# We use diesel or kerosene to wash parts, not to burn. Does it count in Scope 1?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/diesel-or-kerosene-as-cleaning-solvent

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.

- [Do lubricating oils count in Scope 1](https://senseible.earth/answers/do-lubricants-count-in-scope-1)
- [Solvent incineration emissions](https://senseible.earth/answers/solvent-incineration-emissions-pharma-api)
- [HSN codes that mean Scope 1 fuel](https://senseible.earth/answers/hsn-codes-for-fuels-scope-1)

Sources: [2006 IPCC Guidelines, Volume 3 IPPU, Chapter 5 Non-energy products from fuels and solvent use](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/), [2006 IPCC Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy, Chapter 2, default CO2 factors and net calorific values](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html), [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-10-19.