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BEANR USHOU
Chemicals

Antwerp to Houston freight CO2 emissions

One tonne of cargo shipped Antwerp (BEANR) to Houston (USHOU) by sea emits 70.5 kg CO2e well-to-wake at GLEC v3.2 default factors. The same tonne by air emits 5,107.2 kg — roughly 72x the sea number.

Lane noteGulf Coast service for the petrochemical complex. Routing crosses the Atlantic then runs through the Florida Straits to Galveston Bay — adds ~2 days vs East Coast calls.

Per-tonne CO2e by mode

Sea freight

Container ship 5,000-9,000 TEU

70.5
kg CO2e
Distance
9,400 km
Factor (WTW)
7.5 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 9,400 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 container 5,000-8,000 TEU (Post-Panamax, WTW)

Air freight

Long-haul belly cargo

5,107.2
kg CO2e
Distance
8,400 km
Factor (WTW)
608 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 8,400 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 long-haul belly cargo allocation (WTW)

Mode comparison

On the Antwerp to Houston lane, air freight emits about 72 times more CO2e per tonne than sea freight at GLEC v3.2 defaults. The gap is driven by the WTW factor difference between long-haul belly cargo (608 g CO2e/tkm) and a Container ship 5,000-9,000 TEU (7.5 g CO2e/tkm), partly offset by the shorter great-circle air routing.

Try this in the calculator

These numbers are GLEC v3.2 defaults at 1 tonne. Change weight, vessel class, or load factor in the calculator and see the per-mode CO2e update under ISO 14083:2023 data quality tiers.

Methodology references

Need primary-data emissions for Antwerp to Houston?

The EcoFreight API ingests AIS, bunker delivery notes, and shipment manifests to return ISO 14083 Tier 3 primary-data numbers for the same lane. Free tier covers 1,000 calculations per month.