Facts & figures about CO2 emission
Generally, the car manufacturers give the “CO2 emission” in g/km.
Other interesting figures to know is the quantity of CO2 produced per litre of fuel:
- for diesel: 2.62 kg/litre
- for gasoline: 2.39 kg/litre.
So every time you put 50 litres (or 13 gallons) in your tank, you are going to produce around 125kg of CO2.
Amazing, isn’t it?
For heating purposes, the relevant figure is the quantity of CO2 emitted per kWh of energy produced. Here are the figures for different heating sources, in kg of CO2 per kWh:
- Natural gas: 0.19
- Fuel oil: 0.27
- Coal: 0.32
- Electricity: from 0.08 to 0.8 (0.4 is the European Union average)
Sources
By far, natural gas is the “greener” fossil fuel. Electricity is even better where it is mainly produced by hydro or nuclear power plants.
Jacques Schonek
Good day, how can we calculate (assumption if we cannot have the precise calculation) how many CO2 emission are generated in the electricity?
Does the part who generate CO2 is the kWH value, the kVAR value, or just because the power plant fuel? I’m asking these 2′nd question since I heard that if we installed capacitor (outside kVAR generator) we can reduce CO2 emission. Maybe you know something about that as well?
Thanks
The CO2 emission per kWh is of course coming from the power plant fuel. The figures given in the post (0.08 to 0.8 kg/kWh) depend on the percentage of electricity generated by fossil-fuel in the different countries.
Capacitors installed in order to improve the power factor reduce the line current and also the related power losses. Then, for the same “service”, less kWh are generated, and consequently, less kg of CO2 are produced.