12th May, 2020
University of Cincinnati
Question
Asked 19th Apr, 2016
What is the environmental impact of 1m3 of natural gas used for heating?
I need to know approximately the GHG emissions expressed in kg CO2 eq for 1m3 of natural gas by using IPCC 2007 GWP100 impact method.
Most recent answer
What will be a converstion factor for natural Gas in GJ/Nm3 if you have mmbtu value for natural Gas ?
Popular Answers (1)
There are various sources that could be used. Why not have a look at my chapter in the book Natural Gas?
3 Recommendations
All Answers (9)
There are various sources that could be used. Why not have a look at my chapter in the book Natural Gas?
3 Recommendations
Arian,
CO2 emission factor for Natural gas is: 0.056 kg CO2eq/MJ energy equivalent.
Since the higher heating value of Natural Gas is: 38 - 39 MJ/m3, CO2 emission factor would be about 2.2 kg CO2eq per m3 of natural gas.
Note that this emission factor doesn’t include emissions associated with the extraction and delivery of natural gas. Those emissions are region specific and you may need to check in a local data source.
1 Recommendation
By performing this calculation with SimaPro and openLCA for 'Natural Gas, consumption mix, at consumer, from onshore and offshore production incl. pipeline and LNG transport, desulphurised - EU-27', I get a result 0.3635 kg CO2eq/m3 which seems very small than the one I expect. Why is there so much difference?
Arian,
For comparison, primary energy consumed per 1 m3 of Natural Gas (NG) delivered to consumers in Ontario (a province of Canada) is about 4.38 MJ/m3 of NG. This means: upstream CO2 emissions associated with the extraction and delivery of NG to consumers in Ontario is about 0.245 kg CO2 eq./m3. Compared with this value your calculated value (0.363 kg CO2eq/m3) is not too small.
1 Recommendation
It is important to compare gas emissions with alternative fuels. I think that for unit of energy (let say, ton of oil equivalent), natural gas gives much less emissions than coal (maybe, 50% or less). Here are exact numbers but unfortunately not in metric units: https://www.epa.gov/energy/ghg-equivalencies-calculator-calculations-and-references . The average carbon coefficient of natural gas is 14.46 kg carbon per mmbtu (EPA 2013). The fraction oxidized to CO2 is 100 percent (IPCC 2006). 1 MMBtu = 28.263682 m3 of natural gas (see http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/glossary/mmbtu ) So 1 cub.m of gas should emit 14.46/28.26 = 0.512 kg of carbon. It is closer to Arian's value and well below Susantha's estimate.
1 Recommendation
@Yuri, Thanks for posting the links for EPA calculations. I was getting the numbers from 'Natural Resources Canada' data (basically very close to the values given in EPA site). Please see below:
0.512 kg C is about 1.89 kg CO2 equivalents.
0.512 x (44/12)
Interesting discussion and very helpful, too. Thanks to everyone on the chat, and to Google who guided me here :)
Similar questions and discussions
Scientists Support Ukraine
Like so many, I am shocked and saddened at seeing war break out in Europe. My thoughts – and those of the ResearchGate team – are with the people of Ukraine and everyone affected.
ResearchGate is an international company, whose purpose is to enable scientists across the world to work together openly and collaboratively, regardless of borders or nationality. We have people from over 40 countries on our staff of around 200, and being based in Berlin, we are profoundly aware of the human cost of conflicts, the echoes of which have shaped and scarred our home city. We join with the international community in condemning the actions of the Russian state.
We have been asking ourselves: What can we do?
From today, we will offer free advertising space worth $2.5 million on our network to humanitarian organizations working to respond to the crisis. ResearchGate benefits from over 50 million visitors every month, and we hope this initiative can help raise funds and awareness for those organizations that are having direct impact and need support.
We also want to use our platform to highlight the response from the scientific community. Personally, I have found the messages of support from scientists everywhere to be truly heartfelt, and I would like to highlight some of the community initiatives I’ve seen here:
- Science for Ukraine provides an overview of labs offering a place for researchers and students who are affected to work from, as well as offers of employment, funding, and accommodation: https://scienceforukraine.eu/
- Labs supporting Ukrainian Scientists is an expansive list of labs and PIs offering support at this time. Submissions go here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeRGe5Da_b6GGyC6VT7CLGViGs06SzeuX7wRKpC4K5tnvlhgg/viewform Find the full list here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HqTKukfJGpmowQnSh4CoFn3T6HXcNS1T1pK-Xx9CknQ/edit#gid=320641758
- This open letter from European scientists expressing solidarity and promoting peace is open for signatures: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/an-open-letter-from-european-scientists-against
Additionally, I’m posting here some of the organizations responding to the crisis and actively soliciting donations:
- Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF): https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/countries/ukraine
- The UN Refugee Agency: https://donate.unhcr.org/int/en/ukraine-emergency
- UNICEF: https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/conflict-ukraine-pose-immediate-threat-children
To help gather more support for these initiatives, please consider sharing this post further (you don’t need a ResearchGate account to see it), and I will continue to update it with other initiatives as I find them. You can also click “Recommend” below to help others in your ResearchGate network see it. And if you know of any other community initiatives that we can share here please let us know via this form: https://forms.gle/e37EHouWXFLyhYE8A
-Ijad Madisch, CEO & Co-Founder of ResearchGate
-----
Update 03/07:
This list outlines country-level initiatives from various academic institutions and research organizations, with a focus on programs and sponsorship for Ukrainian researchers:
Related Publications
Industrial greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reporting has been an error-prone process due to the lack of universally accepted guidelines. Challenges pertaining to industrial GHG emission quantification consist of enhancing the accuracy of estimates by reducing the risk of double-counting. Currently, GHG emissions from overall natural gas use and large...