US consumption and supplies of sulphur hexafluoride reported under the greenhouse gas reporting program

Figures & data

Figure 1. Methods for determining the US consumption of SF₆.

Figure 2. Additions to and subtractions from the US supply of SF₆ gas (i.e. net supply).

Table 1. US SF₆ consumption determined by downstream reporting of emissions, 2012.

Source	US SF6 consumption estimate, metric tons	Per cent of estimate based on GHGRP reports (%)
Magnesium production	72	77
Semiconductor manufacturing	163	70–80^a
Electric T&D	657	75
Total	892	75

^a Based on 2006 and 2007 reports from participants in EPA’s PFC Reduction/Climate Partnership for the Semiconductor Industry. The percentage of semiconductor manufacturing represented by the Partners fluctuated between approximately 70 and 80% between 2006 and 2012.

Table 2. SF₆ consumption estimates, metric tons.

	2012
Net supply of SF6 (upstream reporting method)	1522
SF6 consumption by users (downstream reporting method)	892
Absolute difference (upstream–downstream)	630
Per cent (downstream/upstream)	59%

Table 3. Tier 2 quantitative uncertainty estimates for US SF₆ emissions applied to consumption, metric tons and percent.

Source	US SF6 emission estimate	US SF6 consumption estimate	Upper bounds relative to consumption estimate^a
			Tons SF6	Percent (%)
Magnesium production	72	72	80	12
Semiconductor manufacturing	28	163	178	9
Electric T&D	251	657	821	25
Total and upper bound consumption based on error propagation	351	892	1113	25
Total and upper bound consumption based on sensitivity analysis	351	892	1248	40

^a Range of emission estimates predicted by Monte Carlo Stochastic Simulation for a 95% confidence interval. A more detailed discussion of the methodologies and assumptions used to estimated uncertainty may be found in the US GHG inventory text (U.S. EPA 2014).

Source: U.S. EPA 2014. TgCO₂e have been converted into tons of SF₆ to facilitate comparison to the other quantities shown in this study. The uncertainty for semiconductor manufacturing emissions reflects the uncertainty for SF₆ emissions alone, which is higher than the uncertainty for the combined F-GHG emissions from this source.

[U.S. EPA] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2014. Inventory of US greenhouse gas emissions and sinks: 1990–2012. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Apr 2014. Available from: http://epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/usinventoryreporthtml

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