INTRODUCTION
Fugitive emissions are emissions of gases or vapors from pressurized equipment due to leaks and other unintended or irregular releases of gases, mostly from industrial activities. As well as the economic cost of lost commodities, fugitive emissions contribute to air pollution.
Warming of the climate system is an undisputable fact of the 21st century (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, 2001). This average increase in global temperature is unequivocal, as it is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level (IPCC, 2007). Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decades since 1850, and the period from 1983 to 2012 was likely the warmest 30- year period of the last 1400 years in the Northern Hemisphere (IPCC, 2014). The globally averaged combined land and ocean surface temperature data as calculated by a linear trend show a warming of 0.85 (0.65 to 1.06) °C over the period 1880 to 2012 (IPCC, 2014).
This observed increase in global average temperatures and the associated climate change has been attributed with a very high level of confidence and strong scientific consensus to the increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) concentrations which is largely due to fossil fuel combustion and to a smaller extent due to changes in land use and deforestation (United Nations, 2013). These gases have been proven to be capable of absorbing infrared radiation as it is reflected from the earth’s surface, therefore acting like a blanket, trapping heat, and keeping the earth warm, a process known as the greenhouse effect (World Resource Institute, WRI, 2006).The Kyoto protocol identified six of these gases that affect the energy balance of the global atmosphere and needs to be urgently addressed, they include, carbon dioxide (CO2) the most prevalent, followed by methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) in a decreasing order of prevalence (WRI, 2006).
Anthropogenic emissions of CO2 constitute by far, the largest part of the emissions of greenhouse gases and of these CO2 emissions, those that are produced from fuel combustion make up the great majority and almost all may be directly estimated from combustion activities (Simmons, 2010). Since the beginning of the Industrial revolution, the levels of GHGs in the atmosphere have been observed to have grown rapidly as a result of human activities, particularly due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas as an energy source (WRI, 2006). IPCC (2014) reported that between 1750 and 2011, the cumulative anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the atmosphere were 2040 ± 310 GtCO2 which by far exceeded the natural range over the last 650,000 years and of which half of this emissions occurred in the last 40 years. They revealed that total anthropogenic GHG emissions continuously increase from 1970 to 2010 with larger absolute increases between 2000 and 2010.
Globally, the industrial sector is the third largest source of man-made CO2 emissions after electricity/heat and transportation sector (International Energy Agency IEA, 2012). This sector produced 20% of fossil fuel related CO2 emissions in 2010. The industrial sector consists of manufacturing, construction, mining, and agriculture. Manufacturing is the largest of the 4 and can be broken down into 5 main categories: paper, food, petroleum refineries, chemicals, and metal/mineral products. These categories account for the vast majority of the fossil fuel use and CO2 emissions by this sector. Manufacturing and industrial processes all combine to produce large amounts of each type of greenhouse gas but specifically large amounts of CO2. This is because many manufacturing facilities directly use fossil fuels to create heat and steam needed at various stages of production. For example factories in the cement industry, have to heat up limestone to 1450°C to turn it into cement, which is done by burning fossil fuels to create the required heat (IEA, 2012). In Nigeria, an industrial activity is a cause of a substantial amount of CO2emission. According to the latest national GHG inventory communication to the United Nation Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by the Federal Ministry of Environment in 2014, energy-related activities have the dominant share of GHG emissions in Nigeria and industrial activities has been identified has a major contributor of these emissions (Federal Ministry of Environment, 2014).
