Several steps were made to improve the quality of the database over the last three years since 2002. The steps are summarised below:
| It was decided that a threshold should be set for the minimum amount of CO2 emissions from an individual source. The level was set at 100 Kt CO2. Any smaller than that and they become less favourable for capture because of the costs. |
| The most significant area for attention in the original dataset was for gas processing plants. It was dominated by Canadian data, which represented 937 entries of the total 1826 for global gas processing plants, all of which lacked geographical locations. It also contained a significant number of USA entries for gas processing plants where it had not been possible to assess the amount of CO2 emissions from each plant. In both cases it was even unknown whether all the plants listed produced CO2. This part of the database has gradually been updated through collaboration with other organisations. Battelle, in co-operation with the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, have made improvements to the North American data as part of a larger study Building the Cost Curves for North America (IEA GHG 2005/3). Based on actual monitoring data in Canada, the number of Canadian gas processing sources was reduced to 24 from the original 937 entries. For the USA, based upon the vast reduction in the number of the Canadian gas processing plants, it has now been assumed there are no emissions unless it has been reported as such. This reduces the emissions from the U.S.A. to zero for the time being but it will continue to be an area for improvement within the database in the future. |
| The UK data has been updated with the use of the published UK Environment Agency Pollution Inventory. |
| The European power station data set has also been compared with a comparable data set developed by Chalmers University in co-operation with the European power generators. |
| Through the IPCC Special Report on CO2 Capture and Storage process, IEA GHG has received new entries for Swedish paper mills and Brazilian biomass plants. |
| IEA GHG has also cooperated with CO2CRC who have undertaken a study on the prospects for CO2 capture and storage in the Asia Pacific Region funded by the Asia Pacific Economic Confederation. This study also helped tackle another of the key problems with the early data set; specifically in many Asian countries all the sources identified could not be linked easily to specific geographic locations. As a result of the CO2CRC study the number of emission sources without geographic location data has been significantly reduced. |
| There have been several requests for specific parts of the database (i.e. specific country data or plant type) for use in external pieces of work. If this work has lead to further updates of the original dataset, these have been supplied back to IEA GHG and replace the existing information. |