Many greenhouse gases have been recognised but the most prevalent is carbon dioxide (because it is emitted in greater quantities than any other). The measurement of all greenhouse gases is often expressed in CO2 equivalent and increasingly these emissions are becoming the standard measure by which companies and institutions are judged, penalised or rewarded for their environmental efforts.
We calculate that each kilowatt hour of electricity delivered by our biofuel CHP will save 1.2 kg of CO2 emissions. To put this in perspective, if our plant were installed at a medium sized hotel for example, we might expect to save 300 to 400 tonnes of CO2 per year.
This figure is calculated by asking two simple fuel-related questions:
1. To what extent does our Renewable Power Station replace fossil energy and how much CO2 does this save?
2. What would be the likely alternative use for the waste vegetable oil fuel if it wasn’t powering our CHP and what is the CO2 cost of this alternative disposal route?
These figures are relatively easy to obtain; Cantium uses the calculations made by DEFRA and the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) published in the document GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting. We then calculate the cost in emissions from other activities related to operating our plant; fuel collection, processing and delivery; maintenance, consumables and the administration of the company. | 
