About Lesson
Greenhouse gas emissions calculators are used to calculate greenhouse gas emissions. There are two basic types of greenhouse gas emission calculators:
- Calculators of an individual’s personal carbon footprint (focusing on passenger transport and very often other areas of consumption such as housing, lifestyle, etc.).
- Transport greenhouse gas emissions calculators (focused on freight transport).
The most common inputs of greenhouse gas emission calculators:
- Distance (km, mi)
- Origin and destination of transport
- Choice of means of transport (truck, train, airplane, inland waterway, short-sea, deep sea-container, deep sea-tanker, sea ship, barge, pipeline)
- Type of transport (road, railway, air, water, pipeline)
- Average consumption (l / 100 km, mpg)
- Fuel costs (€)
- Type of fuel
- EURO standard (EURO 1-7)
- Engine type / specification
- Cargo grouping
- Route profile
- Intra-city transport
- Driving style
- Load factor (%)
- Coefficient of empty journeys (%)
- Speed reduction compared to maximum speed (%)
- Choice of combined transport
The most common outputs of greenhouse gas emission calculators:
- Total emissions (g CO2, kg CO2, t CO2, g SO2, kg SO2, t SO2, g NOx, kg NOx, t NOx etc.)
- Cost of offsets of emissions produced (€)
- Energy consumption (MJ, GJ)
- Fuel consumption (l / 100 km, mpg)
- Fuel costs (€)
Methodological approaches to greenhouse gas emission calculations:
- Well-to-Tank (WtT) approach
- Energy consumption and the production of emissions related to the production of energy or fuels, the indicator covering all activities from the extraction of raw materials, through the production of energy or fuels, to their supply to the relevant means of transport through the distribution network.
- The indicator does not include the operation phase of the transport mean.
- They are also sometimes referred to as indirect emissions and may be of biogenic or fossil origin.
- Tank-to-Wheel (TtW) approach
- Energy consumption and production of emissions related to the operation of the transport mean.
- The indicator does not cover the next phases of the fuel or vehicle life cycle.
- They are also sometimes referred to as direct emissions and may be of biogenic or fossil origin.
- Well-to-Wheel (WtW) approach
- Total Tank-to-Wheel + Well-to-Tank
- An approach based on monitoring energy consumption and the production of related emissions, covering the whole process from the actual production of electricity or fuels, through their supply to the relevant means of transport through the distribution network, to consumption related to the operation of the means of transport.
- This approach is based on the sum of Well-to-Tank and Tank-to-Wheel values.
- Emissions should always be calculated as Well-to-Wheel!
Basic principle of greenhouse gas emissions calculations:
- Each means of transport is assigned an emission coefficient.
- The emission coefficient is the emission production related to a given unit (g CO2 / km, g CO2 / tkm, g CO2 / MJ), type of transport or type of vehicle.
- The resulting greenhouse gas emissions produced are basically calculated as follows: emission coefficient value (g CO2 / tkm) x transport distance (km) x transported weight (t).
- It is of course also possible to take other variables into account in the calculation.
The average recommended values of the emission coefficients are given here:
References:
- CARBON FOOTPRINT, 2023. Carbon Footprint Calculator For Individuals And Households. Carbon footprint. Available at: https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx (Accessed: 17 January 2023).
- CEFIC, 2011. Measuring and Managing CO2 Emissions of European Chemical Transport. CEFIC. Available at: https://cefic.org/app/uploads/2018/12/MeasuringAndManagingCO2EmissionOfEuropeanTransport-McKinnon-24.01.2011-REPORT_TRANSPORT_AND_LOGISTICS.pdf (Accessed: 9 January 2023).
- ECOTRANSIT, 2023. Emission calculator for greenhouse gases and exhaust emissions. EcoTransIT. Available at: https://www.ecotransit.org/en/emissioncalculator/ (Accessed: 2 January 2023).
- KALOGEMIS, 2023. Calculator of logistics emissions. KALOGEMIS. Available at: https://kalogemis.upce.cz/india/instructions.php (Accessed: 29 January 2023).