2.B.5 - Carbide Production

During the German Reunification period, calcium carbide production took place mainly in the new German federal states (Neue Bundesländer), where production stopped shortly thereafter and there is only one producer left in the old German federal states. In the period under consideration, this producer cut its production by about 50 percent.

According to the responsible specialised association within the VCI, no silicon carbide has been produced in Germany since 1993. Emissions from this process thus no longer occur.

Since Germany has only one producer, the relevant data must be kept confidential. Only the data which consists of the amount of production in the former GDR was published, until 1989, by the country's central statistical authority. Those figures were used in combination with existing estimates for 1991 and 1992 to interpolate production in the new German Länder in 1990.

In covered furnaces, producers collect all the carbon monoxide produced from the process and recycle it for further use. Following such use as energy recovery – i.e., following its combustion to produce carbon dioxide – it serves as an auxiliary substance for production of lime nitrogen and secondary products. Reactions in these processes yield carbon dioxide in a mineral form, as black chalk. In this form, it is used in agriculture. Upon request, the relevant producer provides the German Environment Agency with the data of amounts produced.

The emission factor for TSP is provided by the producer and is also confidential.

No category-specific improvements are planned.