Towards a global EDGAR-inventory of particulate matter with focus on elemental carbon

The Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) provides technology based global anthropogenic emissions data of greenhouse gases and air pollutants by country and sector on a 0.1° x 0.1° spatial grid, on a timeline that ranges from 1970 to present days. As part of the constantly ongoing amendment and improvement of the database, a review of the available literature and emission inventory data has been conducted focusing on particulate emissions, with the aim of acquiring a comprehensive array of primary particle matter and carbonaceous particle emission factors (EF). It was found, that emission factor data from different studies show large variation for a given fuel and technology. Furthermore it is plausible that a certain literature or measurement describes emission factors better in the region where it is originating from. With this in mind, a comparison has been made between the available emission factor datasets in a number of different regions, focusing on the power generation sector. The aim of this experiment is to select the most appropriate EF dataset for a given region.