illustrate the use of available data and demonstrate how an inventory can be done using simple equations and minimum databases, as long as the methodology and numbers used can be defended. Figures below presents the total emissions gridded at 40 km resolution, using various GIS databases, such as population census and GDP.





It is important to know that an emission inventory like this does not come without uncertainties and simplifications have their limitations, but at the same time, they provide an understanding of the need for more data and disclosure of information for further similar analysis.

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Posted by Sarath Guttikunda at 1:53 PM
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