Heating value of fuel emission factors (expressed by energy content)

At Carbon+Alt+Delete we aim to apply the following rule in the choice of heating value when presenting an emission factor of fuels expressed in energy content (kWh or GJ or similar).

Gaseous Fuels EFs are using Higher Heating Values.

Non-gaseous fuels are using Lower Heating Values

This principle is motivated by:

• Uniformity and consistency
• The general consensus among European statistics publishers to report fuels in LHV
• The historical tendency of gaseous fuels contracts (natural gas) to be expressed in HHV

There is one exception to the above rule for the UK.Gov publication. Seen that the UK.Gov database is not publishing biogenic gaseous fuels in HHV and that we are limited by the methodologic choice of our sources, those are exceptionally available as LHV in our data model.

This can be summarized in the following table

HHV= Higher Heating Value a.k.a. GCV = Gross Calorific Value

LHV = Lower Heating Value a.k.a. NCV = Net Calorific Value