Estimation of emission rate, social cost, and ecological footprint of greenhouse pollutants caused by fossil fuel consumption in an industrial company

Introduction: Air pollution has been raised as one of the most important risk factors contributing to the health of citizens and also the emergence of environmental problems in recent years. Determining the amount of emissions and the costs imposed by fossil fuel pollutants on human health is an effective approach that can provide a financial estimation of harmful effects of these compounds for urbanized and industrial managers. Using this beneficial information, decision makers will be able to apply optimal management of fuel sources and a reduction in releasing pollutants to the environment. This study considered the estimation of emissions, external costs, and ecological footprints of NOx, SO2, SO3, CO, SPM, CO2, CH4, and N2O pollutants resulting from the consumption of three types of fossil fuels including natural gas, gasoline, and diesel in an industrial company.
Material and methods: The scope of this study includes an industrial company in the west of Tehran, Iran. Firstly, primary data about the consumption of three types of fossil fuels namely, natural gas, gasoline, and diesel, was collected in the main consumer sectors of this industry such as engine houses, private and industrial vehicles in 1401.Next, in order to estimate the emission rate of the mentioned pollutants in consumer sectors, the energy balance sheet notified by the Ministry of Energy and Electricity Deputy in 1399 was used in this context. By having the amount of fuel consumed from each source and consideration the basic amount of the social cost of each pollutant published in the energy balance sheet in 1390, an initial estimation of the social cost of pollutants was calculated. Subsequently, a correction factors were assigned for final values and the costs were updated (based on constant prices in 1381).
Results and discussion: According to the results, totally 1943880/64 cubic meters of natural gas were consumed in the engine room sector. Furthermore, 64435 liters of gasoline and 461482 liters of diesel were utilized by private and heavy industrial vehicles, respectively. In 1400, it was determined that the emission rates of NOx, SO2, SO3, CO, SPM, CO2, CH4 and N2O were 17278/68, 7694/17, 90/34, 25972/46, and 6400/79, 88860.01, 187.43, 78.81, respectively. CO2 pollutant with 4088860.01 kg took into account the highest and SO3 pollutant with 90.34 kg had the lowest amount of emission in the year. Based on the emission coefficient obtained from the Iran energy balance in 1399, the social cost for NOx, SO2, CO, SPM, CO2, CH4 were calculated 437081507, 592005417, 205312306, 1160386931, 1722935861, 1659463 Rials per year, respectively which shows CO2 and CH4 gases impose the highest and lowest social cost to the environment, respectively. Moreover, total social cost based on exchange rate and inflation rate approach was calculated about 4119381486 and 16383725983 billion Rials, respectively (after coefficient factor was considered for constant prices in 1381). The calculations related to the estimation of the ecological footprint indicate that gasoline with 22.87 hectares and natural gas with 9.33 hectares have created the greatest and the least ecological footprint. In addition, the total ecological footprint was calculated to be approximately 50.93 hectares.
Conclusion: The imposed social cost of pollutants in this study showed different results based on the volume of their emission. While the engine room had the largest share in greenhouse gas emissions with the amount of 26655364.69 Kg, the forklift trucks contributed to produce the largest social cost with the amount of 1808115554 Rials due to the high emission rate of NOx, SPM and SO2 pollutants and also, the higher social cost of these three pollutants in the energy balance sheet compared to the other ones.