Global emissions of hydrogen chloride and chloromethane from coal combustion, incineration and industrial activities: Reactive Chlorine Emissions Inventory

Much if not all of the chlorine present in fossil fuels is released into the atmosphere as hydrogen chloride (HC1) and chloromethane (CH3C1, methyl chloride). The chlorine content of oilbased fuels is so low that these sources can be neglected, but coal combustion provides ignificant releases. On the basis of national statistics for the quantity and quality of coal burned during 1990 in power and heat generation, industrial conversion and residential nd commercial heating, coupled with information on the chlorine contents of coals, a global inventory of national HC1 emissions from this source has been constructed. This was combined with an estimate of the national emissions of HC1 from waste combustion (both large-scale incineration and trash burning) which was based on an estimate of the global quantity released from this source xpressed per head of population. Account was taken of reduced emissions where flue gases were processed, for example to remove sulphur dioxide. The HC1 emitted in 1990, comprising 4.6 + 4.3 Tg C1 from fossil fuel and 2 + 1.9 Tg C1 from waste btmmtg, was spatially distributed using available information on point sources uch as power generation utilities and population density by default. Also associated with these combustion sources are chloromethane emissions, calculated to be 0.075 q0.07 Tg as C1 (equivalent) from fossil fuels and 0.032 q0.023 Tg C1 (equivalent) from waste combustion. These were distributed spatially exactly as the HC1 emissions, and a further 0.007 Tg C1 in chloromethane from industrial process activity was distributed by point sources.