GHG Emissions Sources

Definition

GHG Emissions Sources are any identifiable physical artefacts that at any time during their lifecycle act as emitters of green house gas, that is they release into the Earth's atmosphere any of the seven gases mandated under the Kyoto Protocol and to be included in national inventories under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

GHG Emissions may be due to chemical processes that occur in contact with the atmosphere (combustion, chemical processing) or leaks.

GHG Protocol Categories

The GHG Protocol identifies the following high level categories:

• Stationary combustion: combustion of fuels in stationary equipment such as boilers, furnaces, burners, turbines, heaters, incinerators, engines, flares, etc.
• Mobile combustion: combustion of fuels in transportation devices such as automobiles, trucks, buses, trains, airplanes, boats, ships, barges, vessels, etc.
• Process emissions: emissions from physical or chemical processes such as CO2 from the calcination step in cement manufacturing, CO2 from catalytic cracking in petrochemical processing, PFC emissions from aluminum smelting, etc.
• Fugitive emissions: intentional and unintentional releases such as equipment leaks from joints, seals, packing, gaskets, as well as fugitive emissions from coal piles, wastewater treatment, pits, cooling towers, gas processing facilities, etc.