Calculating GHG Totals by Industry

This page explains how emissions from individual facilities are aggregated to industry totals. To learn about what industry groups a facility falls in, visit Understanding Facility Types.

A large number of facilities only report emissions from a single activity at the facility. In such cases, ALL the emissions from the facility are allocated to the industry type associated with the facility.
Other facilities reported emissions from stationary combustion as well as some other type of process occurring at the facility (such as petroleum refining, iron and steel production, cement production, etc.). GHG emissions from these other processes are generally referred to as 'process' emissions. In these cases, ALL the emissions from the facility are allocated to the industry type associated with the process emissions. For example, for a facility with iron and steel process emissions and stationary combustion emissions, the total emissions for the facility are assigned to the iron and steel industry.

In some cases, a facility may report emissions from two separate and unique processes, but no emissions from stationary combustion. For example, a facility may be both a power plant and an iron and steel mill. In these cases, EPA includes the emissions associated with electricity generation in the electricity generation industry total, and the emissions from iron and steel production in the iron and steel industry total.

In a small number of cases, facilities report emissions from stationary combustion as well as two or more other processes. For example, a refinery who also produces petrochemicals would report the total process emissions from petroleum refining, the total process emissions from petrochemical production and the total emissions from stationary combustion. EPA is unable to determine the portion of the stationary combustion emissions that should be included in each industry group's total. In these cases, EPA attributes 100% of the stationary combustion emissions to the industry type considered to be most fossil fuel intensive. The table below shows the hierarchy of industry types considered. In the case where a facility reports emissions from 2 or more of the process listed below, the emissions from stationary combustion are attributed to the highest ranking process on this list.

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  1. Petroleum Refining
  2. Cement Production
  3. Iron & Steel Production
  4. Pulp and Paper Manufacturing
  5. Aluminum Production
  6. Petrochemical Production
  7. Soda Ash Production
  8. Ammonia Manufacturing
  9. Adipic Acid Production
  10. Lime Manufacturing
  11. Lead Production
  12. Ferroalloy Production
  13. Glass Production
  14. Zinc Production
  15. Titanium Dioxide Production
  16. Silicon Carbide Production
  17. Hydrogen Production
  18. Landfills
  19. HCFC22 Production/HFC23 Destruction
  20. Phosphoric Acid Production
  21. Nitric Acid Production
  22. Electricity Generation

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Source: This page was derived from th Data Publication Factsheet dated December 2011

Approval / Publishing History: Version 1

Expiration : Factsheet was not final when this was extract, as soon as its final this should be updated

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