A review of the current application of N2O emission reduction in CDM projects

The number of clean development mechanism (CDM) projects aimed at reducing N2O emissions has increased in recent years. While N2O reduction projects account for only 2.6% of all CDM projects, these N2O reduction projects account for 13% of the total reduction of all greenhouse gases measured on a CO2 equivalent basis under the CDM. China is the host nation for half of all N2O CDM reduction projects while approximately 78% of the N2O reduction technologies for these CDM projects come from Japan, the UK, and Switzerland. This paper consists of an investigation of the present status of and prospects for CDM projects to reduce N2O emissions based on the data of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). N2O reduction in CDM projects has been applied to production plants for such chemicals as nitric acid, adipic acid, and caprolactam. The technologies for N2O reduction used in these CDM projects were thermal or catalytic decomposition and selective catalytic reduction with the selection of a specific reduction strategy dependent upon the underlying production process. This paper presents case studies which examine the application of specific N2O reduction technologies that have been implemented under the CDM. The CDM market for N2O reductions from the industrial sector is nearing saturation and therefore further growth will likely be dependent upon technological progress and the ability to deploy N2O reduction technologies with combustion based stationary sources and mobile sources. A particular focus of technological development efforts should be cost effectiveness and development of technologies that can simultaneously reduce N2O and NOx emissions. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.