What CO2 factor applies when a factory burns its own industrial waste as fuel?

IPCC's default for industrial waste is 143,000 kg CO2 per TJ, with a range of 110,000 to 183,000, plus 30 kg methane and 4 kg nitrous oxide per TJ in a factory boiler. IPCC gives no calorific value for it, so you need a lab test before you can turn tonnes into CO2.

What counts as industrial waste

In the IPCC 2006 Guidelines, industrial wastes are solid and liquid products, tyres being the example, burnt directly for heat or power and not reported as biomass. The default assumes 39 kg of carbon per GJ, all of it fossil and all of it burnt. That is about 50% more CO2 per unit of heat than bituminous coal, at 94,600 kg per TJ.

Pick the closer factor if your waste fits one

• Used lubricating or hydraulic oil: waste oils, 73,300 kg CO2 per TJ at 40.2 GJ a tonne.
• Mixed refuse: municipal wastes, non-biomass part 91,700 kg per TJ at a default of 10 GJ a tonne; the biomass part is biogenic.
• Sawdust, offcuts, paper or cotton waste: biogenic CO2, reported on a separate line, with methane and nitrous oxide in Scope 1.
• Rubber, plastic, solvent residues and mixed rejects: industrial wastes, 143,000 kg per TJ, or better, your own carbon test.

Getting a figure an auditor accepts

1. Weigh what goes into the boiler every day, not what leaves the shop floor.
2. Send a sample to an accredited fuel lab each quarter for calorific value (NCV) and, ideally, carbon content and moisture.
3. If you have carbon content, CO2 per tonne = carbon fraction x 44/12. That replaces the default.
4. If the waste mixes fossil and biomass material, ask the lab for the biogenic share and report that share outside Scope 1.
5. Keep the lab reports with the weighbridge records. The default's wide range is why a reviewer will ask.

100 t of mixed rejects in a year (example lab result)

• Lab NCV, example only: 20 GJ a tonne, so 100 t = 2.0 TJ
• CO2: 2.0 x 143,000 = 286 t (range 220 to 366 t)
• Methane: 2.0 x 30 = 60 kg x 28 = 1.7 t CO2e
• Nitrous oxide: 2.0 x 4 = 8 kg x 265 = 2.1 t CO2e
• Scope 1: about 290 t CO2e

Factors are IPCC 2006 defaults for manufacturing combustion, Table 2.3; warming potentials from IPCC AR5. The 20 GJ a tonne is an example; use your own lab value.

What Senseible does here

Senseible has no built-in factor for waste fuels, so it gives no figure for them on its own. Its calculators help you work the lab value and factor above, and fuel bought on invoices is read into Scope 1 records.

• Senseible calculators
• Biomass or waste fuel in a boiler: Scope 1
• Waste oil burner: CO2 factor
• Tyre derived fuel: biogenic share

Sources: IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy, Chapter 1 Tables 1.1 to 1.3 and Chapter 2 Table 2.3, GHG Protocol Corporate Standard

Last reviewed 2026-11-01.