Source energy is the energy taken from the earth, such as from a well, a mine, a forest. The energy for exploration, extraction, processing and transport is used to convert the source energy to primary energy for the US economy. The US electrical system uses about 40% of all primary energy.

 

- Source energy is the energy taken from coal mines, oil and gas wells, and forests for conversion to electricity and heat.

- Primary energy = source energy - energy used for exploration, extraction, processing and transport of fuels (coal, oil, gas, biofuels, wastes, etc.) to users, such as fuel to electricity generating plants, or process plants, or buildings, or vehicles, etc. That means it has not been subjected to any conversion or transformation process.

- Consumed energy by users = net electricity generation (fed to grid) + electricity imports (fed to grid)  + fuel to process plants, or buildings, or vehicles, etc.

- Gross electricity generation = primary energy (fuel to power plants) x plant efficiency.

- Net electricity generation = gross generation - plant self-use = fed to grid. 

- Electricity at user meters = fed to grid - transmission & distribution losses.

 

For exploration and extraction mostly diesel and electricity are used.

For processing mostly diesel, natural gas and electricity are used.

For transport mostly diesel is used.

 

Table 1

Well/mine/forest-to-user source factor

 

Diesel

1.2700

Gasoline

1.2500

See table 3

Natural Gas

1.1700

 

Electricity

 2.8776

See table 4

 

A combination of these energies leads to a source factor of the US electrical system of about 1.08, i.e., the equivalent of about 8% of the source energy is used to obtain the primary energy fed to power plants. Excluded is the embedded energy of all the required infrastructures.

 

NOTE: Also there is the energy consumed for Operations & Maintenance and on-going replacements/upgrading of the infrastructures used for exploration, extraction, processing and transport of the source energy. That energy and its CO2 are counted separately.

EPA Method of Calculating Combustion CO2 of Pure Diesel and Pure Gasoline

 

Various government, commercial, and institutional entities calculate the combustion CO2 of various fuels, as becomes clear after Googling the internet for a few hours. As a result, a diversity of values is published year after year, which creates endless confusion among various people who use these values.

 

The EPA has the responsibility to annually report the CO2 emissions of the US economy.

The EPA co-ordinates its calculation standards with those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC. If that co-ordination did not exist, each country would “invent” its own methods and confusion would be worldwide.

 

The IPCC guidelines for calculating emissions inventories require an oxidation factor be applied to the carbon content to account for a small portion of the fuel that is not oxidized into CO. For all oil and oil products, the oxidation factor used is set at  0.99, i.e., 99 percent of the carbon in the fuel is eventually oxidized, while 1 percent remains un-oxidized.

 

However, when EPA deals with the US Department of Transportation, etc., the 99% oxidation factor is not applied.

Among departments, the agreed CO2 value for gasoline is 8887 g/gal, and for diesel is 10180 g/gal. See URL

https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gases-equivalencies-calculato...

 

The Code of Federal Regulations (40 CFR 600.113) provides values for carbon content per gallon of gasoline and diesel fuel which EPA uses in calculating the fuel economy of vehicles:

 

Gasoline carbon content per gallon: 2421 grams

Diesel carbon content per gallon: 2778 grams

 

Pure diesel and pure gasoline consist of hundreds of different chemicals. As a result:

 

- Their densities, g/l, vary from 830 – 860 g/l for pure diesel, and 710 – 770 g/l for pure gasoline. See first URL

- I assumed 850 for pure diesel and 737 for pure gasoline.

- Both fuels have a Carbon fraction of about 0.86. See first URL

- EPA calculated the Carbon for pure diesel at 2778 g/gal, and for pure gasoline at 2421 g/gal. See second URL

- By working back, the Carbon/l and Carbon weight fraction for both fuels are obtained. 

- The combustion CO2 for pure diesel is 2778 x 44/12 = 10186 g/gal, or 22.456 lb/gal

- The combustion CO2 of pure gasoline 2421 x 44/12 = 8876 g/gal, or 19.569 lb/gal

- Both values are slightly different from the above-stated 10180 and 8887 g/gal.

https://www.iea-amf.org/content/fuel_information/diesel_gasoline

https://www.chargepoint.com/files/420f05001.pdf

 

NOTE: All this appears to be straight forward, but it took me an entire day of Googling among confusing and conflicting sources, before I, as an experienced Googler, had found, and re-found, the referenced URLs.

 

Table 2/Combustion CO2

EPA

EPA

Fuel

Pure diesel

Pure gasoline

Octane

95 - 98

Density range, g/l

830 - 860

710 - 770

Density assumed, g/l

850

737

C weight fraction

0.8634

0.8677

C, g/l

733.9

639.5

l/gal

3.7854

3.7854

C, g/gal

2778

2421

44/12

3.6667

3.6667

CO2, g/gal

10186

8876

g/lb

453.592

453.592

CO2, lb/gal

22.456

19.569

CO2 Emissions of Gasoline and E10: E10 fuel (90% gasoline/10% ethanol) has a source energy, which is reduced due to exploration, extraction, processing and transport, to become the primary energy fed to E10 vehicles. See URL.

http://www.patagoniaalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/How-muc...

 

Burning E10 (90% gasoline/10% Ethanol) = 0.9 x 19.569 + 0.1 x 12.720 = 18.884 lb/gal

Upstream = 0.9 x 4.892 + 0.1 x 13.556 = 5.759 lb/gal

Total = 24.643 lb/gal, if CO2 of ethanol is counted, 24.643 - 1.272 = 23.371 lb/gal, if not counted.

 

Table 3/Fuel CO2

 Combustion

 Upstream

Total

 lb CO2/gal

lb CO2/gal

lb CO2/gal

Burning pure gasoline

19.569

Upstream = 25% of combustion, per EPA

4.892

Total

 

24.461

Burning pure ethanol

12.720

Cropping, processing, blending

13.556

Total

26.276

Burning E10 (90/10)

18.884

Upstream

5.759

Total, if ethanol CO2 is counted

24.643

Total, if ethanol CO2 is not counted

17.612

5.759

23.371

.

Burning pure diesel

22.456

Upstream = 27% of combustion, per EPA

6.063

Total

28.519

Burning pure biodiesel, B100, soy oil

20.130

Upstream = 43% of combustion

8.656

Total, if biodiesel CO2 is counted

28.786

Total, if biodiesel CO2 is not counted

8.656

Burning B20 (80/20)

21.991

Upstream

6.582

Total, if biodiesel CO2 is counted

28.572

Total, if biodiesel CO2 is not counted

17.965

6.582

24.546

Source Factor of US Electrical System: The US economy was supplied with about 25,451.00 TWh of primary energy in 2013. See Table 6. In this analysis, I used the 2013 emission data in conjunction with the 2013 electricity generation data. 

 

The EIA 2013 emissions data was higher than at present, mainly due to gas replacing coal. It is ironic, I could find the 2016 GERMAN electricity generation data, but not the 2016 US data.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States

 

Item

Table 3

%

TWh

1

Source energy

100.00

27664.00

2

Expl./Extr./Proc./Transp.

8.00

2213.00

3

Primary energy, per URL

92.00

25451.00

3a

Electrical PE = 0.4 of 3, per URL

 

10180.40

4

Electrical SE = 3a/0.92

 

11065.65

5

Gross generation

 

4227.62

6

Self-use

3.82

161.55

7

Net generation to grid, per EIA

 

4065.97

8

Conversion factor = 7/3a

 

0.3994

9

Imports, per EIA

1.15

46.74

10

Total to grid, per EIA

 

4112.71

11

T&D, % of To grid, per EIA

6.50

267.33

12

To electric meters

 

3845.38

13

System efficiency, PE basis = 12/3a

 

0.3777

15

System efficiency, SE basis = 12/4

 

0.3475

16

Source factor = 1/0.3475

 

2.8776

CO2 Emission Intensity of US Electrical System: The total CO2 emissions were 2053 million metric ton in 2013, and 1821 MMt in 2016, due to less coal and more gas burning.

 

Table 4

Year

2013

2016

CO2, MMt

2053

1821

To meters, TWh

3845.38

3845.38

kg CO2/kWh

0.5339

0.4736

lb/kg

2.2046

2.2046

lb CO2/kWh, PE basis

1.1770

1.0440

Upstream factor

1.08

1.08

lb CO2/kWh, SE basis

1.2712

1.1275

g/lb

454

454

g CO2/kWh, SE basis

577

512

 

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=18511

 

CO2 Emissions of New England Electrical System: NE grid CO2 intensity was 726 lb/MWh, or 0.726 lb/kWh, or 726/2204.62 = 0.3293 metric ton/MWh, on a primary energy basis. This is low compared to the US and many other local grids, because of the high percentage of low-CO2 hydro, nuclear and gas on the NE grid. See Table 5.1 of URL.

 

ISO-NE calculates Vermont CO2 emissions at 210 lb/MWh, based on electricity supplied to utilities. The woodchip-fired McNeil and Ryegate power plants emit almost all of the CO2.

 

CO2 emissions allocated to Vermont = 6,100,000 MWh/y x 210 lb/MWh = 640,500 ton/y, or 581,053 Mt/y, i.e., the CO2 of the in-state generated electricity is spread out over the electricity supply to utilities. See Table 5.1 of URL.

https://www.iso-ne.com/static-assets/documents/2016/01/2014_emissio...

 

Table 5‐1

2014 New England System
Annual Average NOX, SO2, and CO2 Emission Rates (lb/MWh)

 

Table 5/State

NOx

SO2

CO2

Connecticut

0.29

0.11

592

Maine

0.43

0.28

838

Massachusetts

0.54

0.35

932

New Hampshire

0.40

0.29

665

Rhode Island

0.19

0.01

945

Vermont

0.10

0.01

210

New England

0.38

0.22

726

NOTE: Vermont has a low electrical CO2/kWh. ISO-NE estimates it at 210 lb/MWh. Burlington, a major city in Vermont, is NOT 100% renewable (as it claims), because almost all of Vermont's ELECTRICAL CO2 is from wood-fired McNeil in Burlington, and that is renewable only on a 50 - 100 year basis, provided the forest, from which the trees were taken, would still be there to do the absorbing and that the forest CO2 absorption/acre is unimpaired by development, clear-cutting, disease, etc.

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Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

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(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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