Air impacts from three alternatives for producing JP-8 jet fuel

Figures & data

Table 1. Three processes for producing crude life-cycle study design

Life-cycle boundary	Raw material acquisition through  liquid fuels production
Temporal representation	2005
Transportation fuel life-cycle modeled	JP-8 jet fuel
Impact assessment methodology	Global Warming Potential (kg CO2e), IPCC 2007, 100-year time frame Conventional air pollutants: SO2, NOx, Hg, and CO
Reporting metric	kg of pollutant/barrel of jet fuel produced

Figure 1. (a) Life-cycle stages for conventional crude extraction and refining. (b) Life-cycle stages for the Fischer–Tropsch process. (c) Life-cycle stages for the coal liquefaction process.

Table 2. Emissions from conventional crude extraction and refining – U.S. domestic crude only

		Emissions (kg/bbl JP-8)
				Crude Refining to JP-8		TOTAL
Pollutant		Crude Extraction^a	Crude Transport^a	Without CO2 capture & sequestration^a	With CO2 capture & sequestration and Hg control	Without CO2 capture & sequestration	With CO2 capture & sequestration and Hg control
Greenhouse Gases
CO2		25.1	4.0	54.9	54.9	84.0	34.6
CH4		2.88	0.14	0.62	0.62	3.64	3.64
N2O		0.199	0.009	0.251	0.251	0.459	0.459
CO2-Eq		156.3	10.1	145.2	95.8	311.6	262.2
Other Pollutants
SO2		0.036	0.011	0.033		0.080
NOx		0.096	0.017	0.013		0.126
Hg		6.4 × 10^−8	2.7 × 10^−8	9.8 × 10^−8	4.9 × 10^−9	1.9 × 10^−7	9.5 × 10^−8
CO		0.060	0.013		0.005		0.078
Note: ^a Skone (2009).

Table 3. Emissions from conventional crude extraction and refining—U.S. national average (including imported crude)

		Emissions (kg/bbl JP-8)
Pollutant		Crude extraction ^a	Crude transport ^a	Crude refining to JP-8 ^a	Total
Greenhouse gases
CO2		30.0	10.8	52.7	93.5
CH4		12.16	0.32	0.59	13.07
N2O		0.218	0.016	0.240	0.474
CO2-Eq		235.8	27.1	139.0	401.9
Other pollutants
SO2		0.142	0.123	0.032	0.297
NOx		0.090	0.173	0.013	0.276
Hg		5.5 × 10^−8	4.9 × 10^−8	9.4 × 10^−8	1.98 × 10^−7
CO		0.062	0.0315	0.005	0.099
Note: ^aSkone (2009).

Table 4. Emissions from the Fischer–Tropsch process

		Emissions (kg/bbl JP-8)
				Coal gasification and F-T synthesis to JP-8		Total
Pollutant		Coal extraction ^a	Coal transport ^b	Without CO2 capture and sequestration and Hg control ^c	With CO2 capture and sequestration and Hg control	Without CO2 capture and sequestration and Hg control	With CO2 capture and sequestration and Hg control
Greenhouse gases
CO2		5.2	N/A	554.8	55.5	N/A	N/A
CH4		0.102	N/A	0.0729	0.0729	N/A	N/A
N2O		3.04 × 10^−4	N/A	0.00251	0.00251	N/A	N/A
CO2-Eq		7.8	13.4	557.1	58.1	578.3	79.3
Other pollutants
SO2		0.063	0.0073	0.248		0.318
NOx		0.029	0.129	0.104		0.158
Hg		2.20 × 10^−8	6.0 × 10^−9	4.99 × 10^−6	2.50 × 10^−7	5.02 × 10^−6	2.78 × 10^-7
CO		0.081	0.066	0.0174		0.147
Notes: ^aValues from Tables 5 and 6.
^bValues from Table 7.
^cValues from Marano and Ciferno (2001), except for mercury emissions, which were calculated as explained in the text.

Table 5. Emissions of greenhouse gases from surface coal mining fuel use

		CO2		CH4		N2O
Fuel	Surface mine use	Emission factor	Emissions, kg	Emission factor	Emissions, kg	Emission factor	Emissions, kg
Distillate fuel oil	7524 1000 bbl ^a	423 kg/bbl ^a	3.18 × 10^9	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Residual fuel oil	756 1000 bbl ^a	492 kg/bbl ^a	3.72 × 10^8	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Gas	0.7 × 10^9 ft^3 ^a	54488 kg/MMCF ^a	3.81 × 10^7	36.8 kg/10^6 m^3 ^b	729	35.2 kg/10^6 m^3 ^b	698
Gasoline	30 × 10^6 gal ^a	370 kg/bbl ^a	2.64 × 10^8	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Electricity	42,474 × 10^6 kWh ^a	20.2 g/MJ ^d	3.09 × 10^9	0.272 g/MJ ^d	4.16 × 10^7	2.66 × 10^−3 g/MJ ^d	4.07 × 10^5
TOTAL (kg)			6.94 × 10^9		4.16 × 10^7		4.07 × 10^5
TOTAL (kg/ton coal mined)			10.4		0.062		6.09 × 10^−4
TOTAL (kg/bbl JP-8)—F-T			5.2		0.031		3.04 × 10^−4
TOTAL (kg/bbl JP-8)—UT Arlington			3.5		0.021		2.03 × 10^−4
Notes: ^a Jaramillo et al. (2007).
^b Davis (2000).
^c Wilhelm (2001).
^dGREET model 1.8c (Argonne National Laboratory).

Table 6. Emissions of traditional air pollutants from surface coal mining fuel use

		SO2		NOx		Hg		CO
Fuel	Surface mine use	Emission factor	Emissions, kg	Emission factor	Emissions, kg	Emission factor	Emissions, kg	Emission factor	Emissions, kg
Distillate fuel oil	7524 1000 bbl ^a	17S kg/1000 L; S = wt % sulfur, taken as 0.4	8.13 × 10^6	2.4 kg/1000 L ^b	2.87 × 10^6	5 ppb ^c	5.1	0.6 kg/1000 L ^b	7.18 × 10^5
Residual fuel oil	756 1000 bbl ^a	19S kg/1000 L; S = wt % sulfur, taken as 2.0	4.57 × 10^6	6.6 kg/1000 L ^b	7.93 × 10^5	10 ppb ^c	1.0	0.6 kg/1000 L ^b	7.21 × 10^4
Gas	0.7 × 10^9 ft^3 ^a	9.6 kg/10^6 m^3 ^b	190	1600 kg/10^6 m^3 ^b	3.17 × 10^4	0 ppb ^e	0	1344 kg/10^6 m^3 ^f	2.66 × 10^4
Gasoline	30 × 10^6 gal ^a	0.084 lb/MMBtu fuel input ^b	1.33 × 10^5	1.63 lb/ MMBtu fuel input ^b	2.59 × 10^6	2 ppb ^c	0.17	62.7 lb/ MMBtu fuel input ^b	9.95 × 10^7
Electricity	42,474 × 10^6 kWh ^a	0.468 g/MJ ^d	7.16 × 10^7	0.213 g/MJ ^d	3.26 × 10^7	5.45x 10^−10 kg/KWh ^e	23.2	0.0517 g/MJ ^d	7.91 × 10^6
Total (kg)			8.44 × 10^7		3.89 × 10^7		29.5		1.08 × 10^8
Total (kg/ton coal mined)			0.126		0.058		4.41 × 10^−8		0.162
Total (kg/bbl JP-8)—F-T			0.063		0.029		2.20 × 10^−8		0.081
Total (kg/bbl JP-8)—UT Arlington			0.042		0.019		1.47 × 10^−8		0.054
Notes: ^a Jaramillo et al. (2007).
^b Davis (2000).
^c Wilhelm (2001).
^dGREET model 1.8c (Argonne National Laboratory).
^e U.S. EPA (1997).
^fU.S. EPA, AP-42, Section 1.4 “Natural Gas Combustion.”

Table 7. Emissions from coal transport

				SO2		NOx		Hg		CO		CO2e
Transport Mode	Percent transport ^a	Average transport distance ^a , mi	Energy Intensity ^c , Btu/ton-mile	Emission Factor ^a , tons/ million ton-miles	Emissions, kg/ton coal	Emission Factor ^a , tons/ million ton-miles	Emissions, kg/ton coal	Emission Factor ^b , ppb by mass	Emissions, kg/ton coal	Emission Factor, kg/10^6 tons coal ^d	Emissions, kg/ton coal	Emission Factor ^a , tons/ million ton-miles	Emissions, kg/ton coal
Rail	84	796	337	0.02	1.22 × 10^−2	0.40	0.243	2	1.31 × 10^−8	9.10 × 10^4	0.091	43.6	26.50
Barge	11	337	514	0.07	2.36 × 10^−3	0.36	0.012	2	8.49 × 10^−9	6.06 × 10^3	0.00606	5.89	0.20
Truck	5	38	822	0.06	1.04 × 10^−4	1.42	0.002	2	1.53 × 10^−9	3.53 × 10^4	0.0353	69.0	0.12
Total					0.0147		0.257		1.21 × 10^−8		0.132		26.8
Notes: ^a Jaramillo et al. (2007).
^b Wilhelm (2001).
^c Oak Ridge National Lab Transportation Energy Data Book (2007).
^dEIO-LCA model (Carnegie Mellon Green Design Institute).

Table 8. Emissions from the UT Arlington coal liquefaction process (all phases from coal extraction to crude refining to JP-8)

		Emissions (kg/bbl JP-8)
			Coal liquefaction				Total
Pollutant		Coal extraction	Without pollutant controls	With pollutant controls	Crude transport	Crude refining to JP-8	Without pollutant controls	With pollutant controls
Greenhouse gases
CO2		3.5	5.79	5.37	4.0	5.49	18.78	18.36
CH4		0.068	0.19	0.19	0.14	0.62	1.02	1.02
N2O		2.03 × 10^−4	0	0	0.009	0.251	0.26	0.26
CO2-Eq		5.26	10.5	10.1	10.2	95.8	121.8	121.3
Other pollutants
SO2		0.042	0.073	0.068	0.011	0.033	0.159	0.154
NOx		0.019	0.056	0.056	0.017	0.013	0.105	0.105
Hg		1.47 × 10^−8	2.72 × 10^−8	1.89 × 10^−8	2.7 × 10^−8	4.9 × 10^−9	7.38 × 10^−8	6.55 × 10^−8
CO		0.054	0.917	0.012	0.013	0.005	0.989	0.084

Table 9. Instruments used to measure air pollutants from the coal digestion step

Pollutant	Instrument	Analysis technique
CO2, CH4	LandTEC GEM2000 Plus	Infrared absorption
CO2, CH4	SRI 8610 GC with thermal conductivity detector	Gas chromatography
CO, NOx, SO2, NH3, H2S	Draeger color detector tubes	Adsorption followed by chemical reaction
Hg	OhioLumex RA-915 Light Hg Analyzer	Atomic absorption spectrophotometry

Table 10. Air pollutants measured from the UT Arlington coal digestion step

		Landtec/GC		Mercury analyzer,	Draeger tubes
Sample	Yield (%)	CO2 (%)	CH4 (%)	Hg (ng/m^3)	NOx (ppm)	SO2 (ppm)	NH3 (ppm)	H2S (ppm)
NRG3	45.1	5.5	14			<50	0.55
NRG4	43.2	5	3
NRG6	61.7	5	3
Luminant2	55	3.8	3.7		<2			<1
Luminant4	48			198				<1
Average	50.6	4.8	5.9	198	<2	<50	0.55	<1

Table 11. Emissions from UT Arlington coal liquefaction—Liquefaction phase only

		SO2		NOx		Hg		CO		CO2		CH4
Source of pollutant mass	Use per barrel	Emission factor	Emissions, kg/bbl	Emission factor	Emissions, kg/bbl	Emission factor	Emissions, kg/bbl	Emission factor	Emissions, kg/bbl	Emission factor	Emissions, kg/bbl	Emission factor	Emissions, kg/bbl
Digestion with no pollution controls	0.33 tons coal	0.0057 kg/bbl	0.0057	1.1 × 10^−4 kg/bbl	0.000	8.7 × 10^−9 kg/bbl	8.7 × 10^−9	0.905 kg/bbl	0.905	3.8 kg/bbl	3.8	0 kg/bbl	0
Digestion with pollution controls	0.33 tons coal	1.1 x 10^−4 kg/bbl	1.1 × 10^−4	1.1 × 10^−4 kg/bbl	0.000	4.4 x 10^−10 kg/bbl	4.4 × 10^−10	0 kg/bbl	0.000	0.38 kg/bbl	0.38	0 kg/bbl	0
Methane combustion	254 ft^3	9.6 kg/10^6 m^3 ^b	7.1 × 10^−6	2240 kg/10^6 m^3	0.016	0 ppb ^e	0	1344 kg/10^6 m^3 ^f	0.000	5449 kg/MMCF ^a	1.38	36.8 kg/10^6 m^3 ^b	2.7 × 10^−5
Electricity generation	33.7 kWh	0.468 g/MJ ^d	0.057	0.213 g/MJ ^d	0.026	5.45 × 10^−10 kg/KWh ^e	1.85 × 10^−8	0.0517 g/MJ^d	6.3 × 10^−3	20.2 g/MJ ^d	2.45	0.272 g/MJ ^d	0.033
Hydrogen production	1.09 kg	9.7 g/kg H2 ^c	0.0105	12.6 g/kg H2 ^c	0.014	N/A	N/A	5.9 g/kg H2 ^c	0.006	1066 g/kg H2 ^c	1.16	146.3 g/kg H2 ^c	0.16
Total (no pollution controls on digestion)			0.073		0.056		2.72 x 10^−8		0.917		8.79		0.19
Total (with pollution controls on digestion)			0.068		0.056		1.89 x 10^−8		0.012		5.37		0.19
Notes: ^a Jaramillo et al. (2007).
^b Davis (2000).
^c Spath and Mann (2000).
^dGREET model 1.8c (Argonne National Lab).
^e U.S. EPA (1997).
^fU.S. EPA, AP-42, Section 1.4 “Natural Gas Combustion.”

Table 12. Emissions from conventional lignite combustion

	Emissions (g/MJ)
		Coal combustion		Sub-total		Considering 36% power generation & transmission efficiency
Pollutant	Coal extraction ^a	Without CO2 capture and sequestration and Hg control ^b	With CO2 capture and sequestration and Hg control	Without CO2 capture and sequestration and Hg control	With CO2 capture and sequestration and Hg control	Without CO2 capture and sequestration and Hg control	With CO2 capture and sequestration and Hg control
CO2-Eq	1.03	86.2	8.62	87.2	9.7	242.3	26.8
SO2	0.00830	0.0633		0.0716		0.199
NOx	0.00382	0.0862		0.090		0.250
Hg	2.91 × 10^−9	9.06 × 10^−6	4.56 × 10^−7	9.05 × 10^−6	4.54 × 10^−7	2.52 × 10^−5	1.27 × 10^−6
CO	0.0107	0.0090		0.0197		0.0546
Notes: ^aValues from Table 12.
^bU.S. EPA, AP-42, Section 1.7 “Lignite Combustion.”

Table 13. Emissions from UT Arlington's coal liquefaction process, including JP-8 transport

	Emissions (g/MJ)
Pollutant	Coal extraction through crude refining to JP-8	JP-8 transport	Total
CO2-Eq	22.0	0.95	23.0
SO2	0.028	0.003	0.031
NOx	0.019	0.004	0.023
Hg	1.19 × 10^−8	5.5 × 10^−9	1.7 × 10^−8
CO	0.015	0.002	0.017

Table 14. Comparison of total emissions from three processes for making crude

		Emissions (kg/bbl JP-8)
		Conventional Crude Extraction & Refining (CCER)
Pollutant		Domestic only with CO2 and Hg controls	National average (including imports)	Fischer–Tropsch process (F-T) with CO2 and Hg controls	Coal liquefaction process (UTA) with controls
Greenhouse gases
CO2		34.6	93.5	N/A	18.4
CH4		3.64	13.07	N/A	1.02
N2O		0.459	0.474	N/A	0.26
CO2-eq		262.2	401.9	79.3	121.3
Other pollutants
SO2		0.080	0.297	0.318	0.154
NOx		0.126	0.276	0.158	0.105
Hg		9.5 × 10^−8	1.98 × 10^−7	2.78 × 10^−7	6.55 × 10^−8
CO		0.078	0.099	0.147	0.084

Table 15. Carbon content and heating value of various coal types

Coal type	C (%) ^a	Higher heating value (MJ/kg coal) ^b	Higher heating value (MJ/kg C)
Lignite	25–35	16.7	55.7
Sub-bituminous	35–45	21.9	54.8
Bituminous	45–86	33.2	50.7
Anthracite	86–97	31.8	34.8
Notes: ^a Webber (2009).
^b Davis (2000).

Figure 2. Comparison of emissions from three processes for making JP-8: conventional crude extraction and refining (CCER), Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FT), and the UT Arlington coal liquefaction process (UTA).

Table 16. Comparison of total emissions from two uses of lignite coal

	Emissions (g/MJ)
Pollutant	Lignite combustion with controls	Coal liquefaction process (UT Arlington) with controls
CO2-eq	26.8	23.0
SO2	0.199	0.031
NOx	0.250	0.023
Hg	1.27 × 10^−6	1.7 × 10^−8
CO	0.0546	0.017

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