# How should a phenol plant split CO2 between phenol and acetone?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/phenol-acetone-cumene-plant-co2-allocation

The cumene route makes phenol and acetone together, roughly 0.6 tonne of acetone per tonne of phenol. Total the plant's fuel, steam and electricity emissions, then allocate between the two by mass or by economic value, and state which rule you used.

## Steps

- Plant Scope 1 and 2: steam, fuel and electricity for the oxidation, cleavage and distillation units.
- Scope 3: benzene and propylene bought in.
- Allocate the total to phenol and acetone by one stated rule.

## Mass or value

Mass is simple and stable. Economic value moves with prices, so a buyer may see your figure change without any plant change.

## 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.

- [Methanol plant emissions](https://senseible.earth/answers/methanol-production-emissions-per-tonne)
- [Formaldehyde plant emissions](https://senseible.earth/answers/formaldehyde-plant-emissions-per-tonne)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/)

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.