Annex 15 Complementary information to source category 1g Destruction of Animal Carcasses

Overview of recent revisions

No revisions were made to emission factors in this source category. Additional guidance has been introduced on classifying sources within this category, estimating activity rates, and on data quality aspects.

Derivation of emission factors

Release to Air

Release to air is the predominant vector for animal carcass burning. The default emission factors for all three classes were determined based on reported emission concentrations between almost 50 µg TEQ/100 kg body weight (UK study) and less than 0.5 µg TEQ/100 kg body weight (Austrian and German studies). Thus, for class 1 a default emission factor of 500 µg TEQ/t body weight was chosen for those old uncontrolled facilities as well as open burning of animal carcasses. Class 2 represents better-controlled newer facilities. A default emission factor of 5 µg TEQ/100 kg (= 50 µg TEQ/t) body weight was chosen based on data from Switzerland, Germany and the UK for this class. Finally, class 3 with a selected default emission factor of 5 µg TEQ/t body weight includes all the modern facilities for animal carcass combustion (LUA 1997, IFEU 1998).

Release to Water

PCDD/PCDF concentrations in scrubber effluent from animal carcass incinerators are not available.

Release to Land

Release to land is only expected if the combustion of animal carcasses is performed directly on the ground.

Release in Products

The process has no product, thus no release to product occurs.

Release in Residues

PCDD/PCDF concentration in the ash is high since the ash usually contains rather high concentrations of unburned carbon. Especially in older furnaces and in open burning situations higher gaseous emissions clearly indicate lower combustion efficiency resulting in higher concentrations of unburned carbon in the fly ash. Thus, high concentrations of PCDD/PCDF in the ash must be expected. No data was found for assigning default emission factors.