An Accurate Carbon Accounting Model Based on the Micro-level Process Principles for the Lean Carbon Management in the Blast Furnace Ironmaking

Abstract

Background:The carbon accounting plays a critical role in the lean carbon management and the policy formulation for industrial entities. The carbon accounting method based on emission factors offered by IPCC usually leads significant errors on the micro-level of the enterprise. For achieving a bottom-up lean carbon management with higher accounting accuracy, a micro-carbon accounting model based on the micro-level process principles is established on a S-system of dynamics with using the approximation method of power law and Michaelis-Menten law. It is used to predict the amounts of various resources and output products at the process nodes under predetermined simulation conditions.Results:In the case study on a blast furnace ironmaking system, it succeeds in accurately predicting the amount of products including carbon emissions depending on the massive variables of materials and fuels. Further study on the residual analysis shows that mean errors of the CO2 and CO emissions are respectively 5.23% and 6.77% while using the micro-carbon accounting model.Conclusions:This method better addresses the challenge of severely overestimation on carbon emissions in the carbon accounting of the ironmaking industry. It offers a prospective and accurate carbon accounting model further for formulating more targeted policies of the lean carbon management at a micro-level of an enterprise.