What are the emissions of producing acetic acid per tonne?
Most acetic acid is made by reacting methanol with carbon monoxide. Your Scope 1 and 2 are steam, fuel and electricity for reaction and purification; the methanol and CO bought in, or the syngas you make for them, carry most of the footprint.
Where it sits
- Scope 1: boiler fuel; any CO made on site from gas or coal.
- Scope 2: electricity for compressors and pumps.
- Scope 3: methanol and CO purchased.
CBAM
Acetic acid is not a CBAM good. Methanol is not either; hydrogen is, so a plant making its own hydrogen should check.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads the plant's electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and fuel invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, the plant-level input to a per-unit figure. Bought-in materials go to the supplier evidence trail; product reports are self-declared drafts.
Sources: IPCC 2006 Guidelines, CBAM Regulation (EU) 2023/956, consolidated, GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard
Last reviewed 2026-10-22.