Carbon-14 based determination of the biogenic fraction of industrial CO(2) emissions - application and validation.

The (14)C method is a very reliable and sensitive method for industrial plants, emission authorities and emission inventories to verify data estimations of biogenic fractions of CO(2) emissions. The applicability of the method is shown for flue gas CO(2) samples that have been sampled in 1-h intervals at a coal- and wood-fired power plant and a waste incineration plant. Biogenic flue gas CO(2) fractions of 5-10% and 48-50% have been measured at the power plant and the waste incineration plant, respectively. The reliability of the method has been proven by comparison of the power plant results with those based on carbon mass input and output data of the power plant. At industrial plants with relatively low biogenic CO(2) fraction (<10%) the results need to be corrected for sampled (14)CO(2) from atmospheric air. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.