Nitrogen oxides emissions arising from commercial energy consumption in China

According to national and provincial energy consumption and specific NO_x emission factors for different sectors and fuel types, NO_x emissions resulted from commercial energy consumption in China in 1990's were presented. Specially, NO_x emission inventories by provinces, sectors and fuel types in 1997 were developed and discussed. Total NO_x emissions increased from 8.4Mt in 1990 to 12.0Mt in 1996. However, compared with the peak value in 1996, NO_x emissions in 1997 and 1998 decreased by an amount of 0.34 and 0.82Mt respectively. It can be seen remarkable imbalance of NO_x emissions by fuel types, economic sectors and provinces: 3/4 of the totals came from coal burning; sectoral emissions were dominated by industry (39.56 %), power (36.74 %) and transportation (11.22 %); NO_x emissions in Hebei, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Shandong, Shanxi, Guangdong, Henan, Heilongjiang and Hubei province exceeded 0.5Mt, while those in Qinghai, Ningxia and Hainan were lower than 0.1Mt. Regions with highest NO_x emission intensities (> 10t· (km² · a)^-1) were Shanghai, Tianjin and Beijing municipality. In sum, NO_x emissions and pollution mainly concentrated in the populated and industrialized areas of China: the Eastern Central and Southeastern provinces.