meta data for this page
This is an old revision of the document!
6.A.1 - Ammonia emissions from human sweating and breathing
Short description
| NFR-Code | Name of category | Method | AD | EF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.A.1 | Ammonia emissions from human sweating and breathing | T1 | NS | D |
| NOx | NMVOC | SO2 | NH3 | PM2.5 | PM10 | TSP | BC | CO | Heavy Metals | POPs | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Key Source by: | NA | NA | NA | ??? | NA | NA | NA | NR | NA | NA | NA | ||||||||
In addition to animal-related excretion, nitrogen (N) is also introduced into the environment through human consumption of food and later disposed of. Mainly nitrogen is released into the wastewater system in the form of urine, but physiological processes also release nitrogen as ammonia through sweating and respiration. This emission source describes ammonia emissions produced by humans through sweating and breathing.
Methodology
The calculation of ammonia emissions in this area is made for the first time and is based on the methodological description of Visschendijk et al. (2022) 1).
For the complete time series, the emissions are calculated as follows:
EM = AD (number of German inhabitants) * EF (kg emission per inhabitant)
Activity data
The number of inhabitants in Germany is derived from the German statistic Agency (DESTATIS) on an annual basis.
The number of people living in Germany by end of June of a specific year is taken as activity data. As of June 2022, 84,4 million people lived in Germany.
The following table shows the population figures over time.
Table 1: Population figures in Germany, as of 1990
| 1990 | 79,753,227 |
|---|---|
| 1995 | 81,307,715 |
| 2000 | 81,456,617 |
| 2005 | 81,336,663 |
| 2010 | 80,284,071 |
| 2011 | 80,274,983 |
| 2012 | 80,523,746 |
| 2013 | 80,767,463 |
| 2014 | 81,197,537 |
| 2015 | 82,175,684 |
| 2016 | 82,521,653 |
| 2017 | 82,792,351 |
| 2018 | 83,019,213 |
| 2019 | 83,166,711 |
| 2020 | 83,155,031 |
| 2021 | 83,237,124 |
| 2022 | 84,358,845 |
Emission factor
For the calculation of ammonia emissions in this category, the highest of the emission factors given in Sutton et al. (2000)2) are used, resulting in a total emission factor of 0.0826 kg NH3-N per person per year (according to the assumptions sum of 74.88 (sweating) and 7.7 (breathing) grams NH3-N per person per year, respectively).
Here, to avoid underestimating of emissions, the higher EFs were applied.
The amount was converted to the amount of ammonia using the stoichiometric factor of 17/14.
Emission Trend
The average value of the last 10 years is 8.25 kt NH3 emissions per year, so this category is not a major source of regional NH3 emissions. The following figure shows the emission trend.
Figure 1: NFR 6.A, Ammonia emissions from human sweat & breath
Recalculations
No specific recalculations occur against the previous submission.
Uncertainties
The AD from DESTATIS usually have an uncertainty of ±3%.
As emission factors vary between different data sources and the amount of ammonia volatilized is based on an assumption, uncertainties for the emission factors are expected to be relatively high.
Hence the overall uncertainty for the emission estimation of NH3 is estimated by expert judgement to be ±95%.
Planned Improvement
Currently no improvements are planned.