New major release. There are new pathways, new regions, updated data, and expanded non-transportation fuel outputs.
New and Extended Pathways
- Electrofuels which use electricity and carbon dioxide to produce fuel.
- Electricity to methane
- Electricity to methanol
- Electricity to Fischer Tropsch diesel
- Ethanol to jet fuel which can use any existing ethanol pathway as the feedstock.
- Renewable propane based on the existing renewable diesel pathway.
- Wood pellets as a more refined wood product.
- Can be used as an intermediate feedstock for bio oil and refined bio oil.
- Organic waste to RNG via anaerobic digestion.
- Methane slip is now an input for anaerobic digestion pathways.
- Added avoided emissions for slash burning.
New Regions
- Added Brazil and South East Asia.
- Regionalization includes default data on power production, crude flows, and natural gas flows.
- Regional defaults were added for Brazil, SEA, and the existing New Zealand region.
Updated Data
- Updated Canadian crude oil production.
- Updated crude oil charged in Canada.
- Added carboxymethyl cellulose, CO2, cobalt catalyst, monoethanolamine, olivine, and tar reforming catalyst as chemicals on the Alt Fuel Prod sheet.
- Updated US coal production and emissions.
- Updated Canadian coal methane emissions as a time series.
- Updated US uranium data.
- Updata Canadian offshore oil energy and emissions.
- Updated power data and forecasts from NEB.
- Updated NG production data and forecasts from NEB.
- Updated fish oil production data.
- Updated US grid electricity generation with forecast to 2050.
- Updated US grid fuel consumption with forecast to 2050.
- Updated US MSW/biomass efficiency with hardcoded values until 2018.
- Updated US crude production by region for power.
- Updated US crude oil import and petroleum regions.
- Updated data in the regional defaults.
New Outputs and Structure
- Greatly expanded the Output Summary sheet.
- Power generation and residential heating now have many user selectable feedstock options and blends. Each feedstock has a default power efficiency based on typical real world values, and the option to override with a custom efficiency. Blends use the active blend in the model for each option.
- Removed biofeedstock and biofuel transportation distances from the regional default buttons.
- Added a default button for chemical inputs on Alt Fuel Prod.
- Added a "Reset Model" button to the Input sheet.
- This runs the Canada regional default, all Input sheet defaults, and the new chemical default button. Designed to get the most commonly changed inputs back to a fresh model state.
- Added a user generated power grid.
- This is an available option for electrofuels, power generation on Output Summary, and residential heating on Output Summary. It can also simplify selecting a specific power profile for advanced users.
- Added blanks on material production.
- Similar to existing blank coproducts or chemical inputs, this is to help advanced users quickly add new materials without breaking the model.
- Added the option for electricity generated by a pathway to be counted by displacement method or energy based.
- Removed all VLookup and HLookup in favour of Index-Match.
- This makes data much easier to trace throughout the model. Tracing using the built in formula tools should return much smaller ranges.
- Many small formatting changes since 5.0 to clarify inputs and dropdowns.
Significant changes have been made to GHGenius since 4.03a.
New and Extended Pathways
- Sorghum ethanol pathway added.
- Natural gas to gasoline pathway added.
- Heavy duty EV pathways added.
- LFG to FTD pathway added.
- LFG to DME pathway added.
- Spent bleaching earth to biodiesel pathway added.
- Palm sludge oil to biodiesel pathway added.
- Removed switched NG. CNG and LNG now separate concurrent pathways.
- Added LNG powered ships to Equip Emiss sheet and changed freight emissions so that LNG marine engines can have different relative efficiency than LNG Road engines.
- HD NG exhaust emissions.
- RNG Blends for transportation added as new outputs.
- Added methanol as marine fuel.
- Added lipids for renewable gasoline pathway (Co-processing).
Updated Data
- Updated US natural gas methane emission factors for the US using 2013 and 2014 inventories.
- Methanol from NG pathway has revised energy requirements based on data from several operating facilities.
- Update barley fertilizer inputs from Grains Council footprint study.
- Updated camelina data from project for Danforth Centre, St Louis.
- Biofuel feedstock yield series updated.
- Canadian sources of crude oil refined data updated to 2014 actuals. Revised forecasts.
- Updated emission info for residential wood stoves. Two wood stove types on the Output Summary sheet.
- Aligned US product import regions with crude oil regions. Updated venting and flaring regions and data.
- Updated US crude and products petroleum flow with data to 2014.
- Updated US petroleum supply sheet.
- Updated Canadian crude oil types refined with StatsCan data.
- Updated power gen in Canada using Stats Can data to 2014. Updated to 2017 NEB Forecast. Adjusted forecasts to align with new data.
- Updated US power generation data to 2015 data from 2011.
- Revised soybean residue nitrogen content with updated data.
- Updated US coal production and methane emissions. Energy Outlook 2015 and 2015 GHG Inventory report. Added time series data and approach.
- Updated US Uranium data.
- Updated SF6 emissions in power gen with data from 2013 NIR. 7.76 t and 1988 PJ.
- Updated US Refining energy and product splits.
- Updated US crude quality to balance with reported refined crude quality.
- Updated OGP time series and revised rate of increase in energy use. Added last year dropped first year.
- Regionalized corn yield for w Can.
- Reduced MBM yield for tallow based on published data for US industry.
- Updated Mexico power production and petroleum flow.
- Updated US NG emissions with 2013 NIR. Supersedes work done for NRCan.
- NOx and Sox emission update for US power production
- Updated NG prod by type with NEB 2016 forecast.
- Updated crude oil production data to 2014 with StatsCan and new forecasts from NEB 2016.
- Updated NG emissions for Canada.
- Updated AD pathway.
- Updated US NG emissions with 2014 NIR data.
- Updated CNG exhaust emissions for Near Zero NOx engine.
- Updated rail energy use time series for US and Canada. Added time series for domestic water freight.
- Reduced default coal use in US Corn plants and increased NG use based on CRC work.
- Ethanol plant chemicals updated.
- Reduced emissions for enzyme based on novozyme input.
- Removed US SOC gain based on latest USDA GHG Inventory.
- Updated fertilizer emissions based on Cheminfo report, GREET and EU data.
- Increased energy used for yeast.
- Lime data for ag use converted to limestone data
- Rendering energy updated.
Data + Structure
- Updated data on farm energy use for corn and soybeans with inputs now on a per hectare basis allowing for independent variation of energy efficiency and yield.
- Fraction of US NG used in Central Canada is variable by year with StatsCan data. Very small impact on the results.
- EU regional ag biomass yield added to model.
- Mexico ag biomass yield data added to model.
- Power gen. Split solar out from hydro for power gen. Added operation and main emissions for electricity plants.
- Regionalized corn and soybean energy.
- Regionalized types of fertilizer applied in Canada.
Model Structure and Interface
- NG inputs for alt fuel processes are now entered in MJ rather than litres to avoid confusion.
- Data presentation on LDV Summ, HDV Summ, and freight emissions is revised with more detail on individual gases for the upstream and downstream stages.
- Individual gases summary added to feedstock emissions.
- All other farm energy inputs on basis of per hectare.
- New energy balance summary by fuel for all pathways.
- Presentation of data on Biomass Prod sheet is revised.
- Presentation of data on fertilizer sheet with respect to biomass production is revised.
- Additional chemicals added for alt fuel processes.
- Biodiesel production emissions are now separated from oil crushing emissions on the results sheets. This provides additional clarity on the emissions and additional precision with the calculations. It also makes it easier to model cases where the oil production and biodiesel production happen in different regions.
- Mexico is now collapsed to one region. Power Gen updated.
- Four European regions added to the model.
- Detailed natural gas supply to the EU regions.
- LNG supply and regasification are supply options.
- Crude oil supply and refining energy added to petroleum products in the new regions.
- Electricity for EU added.
- Can do NG and power by EU country with new default buttons on Power Gen and NG Supply sheets.
- Added individual gases output on output summary sheet. By gas and by stage.
- CAC emissions by stage on Output Summary
- Expanded regionalization of refined products and refining to the 6 Canadian and US regions, reduces compromises.
- Harmonized corn ethanol inputs with other alt fuel formats.
- Revised LNG inputs so that it is the same as other alt fuels.
- Expanded flexibility with GWPs and options.
- 2013 values are added.
- 20 year GWPs are now included as an option.
- Short lived gases can be included.
- Added biogenic GWPs for methane CO and VOC so that the CO2 from the oxidation of these gases is not included.
- Updated energy use for service stations and terminals.
- Addressed the styles limitation with new format. New look provides more consistency of style and a smaller file size.
- Deleted information that is no longer used.
- Removed feedstock adj sheet.
- Removed print macro sheet.
- Added other energy inputs, LPG, biodiesel, etc. for alt fuel production pathways.
- LHV values for NG and LPG now use calculated H content rather than H by difference.
- Increased flexibility in modeling gas transmission pipeline energy use.
- Gas engines vs turbines can be modelled for each country and the electricity use can also be modeled.
- Changed fugitive emissions from NG systems to using GWP for methane compare to GWP for gas since most data is entered based on methane emissions.
- Revisions to the sensitivity solver and the Monte Carlo tool to make it easier to specify the variable cells.
- Additional probability distribution functions for the Monte Carlo tool.
- Additional outputs for Sensitivity Solver.
- Added regional default sheet and revised the way that regional default values are added to the model.
- Continued to enhance functionality of the fix circular reference macro.
- Added a 2 dimensional sensitivity solver allowing users to vary two inputs at a time instead of one.
- Removed ribbon menu to address issues with Excel 2013 and 2016. Re-wrote a number of the macros.
- Reorganized default buttons, added Mexico and India default buttons.
- Changed input units for sequestered CO2 in ethanol pathways and fixed an error in calculation of energy and emission corproduct.
What is GHGenius?
GHGenius is a free to download lifecycle analysis (LCA) model with a primary focus on transportation fuels in Canada. To accomplish this it includes data for activities ranging from crop production, to power generation, to tailpipe emissions in many regions spanning the globe. Development of new feedstocks, fuels, and regions is still ongoing with planned major public releases annually.
More: About GHGenius - Downloads - GHGenius Quick Start Guide
Who are (S&T) Squared Consultants Inc?
Incorporated in 1998, (S&T) Squared Consultants Inc. specializes in understanding energy and environment issues, evaluating the science and technology behind these issues, and developing and recommending appropriate strategies to deal with these issues. (S&T)2 have been the primary developer of GHGenius since 2003.
More: About (S&T) Squared - Reports - Etc
What Other Resources?
On GHGenius.ca we have resources to help new and experienced users learn how to use the model. If your questions aren't answered in the resources available then feel free to ask it in the forum.
More: Forum - Life Cycle Analysis Primer - Frequently Asked Questions
