The GAINS Model for Greenhouse Gases: Nitrous Oxide

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The GAINS Model for Greenhouse Gases Nitrous
Oxide
Expert meeting on improving the quality of GHG
emission inventories for category 4D Ispra,
October 21-22, 2004

• Wilfried Winiwarter

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Outline

• The RAINS model
• Emission sources
• Emission abatement(N2O related vs. for other
  reasons)
• Costs

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The RAINS model
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Multi-pollutant multi-effect
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Processes

• Nitric acid production
• Fertilizer industry
• Abatement by NSCR
• Adipic acid production
• Only a handful of installations
• High flue gas concentrations facilitate abatement
• Voluntary agreement by industry lead to a
  decrease before 2000 (process optimization)
• Catalytic reduction or oxidation

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Combustion

• Stationary sources, NOx abatement
• SNCR (urea as reducing agent)
• Fluidized bed
• Mobile sources, NOx abatement
• Catalytic converters (IPCC factor too high)
• EURO-IV diesel engines

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Direct use

• Anesthetic
• Foaming agent in food industry
• Emissions by population
• From German/Dutch/Austrian UNFCCC submission
• From hospitals environmental declarations

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Microbial production
N2O
Atmospheric deposition
NH3, NOx
Mineral fertilizer
N2O

• manure

N2O
spreading
SOIL
Nitrification, denitrification ...
leaching
WATER
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Non soil

• Sewage treatment
• 40 reduction potential at no costs (Hendriks et
  al.)
• Manure storage
• Following IPCC emission factors
• Using RAINS classifications of storage types

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RAINS structure
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Model parameterization
EF
EEF
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Soil N2O
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Options to reduce N2O emissions

• Reduction of nitrogen loss
• Reduction of N-input (mineral fertilizer)
• 4 categories
• Simple (good management)
• Sophisticated (complex farming patterns)
• Agrochemical (nitrification inhibitor)
• Hi-tech (satellite data)

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Negative costs

• Cost savings due to savings on fertilizer
  costsup to 17,000 /t N2O
• Assumes that fertilizer reduction does not affect
  crop yield or require additional costs
• Cost savings are considered equal to transaction
  costs occurring when implementing measures
  (otherwise measures would have been introduced
  autonomously already)

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Forest soils

• Anthropogenic NOx emissions / deposition N2O
  emissions from forest soils
• We apply IPCC default emission factors and the
  parametrization of a deterministic (DNDC) model
• Deposition according to EMEP, year 2000
  (fixed).N2O emissions attributed to recipient
  country of deposition (in contrast to the IPCC
  concept)

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Abatement costs
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Interactions
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Assumptions CLE

• CAP reforms reduce fertilizer input at a level of
  the simple option fertilizer reduction for EU25
• Adipic acid plants are fully controlled

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Timeline CLE
(Europe, 39 countriesprovisional data)
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Timeline MFR
(Europe, 39 countriesprovisional data)
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Cost curve
(Europe, 39 countriesprovisional data)
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Conclusions

• Soil is the dominant source of anthropogenic N2O
  emissions in Europe
• N2O emissions and emission reductions strongly
  characterized by interferences
• Options to reduce additional to CLE at moderate
  costs are available
• Controls independent of costs will be applied
  due to reasons other than GHG abatement