Sulfur Emission Trends and Forecast

1
Sulfur Emission Trends and Forecast

• Data compiled, analyzed, and presented by
• Chris Bamat
• Sandy Fergus
• Ryan Mackin
• Chris Rolland

• Presented on May 1, 2006
• Sustainable Air Quality
• Washington University
• Professor R. Husar

2
Introduction
This presentation was designed to give a brief
overview of the trends of SOx Emissions with
respect to different sectors as well as different
fuel types. Each of the following charts give
specific representation of energy data gathered
from 1940 to 2002 along with a forecast up to the
year 2050.
3
Relevance to Energy Consumption

• Sulfur emissions are a harmful pollutant produced
  during the combustion of fossil fuels. The fuels
  are separated into five different categories for
  analysis in order to track the amount of
  emissions produced by each
• Coal
• Natural Gas
• Oil
• Electricity
• Other sources

4

• Energy production is the main reason these fuels
  are burned and thus sulfur emissions are the
  direct by-product of this process.
• As a result, energy consumption and sulfur
  emission are very closely connected and the
  analysis of energy consumption will help to shed
  light on emission trends.
• A perfect example of this connection is seen when
  measuring energy efficiency since energy
  efficiency determines the percentage of energy
  lost to pollution.

5
Commercial/Residential

• This category is comprised of emissions from
  commercial businesses and residential homes.
• The major sources of emissions in this category
  are
• electric utilities
• coal
• a minimal amount from oil and
• virtually nothing from natural gas.
• The emissions from commercial/residential result
  entirely from the energy production for homes and
  businesses.

6
Industrial

• The industrial sector includes
• Chemical Allied product mfg.(both organic and
  inorganic)
• petroleum refineries related industries (oil
  gas manufacturing, natural gas, and fluid
  catalytic cracking units)
• Metal processing (non-ferrous, copper, lead,
  aluminum)
• Wood, pulp paper
• Mineral products
• Cement manufacturing
• Waste disposal and recycling

7
Industrial continued

• The emissions resulting from industrial activity
  
• Mostly from coal combustion since older factories
  use coal to produce a majority of their energy.
• Slightly less than coal from oil
• The remainder from gas and also from industry's
  allocated amount of electric utility.

8
Transportation

• This sector includes
• On-road vehicles (motorcycles, light duty gas
  vehicles, light duty gas trucks, heavy duty gas
  trucks, and diesels)
• Non-road vehicles (non-road gas, non-road diesel,
  aircraft, marine vessels, and railroads)
• Non-road others (agriculture forestry, other
  combustion, and fugitive dust).

9
Transportation continued

• From greatest to least the contributors in this
  sector are
• Diesel engines
• Marine vessels
• Light duty gas vehicles motorcycles
• Light duty gas trucks
• Railroads
• Heavy duty gas trucks
• Aircraft.

10
Transportation continued

• Vehicles are used to convert energy into motion
  in order to transport people and things. This
  energy produces sulfur emissions mainly through
  the combustion of gasoline and diesel fuels.

11
Shows the SOx emission from the use of coal, gas,
and oil for Electrical Utilities. Coal is clearly
the largest contributor in this section,
producing nearly all of the total electric
utility emissions. The emissions peak in 1977 and
again in 1984. This plot is particularly
important because the electric utilities sector
contributes to a majority of the total SOx
emissions since the 1950's
12
Shows the SOx emissions for the combined
industrial industry. This includes coal, gas, and
oil, with coal being the greatest contributor.
There has been a seemingly steady decline in the
emissions with a peak in 1970 however the
emissions from gas have been increasing since
1975. The emissions from oil have been decreasing
since 1981.
13
Shows the SOx emissions from the manufacturing of
Chemicals, Sulfur compounds, agricultural
chemical, and other chemical manufacturing. There
are very little emissions coming from the
agricultural chemical manufacturing. The biggest
contributor is from Chemical, then from Sulfur
compounds. There is a peak in the emissions in
1970, and from 1984 to 1989. Emissions have been
increasing again since 1998 with a hint of
leveling off since the past few years.
14
Shows the SOx emissions from processing copper,
lead, and ferrous metals. Copper is the largest
contributor, with very little being contributed
from lead and ferrous metals. There is a large
increase in emissions from copper in 1970 with
the emissions decreasing ever since.
15
Shows the SOx emissions from petroleum, petroleum
refineries, and other petroleum. There is a large
peak from the refineries section in the 1970, and
in 1981 from other petroleum industries.
16
Shows the SOx emissions from cement
manufacturing, the wood, pulp, paper industry,
and from other industrial processes. The
component entitled OtherInd represents the
total emissions for this section. There is a peak
in 1978 in both the cement manufacturing and the
wood, pulp paper industry. It can be seen that
there was an enormous decline just after this
peak in the cement manufacturing industry.
17
Shows the SOx emissions from on-road vehicles.
This includes light-duty gas vehicles
motorcycles, light-duty gas trucks, heavy-duty
gas vehicles, and diesel. There is a peak in 1990
for diesels. Light-duty gas trucks have been
steadily climbing since 1973 and currently
contribute to a significant amount of the total
whereas before 1973 they contributed virtually
nothing to the total.
18
Shows the SOx emissions from non-road vehicles.
This sector includes marine vessels, railroads,
and non-road diesel. There was a major drop in
railroads in 1960 which caused a major decrease
in the overall emissions. Since then there has
been a slow but steady increase in all sectors
since 1971.
19
Shows the total SOx emissions for each sector.
This includes the electric utilities, industrial,
residential and commercial, transport, and
metals. Electric utilities peaked in 1977 and
have been decreasing ever since. There is a small
increase in 1971 for the industrial and metals
sector.
20
Summary

• The trends show that all sectors are decreasing
  in SOx emissions.
• This is a result of better technology and the
  consumption of cleaner fuels regardless of
  increased consumer demand.