Improved sectoral allocation of NMVOC emissions from solvent use in Greece

Solvent use and road transport are the two most significant sources of NMVOC emissions in urban environments. The allocation of emissions to solvent-related activities is of major importance since it is a major step towards providing spatially and temporally resolved accurate emission data in air quality models and assisting the development of properly orientated emission reduction measures. In this paper an activity-specific NMVOC emission inventory from solvent use in Greece is presented. The diversity, the volume and the complexity of the relevant activity data and, in some cases, the use of the same solvent and/or product in a variety of uses are the main difficulties in solvent emission inventorying. To overcome them, an extensive market research/survey is performed, combined with a literature review and expert opinion, to determine solvent utilization factors (expressed via usage factors as solvents, or per activity and/or per process). With the aid of these usage factors, appropriate emission factors, national statistical activity data and the calculating formulas developed, emissions are estimated and attributed to each solvent-related activity. Main results indicate that the use of solvents is the second source of NMVOC emissions in Greece (72 ± 4 kt in 2003), the road transport sector being the first one (171 kt). Paint applications are the most important source of solvent NMVOC emissions, accounting for 44.5 ± 2.5% of the total solvent NMVOC followed by the domestic use of solvents (excluding paint), which accounts for 39 ± 2% of total solvent NMVOC.