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Last reviewed on November 2, 2011 at 10:05

Documentation of California's Greenhouse Gas Inventory (First Edition - Last updated on 11/19/2007)

♦ Category: Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use

IPCC: 3C4 - Aggregate Sources and Non-CO2 Emissions Sources on Land - Direct N2O Emissions from Managed Soils
Sector: Agriculture & Forestry : Ag Soil Management : Fertilizer : Direct

♦ Activity: Nitrogen applied in fertilizer - Synthetic fertilizers

♦ Greenhouse gas: Nitrous oxide ( N2O )

► Year 1990 —

● Greenhouse gas emission estimate —

Amount: 7,224 tonnes of N2O Emitted (2,239,488 tonnes CO2 Eq.)
Basis: Calculation
Calculation: ([Nitrogen applied in fertilizer] * [Short ton to gram conversion]) * (1 - [Nitrogen volatilization]) * [Nitrogen emitted as N2O] * [Molecular weight ratio of N2O to N2]
Reference: USEPA (2004). Emission Inventory Improvement Program. Technical Report Series, Volume 8: Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Chapter 10: Agricultural Soil Management. US Environmental Protection Agency. Washington DC. http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/eiip/techreport/volume08/index.html

● Activity level used in calculations —

Activity: Nitrogen applied in fertilizer = 563,165 ton of Synthetic fertilizers
Basis: Data
Reference: CDFA (various years). Fertilizing Materials Tonnage Report, (published bi-annually). California Department of Food and Agriculture.

● Parameters and Constants used in calculations —

Parameter: Nitrogen emitted as N2O = 0.01 g / g
Reference: IPCC (2006). 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme, Eggleston H.S., Buendia L., Miwa K., Ngara T., and Tanabe K. (eds). Volume 2, Chapter 2: Energy. http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/pdf/2_Volume2/V2_2_Ch2_Stationary_Combustion.pdf
Parameter: Nitrogen volatilization = 0.1 g / g
Reference: USEPA (2004). Emission Inventory Improvement Program. Technical Report Series, Volume 8: Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Chapter 10: Agricultural Soil Management. US Environmental Protection Agency. Washington DC. http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/eiip/techreport/volume08/index.html
Constant: Molecular weight ratio of N2O to N2 = 1.571133815
Reference: IUPAC (2006). ATOMIC WEIGHTS OF THE ELEMENTS 2005 (IUPAC TECHNICAL REPORT). Pure Appl. Chem., Vol. 78, No. 11, pp. 2051–2066, 2006.
Constant: Short ton to gram conversion = 907184.7 g / ton
Reference: NIST (1995). Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI). Barry N. Taylor (Ed.). NIST Special Publication 811. Appendix B8. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD. The 2008 Edition is available at: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/pdf/sp811.pdf
Constant: Global warming potential of N2O = 310
Reference: IPCC (1996). Second Assessment Report. Climate Change 1995: WG I - The Science of Climate Change. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; J.T. Houghton, L.G. Meira Filho, B.A. Callander, N. Harris, A. Kattenberg, and K. Maskell (eds.); Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, U.K.

● Greenhouse gas emitted per unit activity —

Amount: 12,828 g (i.e. 12.83 kg) of N2O per ton of Synthetic fertilizers
3,976,611 g (i.e. 3.98 tonnes) of CO2eq. per ton of Synthetic fertilizers