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Electricity TagsBiodiesel
Canola
Corn
Crude Oil
Electricity
Energy Balance
Ethanol
Exhaust Emissions
Fertilizer
Fischer Tropsch
GHGenius 2.5
GHGenius 3.10
GHGenius 3.11
GHGenius 3.13
GHGenius 3.16
GHGenius 3.3
Gasoline
Hydrogen
Land Use
Lignocellulosic
Materials
Methanol
Mixed Alcohols
Natural Gas
Refining
Sequestration
Soybeans
Wheat
Canola
Corn
Crude Oil
Electricity
Energy Balance
Ethanol
Exhaust Emissions
Fertilizer
Fischer Tropsch
GHGenius 2.5
GHGenius 3.10
GHGenius 3.11
GHGenius 3.13
GHGenius 3.16
GHGenius 3.3
Gasoline
Hydrogen
Land Use
Lignocellulosic
Materials
Methanol
Mixed Alcohols
Natural Gas
Refining
Sequestration
Soybeans
Wheat
This report covers an update of the following data in GHGenius. In some cases the structure of the model has been slightly changed to accommodate the time series but any difference in the results is due to the new input data and not due to any structural changes in the way that the model handles the new data.
1. International crude oil energy and emissions. Several new data sources have recently been identified. These include the International Oil and Gas Association (a time series from 2002 of the energy and GHG emissions of crude oil production for various regions of the world), data from the Alberta Energy Research Institute studies (some specific useful information for countries such as Mexico, Venezuela, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia), and the World Bank flaring study.
2. Canadian electricity. A time series of electric power production on a regional basis in Canada from 2000 has been be developed from Statistics Canada data. Regional generation efficiencies and proportions of power types have been extracted from the data.
3. Rail energy. Statistics Canada has a time series data for freight movement on Class 1 railways. This data has been compared to similar information from the United States and incorporated in the model.
4. Potash mining. Statistics Canada, CIEEDAC, and NRCan Comprehensive Energy Use Database provide a time series for energy consumption, quantity and type. This has been compared to the NRCan CIPEC report that was used as a data source in the model. The new information has been incorporated into the model.
5. Nitrogen fertilizer. Statistics Canada, CIEEDAC, and NRCan Comprehensive Energy Use Database all have a time series for information on this sector. These data sets do not include process energy consumption but that can be calculated. The data sets have been compared to the NRCan CIPEC report that was the base of data in the model.
6. Corn and Soybeans. Fertilizer and yield time series available from the USDA. Some Statistics Canada yield data on these crops and other Canadian crops is available as well. This time series data has been incorporated into the model.
7. Ethanol and Biodiesel energy requirements. New data from the United States is available for both these alternative fuels. An update and development of a time series for ethanol has been incorporated into the model.
8. Some users have identified a number of enhancements for the functioning of the EV macro in GHGenius. These modifications have been incorporated into GHGenius. They provide more functionality and having them in the public model will allow them to be continually updated as model enhancements are undertaken.
9. Natural gas update. The Canadian Gas Association has provided some recent information on distribution emissions. Unfortunately the report did not provide activity data but that that has been developed from other sources. In addition Statistics Canada has data on the natural gas sector and this will be reviewed to see if it can be worked into the model.
Tags: Biodiesel - Corn - Crude Oil - Electricity - Ethanol - Fertilizer - GHGenius 3.16 - Natural Gas - Soybeans
1. International crude oil energy and emissions. Several new data sources have recently been identified. These include the International Oil and Gas Association (a time series from 2002 of the energy and GHG emissions of crude oil production for various regions of the world), data from the Alberta Energy Research Institute studies (some specific useful information for countries such as Mexico, Venezuela, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia), and the World Bank flaring study.
2. Canadian electricity. A time series of electric power production on a regional basis in Canada from 2000 has been be developed from Statistics Canada data. Regional generation efficiencies and proportions of power types have been extracted from the data.
3. Rail energy. Statistics Canada has a time series data for freight movement on Class 1 railways. This data has been compared to similar information from the United States and incorporated in the model.
4. Potash mining. Statistics Canada, CIEEDAC, and NRCan Comprehensive Energy Use Database provide a time series for energy consumption, quantity and type. This has been compared to the NRCan CIPEC report that was used as a data source in the model. The new information has been incorporated into the model.
5. Nitrogen fertilizer. Statistics Canada, CIEEDAC, and NRCan Comprehensive Energy Use Database all have a time series for information on this sector. These data sets do not include process energy consumption but that can be calculated. The data sets have been compared to the NRCan CIPEC report that was the base of data in the model.
6. Corn and Soybeans. Fertilizer and yield time series available from the USDA. Some Statistics Canada yield data on these crops and other Canadian crops is available as well. This time series data has been incorporated into the model.
7. Ethanol and Biodiesel energy requirements. New data from the United States is available for both these alternative fuels. An update and development of a time series for ethanol has been incorporated into the model.
8. Some users have identified a number of enhancements for the functioning of the EV macro in GHGenius. These modifications have been incorporated into GHGenius. They provide more functionality and having them in the public model will allow them to be continually updated as model enhancements are undertaken.
9. Natural gas update. The Canadian Gas Association has provided some recent information on distribution emissions. Unfortunately the report did not provide activity data but that that has been developed from other sources. In addition Statistics Canada has data on the natural gas sector and this will be reviewed to see if it can be worked into the model.
Tags: Biodiesel - Corn - Crude Oil - Electricity - Ethanol - Fertilizer - GHGenius 3.16 - Natural Gas - Soybeans
There have been a significant number of changes made to the model. The new version is 3.13. These upgrades have included incorporating more recent forecasts of future changes in the Canadian energy infrastructure, the capability of having a choice of GWPs to make comparisons with other studies and models easier, the ability to report emissions per unit of energy on either a higher or lower heating value basis, much expanded capacity to model oil sands operations, many changes to the land use calculations to make the results more regional specific, and a number of smaller changes. The changes have impacted all of the pathways in the model.
The two largest pieces of work included:
1. GHGenius has had default values for the production of synthetic crude oil by an integrated mining process. More and more synthetic crude oil is being produced by in situ mining (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage or Cyclic Steam Stimulation), so pathways and default values for these alternate production systems have been added. There is now full flexibility in the model for combining bitumen extraction methods and integrated or stand alone upgraders.
2. A major upgrade of the methodology for calculating land use emissions (direct and indirect).
a. The IPCC 2006 guidance document has some small changes in the sources of N2O that are to be calculated as part of a national inventory. This includes N2O emissions resulting from a loss of soil carbon. This source has been added to the model along with an update of the IPCC default values.
b. An update on the issue of N2O emissions from crops that fix their own nitrogen has been included. There has been an update of the approach included in the model.
c. Environment Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada have made considerable progress in defining the appropriate regional emission factors for agricultural activities such as fertilizer application, cultivation practices and other land use activities rather than relying on the IPCC Tier 1 values. These emission factors, which are found mostly on sheet W, have now been regionalized.
d. The soil carbon changes calculations in the model have been changed to a more straightforward approach.
e. Within the model we have an above ground carbon offset due to nitrogen fertilization of biomass from fertilizer that is lost offsite. This is not included in the IPCC guidelines. We have modified the model so that this source can be included or excluded from the calculations by the user.
f. A discussion of above and below ground carbon changes has been included. The model has been modified so that the land use assumption for ethanol co-product credits are consistent with the energy and GHG emission credit calculations. A discussion of how to model both the direct and indirect land use changes for the biomass feedstocks in included.
Tags: Biodiesel - Canola - Corn - Crude Oil - Electricity - Ethanol - GHGenius 3.13 - Land Use - Soybeans - Wheat
The two largest pieces of work included:
1. GHGenius has had default values for the production of synthetic crude oil by an integrated mining process. More and more synthetic crude oil is being produced by in situ mining (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage or Cyclic Steam Stimulation), so pathways and default values for these alternate production systems have been added. There is now full flexibility in the model for combining bitumen extraction methods and integrated or stand alone upgraders.
2. A major upgrade of the methodology for calculating land use emissions (direct and indirect).
a. The IPCC 2006 guidance document has some small changes in the sources of N2O that are to be calculated as part of a national inventory. This includes N2O emissions resulting from a loss of soil carbon. This source has been added to the model along with an update of the IPCC default values.
b. An update on the issue of N2O emissions from crops that fix their own nitrogen has been included. There has been an update of the approach included in the model.
c. Environment Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada have made considerable progress in defining the appropriate regional emission factors for agricultural activities such as fertilizer application, cultivation practices and other land use activities rather than relying on the IPCC Tier 1 values. These emission factors, which are found mostly on sheet W, have now been regionalized.
d. The soil carbon changes calculations in the model have been changed to a more straightforward approach.
e. Within the model we have an above ground carbon offset due to nitrogen fertilization of biomass from fertilizer that is lost offsite. This is not included in the IPCC guidelines. We have modified the model so that this source can be included or excluded from the calculations by the user.
f. A discussion of above and below ground carbon changes has been included. The model has been modified so that the land use assumption for ethanol co-product credits are consistent with the energy and GHG emission credit calculations. A discussion of how to model both the direct and indirect land use changes for the biomass feedstocks in included.
Tags: Biodiesel - Canola - Corn - Crude Oil - Electricity - Ethanol - GHGenius 3.13 - Land Use - Soybeans - Wheat
This work entailed the addition of a new Energy Balance sheet to the model. This sheet has tables of the secondary energy by fuel type for each stage of all of the pathways. There are tables for electricity, coal, natural gas, diesel fuel, biomass, crude oil, gasoline and another table to account for minor fuels such as LPG, coke, still gas, etc. From these tables the primary energy inputs into each pathway can be calculated from existing data in the model.
This approach of producing separate tables for each type of energy and then rolling all of the data into the primary energy table will not only add some structure to the primary energy calculations but it will also yield information on the types of fuel consumed in the pathways that will have value by themselves.
Tags: Crude Oil - Electricity - Energy Balance - GHGenius 3.11 - Gasoline - Natural Gas
This approach of producing separate tables for each type of energy and then rolling all of the data into the primary energy table will not only add some structure to the primary energy calculations but it will also yield information on the types of fuel consumed in the pathways that will have value by themselves.
Tags: Crude Oil - Electricity - Energy Balance - GHGenius 3.11 - Gasoline - Natural Gas
The report covers work on the regionalization of the US fuel production pathways, and the updating of the basic data that covers US electric power production, US natural gas production and flows, US crude oil production and flows, and the US petroleum refining sector. The revised model resulting from this work has more functionality for modelling various scenarios in the US and more up to date data on the traditional US energy sector.
This report has been prepared to document the changes that have been made to GHGenius in terms of updating US data and the regionalization of some of the data. The version of the model that accompanies this report is GHGenius 3.10.
There are some small changes in the average results for the United States for the fossil energy pathways as a result of this update. The results for Canada also show some very small changes as a result of updating some of the foreign oil production data and as a result of a few small structural improvements in the way that the US natural gas values are calculated.
Tags: Crude Oil - Electricity - GHGenius 3.10 - Natural Gas
This report has been prepared to document the changes that have been made to GHGenius in terms of updating US data and the regionalization of some of the data. The version of the model that accompanies this report is GHGenius 3.10.
There are some small changes in the average results for the United States for the fossil energy pathways as a result of this update. The results for Canada also show some very small changes as a result of updating some of the foreign oil production data and as a result of a few small structural improvements in the way that the US natural gas values are calculated.
Tags: Crude Oil - Electricity - GHGenius 3.10 - Natural Gas
The report covers work on the expansion of pathways and expanding the results from existing pathways. This work involved the following tasks and deliverables.
1. The potential to include carbon dioxide sequestration to a number of feedstock and fuel production pathways has been added to the model. There was previously a switch in GHGenius to account for carbon sequestration in thermal power generation but this was a very simply approach to the issue and it underestimated the emissions in the upstream portion of power generation. There are a number of other places where sequestration might be employed. These include gasification plants, oil sands upgraders, oil refineries, methanol, and ethanol plants. The capability of adding a sequestration step to all of these facilities has been added to GHGenius and the current switch for electric power plants has been removed to calculate the impact of carbon storage more robustly for power plants.
2. The capability of using biodiesel in the light duty diesel and light duty hybrid diesel vehicles has been added to the model. These pathways have also been added to the LDV Summary sheet and the Light Duty Cost effectiveness output sheets. This involved only the combination of existing fuel and vehicle pathways in the model.
3. The tables 51c and 51e on sheet I have been expanded to include all of the pathways in the model. This included the pathways that are primarily electric in nature. It should be noted that in GHGenius, electric power is treated as a primary energy source where a kWh of power is converted to 3,600 kJ of energy. Some other models consider electric power a secondary source of energy and account for the energy of one kWh based on the energy that went in to the power plant so there may be some differences in the results shown in GHGenius compared to some other models. We may want to consider changing this in the future.
4. For some types of oil production there are surface disturbances that will result in a loss of biomass and soil carbon. The emissions from these disturbances are included in the coal mining pathway but not in the oil sands pathways. The emissions from this source for oil production pathways have been added to the model where appropriate.
GHGenius has been modified to allow the incorporation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) into many of the fuel and energy pathways in the model. This has been accomplished in a manner that provides a significant amount of flexibility for the user. There is still a considerable amount of uncertainty with respect to the actual performance of CCS systems in real world applications. With some large projects now being proposed some real data may become available in a few years that can be used to further refine the values used in GHGenius.
Tags: Crude Oil - Electricity - Ethanol - Fischer Tropsch - GHGenius 3.3 - Hydrogen - Methanol - Mixed Alcohols - Refining - Sequestration
1. The potential to include carbon dioxide sequestration to a number of feedstock and fuel production pathways has been added to the model. There was previously a switch in GHGenius to account for carbon sequestration in thermal power generation but this was a very simply approach to the issue and it underestimated the emissions in the upstream portion of power generation. There are a number of other places where sequestration might be employed. These include gasification plants, oil sands upgraders, oil refineries, methanol, and ethanol plants. The capability of adding a sequestration step to all of these facilities has been added to GHGenius and the current switch for electric power plants has been removed to calculate the impact of carbon storage more robustly for power plants.
2. The capability of using biodiesel in the light duty diesel and light duty hybrid diesel vehicles has been added to the model. These pathways have also been added to the LDV Summary sheet and the Light Duty Cost effectiveness output sheets. This involved only the combination of existing fuel and vehicle pathways in the model.
3. The tables 51c and 51e on sheet I have been expanded to include all of the pathways in the model. This included the pathways that are primarily electric in nature. It should be noted that in GHGenius, electric power is treated as a primary energy source where a kWh of power is converted to 3,600 kJ of energy. Some other models consider electric power a secondary source of energy and account for the energy of one kWh based on the energy that went in to the power plant so there may be some differences in the results shown in GHGenius compared to some other models. We may want to consider changing this in the future.
4. For some types of oil production there are surface disturbances that will result in a loss of biomass and soil carbon. The emissions from these disturbances are included in the coal mining pathway but not in the oil sands pathways. The emissions from this source for oil production pathways have been added to the model where appropriate.
GHGenius has been modified to allow the incorporation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) into many of the fuel and energy pathways in the model. This has been accomplished in a manner that provides a significant amount of flexibility for the user. There is still a considerable amount of uncertainty with respect to the actual performance of CCS systems in real world applications. With some large projects now being proposed some real data may become available in a few years that can be used to further refine the values used in GHGenius.
Tags: Crude Oil - Electricity - Ethanol - Fischer Tropsch - GHGenius 3.3 - Hydrogen - Methanol - Mixed Alcohols - Refining - Sequestration
Most analyses of energy production pathways do not include any emissions attributable to the construction of the energy production facilities themselves. This simplification of the production pathway is allowed under ISO 14000 guidelines if the emissions are not material. Many researchers make this claim for the construction and decommissioning stage but there are other analysts who often challenge this perspective. These analysts may use the omission of construction emissions as a reason not to trust a comparison between fuel pathways.
This report documents a literature search of previous work on the emissions associated with the construction of electric power facilities (nuclear, hydro, thermal, and wind), oil refineries, ethanol production plants and other production facilities. The identified literature has been assessed on a common basis and conclusions reached about the GHG emissions from the construction phase of a project. The literature search has identified anther approach to quantifying the emissions from the construction phase of projects, the use of economic input-output data which can be used when the quantification of materials and energy inputs are not available to achieve a reasonable estimate of emissions.
Tags: Biodiesel - Electricity - Ethanol - Hydrogen - Materials - Refining
This report documents a literature search of previous work on the emissions associated with the construction of electric power facilities (nuclear, hydro, thermal, and wind), oil refineries, ethanol production plants and other production facilities. The identified literature has been assessed on a common basis and conclusions reached about the GHG emissions from the construction phase of a project. The literature search has identified anther approach to quantifying the emissions from the construction phase of projects, the use of economic input-output data which can be used when the quantification of materials and energy inputs are not available to achieve a reasonable estimate of emissions.
Tags: Biodiesel - Electricity - Ethanol - Hydrogen - Materials - Refining
Update of GHGenius
Prepared for Natural Resources Canada in March 2004
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Prepared for Natural Resources Canada in March 2004
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As part of this work, there have been several changes to the model. The version of the model that accompanies this report is GHGenius 2.5. A number of revisions and updates to the model were undertaken. The revisions generally have either improved the quality of Canadian data in the model or added functionality that makes the model more powerful for the user. In addition, two new cycles, based on processes developed by NRCan have been added to the model. These new cycles are the subject of a separate report. The objectives of the model updates were to:
Tags: Crude Oil - Electricity - Ethanol - Exhaust Emissions - GHGenius 2.5 - Lignocellulosic - Refining
- Allow selection of ethanol cellulosic feedstock from the input sheet. Ethanol from lignocellulosic feedstocks could be produced from a variety of feedstocks including wheat straw, corn stover, switchgrass, and hay.
- Improve the quality and functionality of the emissions from crude oil production and refining in Canada. The model has been modified to use four different crude oil types, conventional, heavy, bitumen and synthetic.
- Harmonize the methodology for the production of hydrogen from electrolysis with other methods.
- Review and update the Canadian electricity mix.
- Update the emissions of criteria air contaminants from heavy-duty diesel engines on Sheet H in light of the new emission standards being phased in this decade.
- The latest LEM model by Dr. Mark Delucchi made many changes to sheet L that calculates emissions associated with materials. The documentation that describes the changes to determine the best data to use for GHGenius with particular attention to the data for Canada has been reviewed and the appropriate changes have been made to GHGenius.
Tags: Crude Oil - Electricity - Ethanol - Exhaust Emissions - GHGenius 2.5 - Lignocellulosic - Refining