5.D.2 - Industrial Wastewater Handling

In category 5.D.2, NMVOC emissions from industrial wastewater handling are reported. The industrial section is covered by wastewaters from industrial processes. Main sectors are chemical industries, iron & steel industries, power generation, Food sector, Paper & Cardboard-production and “Other”-Industrial processes.

Emissions reported under this category are calculated using the Tier 1 approach of the EMEP/EEA Guidebook 2019, where the emission factor (EF) is 15 mg/m³ wastewater (Part B, 5.D, chap. 3.2.2, Table 3-1, p. 7 ¹⁾). This EF is multiplied with the total amount of wastewater (AD) treated in industrial wwt-plants, following the equation:

Total volumes of treated industrial wastewater are derived by the German statistical agency (Statistisches Bundesamt, Umweltnutzung und Wirtschaft. Tabellen zu den Umweltökonomischen Gesamtrechnungen. Teil 4: Wassereinsatz, Abwasser. Table 7.7 ²⁾). The availability of the data starts in 1991 with new data for every following year, until 2001. Until then the data source is published on a three-year basis with new data only for the respective year of the update. Missing data are interpolated. Since the Wastewaterstatistic has not been updated since 2016, the data for Chemical Industry and Paper&Cardboard has been extrapolated until 2017 on the basis of an expert judgment, assuming for the Chemical Industry a yearly reduction of 1% and for Paper&Cardboard of 1,5%. For the remaining industries expert-judgement concluded that constant values since 2016 are deemed to be most probable.

See method.
It should be noted that the described default emission factor was collected in Turkey for municipal wastewater treatment plants under specific climatic conditions in developing countries. The wastewater characteristics of the considered industries sometimes differ significantly from municipal wastewater.

The AD from Statistisches Bundesamt have an uncertainty of ±3% (normal distribution) whereas the uncertainty for the EF, due to its range (5/50 mg/m³), is -70 / +210 % and the distribution lognormal.

As given above, the activity data for Chemical Industry and Paper & Cardboard have been recalculated according to the following tables:

Table 1: Revised volume of treated wastewater, in [m³]

Table 2: Revised TOW, in [kt]

Table 3: Accordingly revised NMVOC emissions, in [kt]

Currently no improvements are planned.