2012 International Conference in Green and Ubiquitous Technology
Estimation of Carbon Footprints from Diesel Generator Emissions
Abdul Qayoom Jakhrani
Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak,
Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
e-mail: aqunimas@hotmail.com
Andrew Ragai Henry Rigit
Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak,
Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
e-mail: arigit@feng.unimas.my
Shakeel Ahmed Kamboh
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak,
Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
e-mail: shakeel.maths@yahoo.com
Abstract—The aim of this paper is to estimate the amount of
carbon footprints emitted from diesel generators in terms of
carbon dioxide. A constant load demand of 1.05 kW per hour
(6.3 kW/day) with six hours of operation of a diesel generator
per day was selected for this analysis. The fuel consumption
rate and carbon footprints in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2)
were determined. It was discovered that emission of carbon
footprints increased by five folds as emission factor was
increased from 1kg to 5 kgCO2/liter. Similarly, the increment of
a single kW rated power diesel generator at a constant emission
factor increases 1.1 to 1.2 times carbon footprint emissions. It is
revealed that the efficiency of diesel generator is inversely
proportional to its rated power, fuel consumption rate and CO2
emissions. Therefore, the rated power of selected diesel
generator should be close to the required load demand.
Keywords-carbon footprints; carbon dioxide emissions; diesel
generator; fuel consumption rate
I. INTRODUCTION
The diesel generators are the most widely used as small
electrical power generating units in off-grid locations in the
world due to their low capital costs [1]. Sarawak Electricity
Supply Corporation (SESCO) producing 68 MW power
from small diesel generating units for supply of electricity in
rural communities living in remote locations from national
grid. However, diesel engines release many hazardous air
contaminants and greenhouse gases (GHG) including
particulate matter (diesel soot and aerosols), carbon
monoxide, carbon dioxide and oxides of nitrogen. Particulate
matters are largely elemental and organic carbon soot, coated
by gaseous organic substances such as formaldehyde and
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which are highly
toxic [2]. In 2001, the mortality due to diesel soot exposure
was at least 14400 people out of 82 million people living in
Germany [3]. The total amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs)
978-1-4577-2171-7/12/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

Al-Khalid Othman
Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak,
Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
e-mail: okhalid@feng.unimas.my
Saleem Raza Samo
Faculty of Engineering, Quaid-e-Awam University of
Engineering, Science and Technology, Nawabshah,
Sindh, Pakistan
e-mail: sfaizsamo@yahoo.com
emitted by any system to support human activities directly
and indirectly is termed as carbon footprint [4]. It is difficult
to get all required data for every particular greenhouse gas
emissions due to technical and monitoring problems.
Therefore, for simplicity, it is often expressed in terms of the
amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted [5]. The best way is
to calculate the carbon dioxide emissions is based on the
amount of fuel consumption by diesel generator [6]. Carbon
content of fuels slightly varies, but typically the average
carbon content values to estimate CO2 emissions could be
adapted [7]. The consumption of one liter diesel emits
around 2.7kg of CO2 [8]. However, the number of kg of
CO2 produced per liter of fuel consumed by the diesel
generator depends upon the characteristics of the diesel
generator and of the characteristics of the fuel, and it is
usually falls in the range of 2.4–2.8 kg/l [6]. Carbon foot
prints can also be expressed in kg carbon rather than kg
carbon dioxide [9]. It can be converted from kg carbon to kg
carbon dioxide by multiplying with a factor 0.27 (i.e. 1000
kg CO2 equals 270 kg carbon). The emission factor
considered for a diesel generator was 1.27 kg CO2/kWh [6],
3.15 kgCO2/l [10] and 3.50 kgCO2/l [11].
In remote areas, the diesel generators can be replaced by
SAPV power producing units. The SAPV units are
environmental friendly as did not produce any greenhouse
gases which cause global warming [12-13]. The users can
adapt the system capacity up to the desired level due to their
modularity and expandability [14-17]. Additionally, the
manufacturing cost of PV cell per watt has been dropped and
its daylight-to-power conversion efficiency has also been
increased [18-19]. It is estimated that by 2050, photovoltaic
systems will provide around 11% of global electricity
production and avoid 2.3 gigatones of CO2 emissions per
year [20]. PV production has been increasing by an average
of more than 20% each year since 2002, making it world’s
fastest growing power producing system [21].
A. Diesel Generators
A diesel generator is a combination of a diesel engine
with an electrical generator to generate electrical energy.
These generating sets are mostly used in locations without
connection to the national power grid. Typically, two types
of diesel generators are in market either two poles with 3000
rpm or four poles with 1500 rpm characteristics. The speeds
of 50 Hz synchronous diesel generators with 3000 or 1500
rpm can be matched by the following expression:
120 u f nuP (1)
where n is the speed (rpm), f is the frequency, and P is
the number of poles of diesel generator. The 3000 rpm
machines are simpler in structure with 2-poles and thus
results lower acquisition cost. These are most suitable for
light duty applications and appropriate for operation of less
than 400 hours per year. The 1500-rpm units are 4-pole
machines. These are more common for heavy duty
applications and are rather more expensive. 4-poles diesel
generators are recommended when more than 400 hours of
operation per year is anticipated. In general, the higher the
rpm, the more wear and tear on the bearings, consequently
more recurrent maintenance requirements. The life time
period of the diesel generator varies from 5000 to 50,000
hours with an average of 20,000 hours depending on the
quality of the engine, its proper installation and execution of
regular operation and maintenance [1].
The diesel generators are characterized by their
efficiency and rate of specific fuel consumption. The
efficiency of diesel generator depends upon the ratio its rated
power to output power. The overall efficiency of diesel
generator depends upon its thermal, mechanical and
generator efficiency. The thermal efficiency depends upon
the quality of diesel oil. The typical mechanical efficiency of
diesel engine is around 80% to 85% and generator efficiency
is around 95% to 98%. The specific fuel consumption
(l/kWh) of a diesel generator is defined as the consumption
of fuel required to produce 1kWh of energy at the rate of 1
liter/h for supplying a given load during 1 hour time. When
the diesel generator operates nearly 20% of its rated power,
its specific fuel consumption will be too high (about 0.64
l/kWh) corresponding to a low efficiency of the generator
[22]. The minimum specific fuel consumption of the diesel
generator will be around 0.324 l/kWh if the diesel generator
is operating between 70 and 89% of its rated power [23]. At
this operating point it will consume less fuel. A typical diesel
generator set consumes between 0.32 and 0.53 l/kWh at its
rated power [24].

B. Fuel Consumption Model of Diesel Generators
The fuel consumption of diesel generators varies
depending on the quality of engine. However, a linear model
for diesel generator fuel consumption rate (F) is presented
[22, 25] . It is expressed as:
F 0.246 u Pout  0.08415 u Pr (2)
where F is the fuel consumption rate (liters/hour), Pout is
the actual operating output power (kW) and Pr is rated
power of diesel generator (kW).
II. METHODOLOGY
A constant load demand of 1.05 kW per hour (6.3kW/day)
with six hours of operation of a diesel generator per day was
selected for this analysis. The fuel consumption rate and
carbon footprints in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) are
determined. The rated power capacity of diesel generators
was changed from 2kW to 5kW for comparative results as
shown in Fig. 1. The reported ranges of emission factor from
diesel generators were found in literature from 2.4 to 3.5
kgCO2/liter of diesel fuel consumption. Therefore, the
emission factor of 3.0kgCO2/liter is considered for this
study. However, the influence of various emission factors
and rated power capacities of diesel generator on emission of
carbon footprints are also determined. The estimated values
of carbon footprint emissions in kgCO2/day and kgCO2/kWh
are shown in Figs. 2 and 3 respectively.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
It is revealed from the analysis that the efficiency of diesel
generator is decreasing from 52% to 21% with increasing of
its rated power capacity from 2kW to 5kW with a load
demand of 1.05kW/hour. The fuel consumption rate was
found to be 2.56 liters/day (0.42 liters/kWh) with a 2kW
rated power and 4.07 liters/day (0.65 liters/kWh) with a 5kW
rated power diesel generator as shown in Table 1 and Fig. 1.
Similarly, the carbon footprint in terms of kgCO2 emissions
were found to be 7.67 kg/day (1.22 kg/kWh) with a 2kW
rated power and 12.21 kg/day (1.94kg/kWh) with a 5kW
rated power diesel generator. It is estimated that, the use of a
2kW rated power diesel generator (DG) will consume 934.4
liters of diesel oil and emit 2800.0 kgCO2 per year.
Similarly, 5kW rated power diesel generator will utilize
1485.5 liters of diesel oil and emit 4456.6 kgCO2 per year
with a load demand of 1.05 kW per hour or 6.3kW/day. The
CO2 emissions from diesel generators could be avoided by
using standalone photovoltaic (SAPV) systems for the
supply of electricity to the people. The use of SAPV system
will help to avoid 70 tones of CO2 and 111 tones of CO2
with the use of two and five kW rated power diesel generator
respectively in the 25 years life time of the system.
 The input value of emission factor is changed from 1 to TABLE III. CARBON FOOTPRINTS (KGCO2/KWH) AT VARIOUS RATED POWER
OF DIESEL GENERATOR AND EMISSION FACTORS
5kgCO2/liter and the rated power of DG is varied from 2 to
5kW as shown in Tables 2 and 3 and Figs. 2 and 3
respectively. It is revealed that emission of carbon footprints
increased by five folds as emission factor is increased from 1
to 5kgCO2/liter. Similarly, the increase of rated power of DG
at the increment of a single kW at a constant emission factor
increases the emission of carbon footprints from 1.1 to 1.2
times.

It is found that the efficiency of diesel generator is

inversely proportional to the rated power, fuel consumption
rate and CO2 emissions of the diesel generator. Therefore,
the rated power of selected diesel generator should be close
to the load demand. However, the effect of power factor
must be taken into account. For example, if a load demand is
1.5kW/h, and the diesel generator has a power factor of 0.85
then the rated power of diesel generator should be at least
1.8kW otherwise it will be undersized.

Furthermore, if the difference between peak power

demand and average energy demand is high, then the
selection of diesel generator should be based on peak power
demand to sustain load. However, in that situation, the Figure 1. Fuel consumption rate and carbon footprints versus rated power
efficiency of diesel generator will drop and it will consume of diesel generator
large amount of fuel and ultimately emit more greenhouse
gases. Additionally, the current selling price of diesel oil in 22 .5
DG Pr = 2 k W
Malaysia is approximately RM 1.70 (US$0.49) per liter. )
y
20 DG Pr = 3 k W
a 17 .5
However, the price of diesel is found to be irrationally high d
/
2
DG Pr = 4 k W
O 15 DG Pr = 5 k W
in rural areas. It is reported that the diesel fuel is priced at C
g
(k 12 .5
about RM 7.00 (US$ 2.03) per liter in very remote places in t
in
r 10
the Ulu Baram district, some 200 km inland from Miri, tp
o
o
f 7.5
Sarawak [26]. n
o
b
r
a 5
C
TABLE I. ESTIMATION OF FUEL CONSUMPTION AND CARBON FOOTPRINTS 2.5
FROM DIESEL GENERATORS 0
1 2 3 4 5
Em issio n fa cto r (k g C O 2 /Liter)

Figure 2. Carbon footprints (kgCO2/day) at various emission factors

and rated power of diesel generator

3.5
DG Pr = 2 kW
) 3 DG Pr = 3 kW
h
W DG Pr = 4 kW
/k2.5
2
O DG Pr = 5 kW
C
g 2
TABLE II. CARBON FOOTPRINTS (KG CO2/DAY) AT VARIOUS RATED POWER (k
t
ni
OF DIESEL GENERATOR AND EMISSION FACTORS r
tp1.5
o
of
n 1
o
rb
a
C0.5

0
1 2 3 4 5
Em ission fa ctor (kg CO2 /liter)

Figure 3. Carbon footprints (kgCO2/kWh) at various emission factors and

rated power of diesel generator


 IV. CONCLUSIONS
It is revealed from the analysis that a 2kW and 5kW rated
power diesel generator will consume 934.4 and 1485.5 liters
of diesel oil and emit 2800.0 and 4456.6 kgCO2 per year
respectively with a load demand of 1.05kW/hour
(6.3kW/day). Power producing by SAPV system facilitates
to avoid 70 tones of CO2 and 111 tones of CO2 to the
atmosphere emitted by a 2kW and 5kW rated power diesel
generator. It is discovered that emission of carbon footprints
increased by five folds as emission factor is increased from
1kg to 5kg CO2/liter. Similarly, the increment of a single kW
rated power diesel generator at a constant emission factor
increases 1.1 to 1.2 times carbon footprint emissions.
It is found that the efficiency of diesel generator is
inversely proportional to the rated power, fuel consumption
rate and CO2 emissions of the diesel generator. Therefore,
the rated power of selected diesel generator should be close
to the load demand. The estimated net energy cost from
SAPV system is found to be US$2.5/kWh, which is 20 times
higher than average electricity tariff in Malaysia. However,
the diesel prices are rising and PV system prices are
continuously declining since last two decades. Therefore,
SAPV systems could be preferred with the combination of
other power producing units or where the electrical
transmission lines are expensive to build for the supply of
electricity in remote areas.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to acknowledge the support provided for
this research by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS)
and Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering, Science and
Technology (QUEST) Nawabshah, Sindh, Pakistan.
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