All official European Union website addresses are in the europa.eu domain.
See all EU institutions and bodies
An official website of the European Union | How do you know?
Environmental information systems
3. Large point source Emissions in Europe 1990
3.1. Introduction
More data is generally needed for modelling and for compliance monitoring of large point sources in comparison to area sources. CORINAIR 90 provides the information on large point sources (LPS).
The emissions of these sources are especially interesting, firstly because they are responsible for poor local ambient air quality and, secondly because emissions from LPS contribute to long range transport of air pollutants.
3.2. Overview
For some pollutants large point sources (LPS) are responsible for a considerable share of the total European emissions (see table 9).
Table 9: Overview of European Emissions in CORINAIR 90
| Pollutant | Emissions in ktonnes | ||||
| Area sources | % | LPS | % | Total | |
| SO 2 | 9 034 | 32 | 18 839 | 68 | 27 874 |
| CO 2 | 3 036 399 | 64 | 1 728 064 | 36 | 4 764 463 |
| NO x | 13 130 | 73 | 4 792 | 27 | 17 923 |
| N 2 O | 1 608 | 86 | 271 | 14 | 1 880 |
| CO | 64 493 | 93 | 5 219 | 7 | 69 712 |
| NMVOC | 21 120 | 97 | 650 | 3 | 21 770 |
| CH 4 | 44 708 | 98 | 707 | 2 | 45 415 |
| NH 3 | 5 649 | 99 | 52 | 1 | 5 701 |
Details on total emissions for all eight pollutants have already been published in the CORINAIR 90: Summary Report nr. 1 and nr. 2.
Figure 4 shows that SO2, NOx and CO2 emissions of LPS are responsible for more than 20% of the European total. SO2 is particularly interesting, where 68% of the total emission is caused by large point sources.
This chapter presents data on LPS for SO2, NOx, CO2.
Figure 4: Percentage of the LPS emissions in CORINAIR 90
CORINAIR 90 distinguishes between a number of different air emission sources. Emissions from LPS are highly concentrated in a very few sources. This report therefore presents only LPS results for four source sectors. (see table 10).
Table 10: LPS emissions in Europe per source sector
| Source sector | Emissions in ktonnes | |||||
| SO 2 | % | CO 2 | % | NO X | % | |
| Public Power Plants >300MW | 13 691 | 74 | 1 160 276 | 67 | 3 316 | 69 |
| Industrial Combustion Plants >300MW | 1 781 | 9 | 178 877 | 10 | 430 | 9 |
| Refineries | 635 | 3 | 58 322 | 3 | 121 | 3 |
| Inorganic Chemical Industries | 201 | 1 | 9 726 | 1 | 136 | 3 |
| Other | 2 531 | 13 | 320 862 | 19 | 772 | 16 |
| Total LPS emissions | 18 839 | 100 | 1 728 063 | 100 | 4 775 | 100 |
The relative contribution of these four source sectors is given in figure 5, showing that Public Power Plants are by far the biggest source of LPS emissions.
Figure 5: Relative contribution of source sectors to LPS emissions
From the vast amount of information on LPS made available in CORINAIR 90 the next chapter will present the ten largest LPS for SO2, NOx and CO2 for the source sectors mentioned above.
| | ||
| | |