NPI Industry reporting

Emission Estimation Technique Manual
for
Aggregated Emissions from Railways

About this Manual

The aggregated emissions manuals complement the NPI Industry handbooks, and are intended to enable State and Territory Governments to estimate emissions from non-industrial activities (e.g. transportation, domestic and commercial activities) and emissions from industry which are not reported because the relevant thresholds are not exceeded.

This manual provides guidance on estimating aggregate emissions from railways. Railway locomotives used in Australia are primarily of two types: electric and diesel-electric. Electric locomotives are powered by electricity generated at stationary power plants and emissions are produced only at the electrical generation plant, which is considered a point source and therefore not considered in this manual. Diesel-electric locomotives, on the other hand, use a diesel engine and an alternator or generator to produce the electricity required to power its traction motors. Emissions produced by these diesel engines are covered in this manual.

A third type, the steam locomotive, is used in very localised operations, primarily as tourist attractions. Emissions from these locomotives are insignificant and no emission factors have been developed for them.

Other sources of emissions from railroad operations include small gasoline and diesel engines used on refrigerated and heated rail cars. These engines are thermostatically controlled, working independently of train motive power, and will not be covered in this manual. Brake dust from trains can also be a source of PM₁₀. However, no emission factor is available for it.

Note that the industry handbook 'Railway Yard Operations' also cover emissions from yard operations. If emissions from railway yards are reported as facility emissions, they should be excluded in the aggregated emission estimation.

First published in November 1999
National Pollutant Inventory
Environment Australia

Download the Manual

The full document is available for downloading as a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view the PDF file.

• Download Emission Estimation Technique Manual for Aggregated Emissions from Railways (railway_rev2.pdf - 37 KB)

If you are unable to access this document, please contact the Department of the Environment and Heritage to organise a suitable alternative format.

Application of the Manual

Each of the aggregated emissions manuals provides details of:

• the NPI substances that are expected to be emitted from the relevant aggregated source type;
• the origins or sources of the emissions, and the processes that may generate them;
• the impacts of any control equipment or procedures on those emissions;
• the broad approaches that may be employed in the estimation and spatial allocation of emissions;
• details of emission factors to be used in the estimation of emissions; and
• a series of illustrative sample calculations for each estimation technique.