1
Burning 1 kg of standard coal produces about 2.93 kg of CO2
Type and producing area of the coal leads to the difference of heat value and carbon content. In China, usually the carbon content of coal is from 45% to 85%.
In China, it is provided that the heat value of standard coal is 7,000 Kcal/kg, carbon content is about
80%, CO2 emission of the 1 kg standard coal should be: molecular weight of CO2/ atomic weight for the element of C * 80% = 44 ÷ 12 × 80%= 2.93 kg
2. Burning 1 m3 of natural gas produces about 2 kg of CO2
Difference of natural gas producing area leads to difference of the below figures:
Density of natural gas: 0.72Kg/Nm3, average carbon content is about 76%, CO2 emission per cubic meter of natural gas burning is: 0.72 × 76% × 44 ÷ 12 = 2.00
3. CO2 emission per 1 kWh of electricity is 1.05 or 2.77?
In China, producing 1 kWh of electricity consumes 360 gram of coal, it equals to the CO2 emission of
2.93 × 0.36 = 1.05kg/kWh, but this efficiency only means that in the coal burning power plants.
Exploitation, energy consumption on storage and transportation, and the loss of coal are huge, it is also include noneffective coal bed gas, discard of low-heat-value slag, gasification caused of open-air storage, etc. There is also loss from transmission and distribution, and voltage transformation of the electricity. According to internal data from China National Development and Reform Commission, from the exploitation of coal to the electricity end user, general energy efficiency is only 12~13%. By using the efficiency of 13%, CO2 emission from 1 kWh of electricity is: 861 ÷ 13% ÷ 7000 × 2.93 = 2.77
(kg/kWh). At present, 80% of power in China is from coal burning power plants, but in fact, more than
90% of power in China is from coal burning power plants, because hydroelectric power is influences by the season greatly. That’s why we calculate the air conditioning emission at the