CBAM & Iron/Steel: Decoding Specific Embedded Emissions Calculations

Step 1 - Define system boundaries?

Everything shown in red color, along with Generated Electricity (shown in sky blue) is to be monitored

Step 2 - Monitoring Method

1. Determine quantities of fuels and input materials consumed

2. Determine calculation factors e.g. net calorific value, emission factor

Fuels - from Annex E of the document CBAM Guidance_non_EU installations

Process CO2 emissions - using a mass balance approach (carbon in - carbon out) — anodes & soda ash, for example

Electricity - from any available public dataset for your country

PFC (CF4 and C2F6) emissions - use either the slope method or the overvoltage method described in the document CBAM Guidance_non_EU installations

3. Calculate emission by multiplying consumption with calculation factor

Step 3 - Attribution of direct and indirect emissions?

Apply corrections -

Correction for exported waste Gas.

Step 4 and 5 - Precursors and calculation of Specific Embedded Emissions?

Step-by-step calculations for SEE

How to read this table -

Input - This column shows all the inputs used in the Steel making process

AD (tonnes) - is the amount of the input material used

CC - is carbon content - every material has % of carbon content. We need to use that in the calculation

Bio fraction - fraction of the energy content of the bioenergy product

16% of the plastic waste is biomass hence that should be excluded from the total emission?

i.e. subtract biomass fraction from the Emissions calculated for that Input

Formulae

Biomass Fraction = AD CC% Emission Factor * Bio fraction

Emissions = AD CC% Emission Factor - Biomass Fraction

Sum of the Emissions of all the inputs is taken

Output is the produced CBAM goods in this process

Output AD is considered negative because this is the carbon that is still there in a final product and hence it needs to be subtracted from the Sum of Input Emissions

Total direct emission = sum of Input Emission + Sum of Output Emissions

2. Calculate total Attributed direct emission

Apply correction of waste gas export

Total attributed direct emissions = Total direct emission of the installation + Deduction for waste gases

Note: While calculating the direct emissions we have calculated the entire share of waste gasses emissions.

But a part of the waste gases was actually transferred to the power plant. Powerplant will then combust these waste gases and the emissions happen at the powerplant

Though the emissions of the waste gases physically happened at the powerplant, share of this waste gas emission is attributed to the steel production and share is attributed to the powerplant

Hence we need to apply a the waste gases correction to the total emissions

SEE i.e Specific embedded emission are further used to calculate the Tax price or the amount for which you need to buy certificates. We have built a software to make this process easy for you . If you need any further clarification or understanding feel to reach out to me at [email protected] or find more details on https://cleancarbon.ai/cbam/