Industrial and electricity sectors have lower carbon footprint

The electricity and industrial sectors produced the least amount of carbon dioxide per unit of primary energy consumed in 2016, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The industrial sector had CO2 emissions of 44 kilograms per million British thermal units, while the electricity sector produced 48 kilograms per million Btu.

Coal, natural gas, distillate heating fuel, diesel, gasoline and propane are primary fuels that produce CO2 when used, and they each produce a different level of carbon dioxide, ranging from nearly 100 kilograms per million Btu for coal to 53 kilograms per million Btu for natural gas. “Fuels such as uranium used in nuclear power plants and renewable fuels such as hydroelectric, wind and solar have no CO2 emissions associated with their consumption,” according to the EIA.

The industrial sector has lower carbon emissions than other sectors because of several factors. The pulp and paper industry, which accounts for about 7% of industrial energy consumption, “is a large consumer of biogenic material,” and the EIA doesn’t include the emissions from biomass combustion “because biogenic fuels are produced as part of a natural cycle that absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during the growth phase. The same consideration applies to the use of biogenic fuels in other sectors, such as wood heating in the residential sector and ethanol consumption in the transportation sector.”

Also, nearly 15% of the industrial sector’s fossil fuel use captured some carbon in the form of plastics and non-energy products.

Carbon emissions in the electricity sector have fallen recently “because of the shift away from coal-fired electricity generation toward less-carbon-intensive natural gas and carbon-free renewable energy forms, such as wind and solar.” This sector’s carbon emissions had averaged nearly 60 kilograms per million Btu for decades.