Sustainability & Risk / Green Building / Carbon Footprint - Background Data

Adding Oxidation Factors

When fossil fuel combustion occurs, a small amount of carbon remains as ash and soot that is not converted to greenhouse gases. Oxidation factors measure the percentage of carbon that is actually oxidized when combustion occurs. The oxidation factor is used to calculate the amount of the fuel that is contributing to carbon dioxide emissions.

Oxidation factors vary by type of fuel and by technology. For example, the amount of carbon remaining unoxidized should be low for oil and natural gas combustion, but can be larger and more variable for coal combustion.

You can enter a specific oxidation factor for each fuel, or you can enter an oxidation factor by fuel type, so that all fuels of this type use the same oxidation factor. To set an oxidation value for all fuels of a particular type, you define a fuel technology for this type. You obtain oxidation factors from your protocol.

For more information, see Calculating Emissions for Stationary Fuel Combustion.

Use the Add Oxidation Factors task to enter:

• The version of the protocols you are using as a source of your oxidation factors
• Oxidation data for particular fuels and technologies.

To enter oxidation version and data:

1. Select Carbon Footprint - Background Data / Oxidation Factors.

   The Define Oxidation Factors Versions, Fuel Types, and Data form appears.

2. To add a protocol version for oxidation factors:
   1. Click Add New > Oxidation Factors Version.
   2. Enter the following information:

      Version: Enter a unique identifier for your source of data for oxidation factors.

      Version Description: Enter a description for the protocol, such as the table number the data is found in, or the year the data is for.

   3. Click Save.
3. To enter oxidation factors data:
   1. Select the oxidation factors protocol from the drill-down list.
   2. Click Add New > Oxidation Factors Data.
   3. In the Oxidation Factors panel, enter the following information:

      Fuel Base Code: Select the type of fuel for which you are adding oxidation factor data.

      Fuel Technology: To define an oxidation factor for a specific fuel or technology, select the fuel or technology from the Fuel Technology list.

      Oxidation Factor (%): Enter the oxidation factor as a percentage of carbon that is consumed when this fuel is burned.

   4. Click Save.