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5.E.2 - Other Waste: Building and Car Fires
Short description
For key source information please see the Overview-chapter 5.E.
Within NFR 5.E.2 - Other Waste: Building and Car Fires, emissions from building and car fires are reported.
Method
With a method for estimation the AD developed within a research project 1), and after publication of Tier2-EF within the EEA-Guidebook 2019 2), a country-specific method was implemented and further developed so that now a full-scale-approach for all Buildings and the cars as well as an estimation for waste container fires can be conducted.
However, in all cases, only accidental fires are mentioned (including acts of vandalism).
Activity data
Official population statistics for Germany are applied as primary activity data.
From these statistical input data, the number of fires is estimated via the following steps:
- specific values for number of fires per 1,000 inhabitants,
- differentiated according to building,
- vehicle and container fires,
- Determination of the number of relevant fires per year in Germany in total,
- Differentiation of the fires according to building and vehicle fires,
- Differentiation of fires according to fire scale,
- Differentiation of building fires by building category,
- Conversion of different fires per year to full-scale fires per year - see addional description,
- Transfer of the results on the number of fires in the form of number of full-scale fires per year differentiated by fire categories.
In order to apply the emission factors available from the EMEP/EEA Guidebook, the annual number of building fires is differentiated for detached and undetached, appartment and industrial buildings.
Table 1: Estimated shares per building category, for recent years
| detached houses | undetached houses | appartement buildings | industrial buildings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 53% | 13% | 13% | 20% |
Description of Conversion to full-scale fires per year
During Review 2023 TERT asked for to more information of method zu fires' conversion, that is given following:
As other inventory compilers weighting factors were applied for each category in order to determine the number of full-scale fires. The idea is to assume that the default EF stands for complete burning of objects, but in real in most cases fires are extinguished as soon as possible.
Table 2: Percental shares of burnt combustible material per type of fire
| type of fire | % of burnt combustible material |
|---|---|
| Building fire, small a) | 5 |
| Building fire, small b) | 30 |
| Building fire, medium | 75 |
| Building fire, major | 100 |
| Car fires, small | 5 |
| Car fires, medium | 30 |
| Car fires, major | 100 |
| Container fires, standard | 50 |
Germany uses the following information on EFs: It can be derived from the given information and references on building fires that EFs are given for full-scale fires 3). We have no country specific information, but the other appoaches seem to be suitable for our situation, too.
Table 3: Estimated number of full-scale fires, per category, per 1,000 inhabitants, for recent years
| detached houses | undetached houses | appartement buildings | industrial buildings | cars/ vehicles | containers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.02 | 0.05 | 0.05 | 0.08 | 0.18 | 0.15 |
As results we calculate with with the following range of data:
Table 4: Estimated number of full-scale fires per year, per category, range over time
| detached houses | undetached houses | appartement buildings | industrial buildings | cars/ vehicles | containers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15,700 - 17,000 | 4,100 - 5,300 | 4,200 - 4,700 | 6,500 - 6,600 | 15,000 - 15,400 | 4,100 - 4,200 |
Emission Factors
For most pollutants, tier2 default values from the EMEP/EEA air pollutant emission inventory guidebook 2019 (as 2016), Chapter 5.E - Other waste, tables 3-2 to 3-6 are applied 4) are applied.
Due to lack of emissions factors for black carbon we assume the following analogy: BC = 10% of the defaukt-EF for PM2.5 as provided in Table 3-40, Tier 2 emission factor for conventional stoves, wood and similar wood waste.
Regarding containers we use figures from Table 6.22 of the Danish IIR 5).
In contrast to building fires and in accordance to the emission factor values provided in the EMEP/EEA Guidebook, no additional differentiation e.g. of vehicle categories is implemented.
Verification
For verification purposes, a consultant has checked the Informative Inventory Reports (IIRs) of other countries. In the IIRs of Denmark and Iceland it is additionally stated that the emission factors refer to so-called “full-scale fires” and therefore the activity data (i.e. the number of fires) must be converted to so-called full-scale equivalent fires.
Trends in emissions
All trends in emissions correspond to trends of AD. No rising trends are to identify, but a jump in 2003 due to many forest fires. Forest fires are part of the total fire AD and affect so the calculation in general, but here figures without forest fires are shown only:
Due to no sinking trends some pollutants are highlighted in present, so the relation of the PCDD/F is now important:
note for both graphs: no significant change in 2023
Recalculations
Recalculations were necessary due to change of one figure: Change of data source for fire operations from model-based extrapolation to fire fighter's statistics Germany (DBV), because DFV figures give annual changes 6).
For pollutant-specific information on recalculated emission estimates for Base Year and 2022, please see the recalculation tables following chapter 8.1 - Recalculations.