We use diesel or kerosene to wash parts, not to burn. Does it count in Scope 1?
No combustion emissions arise if you never burn it, so diesel or kerosene used only to wash parts is not Scope 1 fuel combustion. Take it out of your fuel total. The part that evaporates oxidises to CO2 later; most inventories leave that out of Scope 1 or show it as a separate memo line.
Why it is not combustion
Scope 1 under the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard covers greenhouse gases released from sources you own or control: burning fuel, process reactions and leaks. A wash tank releases hydrocarbon vapour, a volatile organic compound, not CO2. The IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 3 Chapter 5, treat fuels used this way under solvent use and non-energy products, not energy combustion.
Track where the solvent goes
- Bought: litres on the invoice.
- Sent out: spent solvent and sludge handed to an authorised recycler or hazardous waste facility, from the manifest.
- Burned on site: any used solvent you burn in a furnace, boiler or heater. That is fuel combustion and belongs in Scope 1 at the full fuel factor.
- Evaporated: what is left after the three above.
The optional indirect CO2 line
Evaporated hydrocarbons oxidise in the air over days, so you can estimate indirect CO2 = kg evaporated x carbon fraction x 44/12. For kerosene, the IPCC 2006 defaults (71,900 kg CO2 per TJ x 43.8 GJ per tonne) work out to about 3.15 kg CO2 per kg, the same as the carbon content times 44/12. Report this as a memo item with its basis, not mixed into fuel combustion.
Cases that change the answer
- Spent solvent sent for incineration is Scope 3 Category 5, waste, not your Scope 1.
- Diesel used for washing and also for a forklift or DG from the same drum: split by issue records, and count the burned part as fuel.
- If you switch to aqueous cleaners, the solvent line disappears; the extra heating energy for the wash water is then your new emission.
Worked example: a year of kerosene in parts washers (illustrative)
- Bought: 1,200 L; booked as fuel this would be 1,200 x 2.52 = 3,024 kg CO2 in Scope 1, which is wrong
- Sent to an authorised recycler: 700 L; burned on site: none
- Evaporated: 1,200 minus 700 = 500 L x 0.80 kg per litre (assumed density) = 400 kg
- Optional indirect CO2: 400 x 3.149 = 1,259.6 kg, about 1.3 t, as a memo line
- Scope 1 from this solvent: zero
Use the density on the supplier's invoice or datasheet. Keep the recycler's manifest as evidence of the 700 L.
What Senseible does here
Senseible classifies a diesel or kerosene invoice line by its HSN code as Scope 1 fuel and applies the combustion factor; the invoice does not say the fuel went into a wash tank. Record that use against the line and move it out of your fuel total before you report.
Sources: 2006 IPCC Guidelines, Volume 3 IPPU, Chapter 5 Non-energy products from fuels and solvent use, 2006 IPCC Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy, Chapter 2, default CO2 factors and net calorific values, GHG Protocol Corporate Standard
Last reviewed 2026-10-19.