How do I count emissions from refining crude glycerine?
Refining crude glycerine is mostly vacuum distillation and bleaching, so steam and electricity are your own emissions. The crude glycerine is a by-product of biodiesel or soap, and how much of that process it carries depends on the allocation rule you choose.
Your own share
- Steam for distillation, from boiler fuel.
- Electricity for vacuum pumps.
- Activated carbon and chemicals, in Scope 3.
By-product burden
Ask the supplier how the crude was allocated. A mass basis gives glycerine more burden than an economic basis.
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: GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard
Last reviewed 2026-10-22.