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Emission Facts: Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passe...

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  • carbon_footprints

    Carbon footprints

    4 members,25 bookmarks

    links and comments on carbon footprint models, calculators, etc. Note: to see the full address of a bookmark, click 'preview'. To see comments & highlights, click the yellow box with a # in it. You can add bookmarks, comments, etc if you bookmark their applet (diigolet, in Tools) or install the toolbar TAGS: tags must be either enclosed in quotes or must use _ instead of spaces. I've tagged to categorize by the name or source of calculators (e.g. EPA or Ecological Footprint) so far.

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Saved by 1 people (0 private), first by anonymouse user on 2007-11-01


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on 2007-11-01 by davido

tail-pipe only, not full life-cycle analysis. see fueleconomy.gov for LCA

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Recommendation

To translate GHG reductions into an equivalent number of cars off the road, annual emissions from a typical passenger vehicle should be equated to 5.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent or 1.5 metric tons of carbon equivalent.

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Step 1: Determining the CO2 produced per gallon of gasoline
A gallon of gasoline is assumed to produce 8.8 kilograms (or 19.4 pounds) of CO2

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This number is calculated from values in the Code of Federal Regulations at 40 CFR 600.113-78, which EPA uses to calculate the fuel economy of vehicles, and relies on assumptions consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines.

In particular, 40 CFR 600.113-78 gives a carbon content value of 2,421 grams (g) of carbon per gallon of gasoline, which produces 8,877 g of CO2.

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(The carbon content is multiplied by the ratio of the molecular weight of CO2 to the molecular weight of carbon: 44/12).

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This number is then multiplied by an oxidation factor of 0.99, which assumes that 1 percent of the carbon remains un-oxidized.[1.]

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Step 2: Estimating the fuel economy of passenger cars and light trucks (MPG estimate)

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MOBILE6.2 (EPA’s computer model for estimating emissions for highway vehicles) can calculate an average fuel economy across the fleet, based on the EPA annual Fuel Economy Trends reports. For 2003, MOBILE calculates values of 23.9 miles per gallon (mpg) for passenger cars and 17.4 mpg for light trucks.

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