Innovation

In a recent scientific article, Michael J. Prather and Juno Hsu of the Earth System Science Department, University of California, Irvine, provide details on the "missing greenhouse gas": Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), a synthetic chemical often used in the plasma etching of silicon wafers.

NF3 is not included in the Kyoto basket of greenhouse gases or in national reporting under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); and there are no observations documenting its atmospheric abundance. Yet, NF3 has a long lifetime of over 500 years, and a global warming potential (GWP) over 17,000 times greater than that of CO2.

In 2008, about three-quarters of the chemical is now used to manufacture computer microchips; the rest is used to make LCD panels. With 2008 production equivalent to 67 million metric tons of CO2, NF3 has a potential greenhouse impact larger than that of the industrialized nations' emissions of PFCs or SF6, or even that of the world's largest coal-fired power plants.