Flat-screen TV chemical may boost global warming

02 July 2008 18:01  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--The use of nitrogen trifluoride in the booming flat-screen television industry may be making global warming worse, according to a report my New Scientist magazine.

 

As a greenhouse gas, it is 17,000 times as potent as carbon dioxide on the same scale but is not covered by the Kyoto treaty because it was made in tiny amounts when the protocol was agreed in 1997, it said.

 

Author of a new study, the University of California Irvine’s Michael Prather, said production of nitrogen trifluoride was exploding due to escalating demand from the electronics industry. He estimated production at about 4,000 tonnes this year and double that for next year.

 

The largest maker of the gas, Air Products, was building two new plants in the US and South Korea, with others setting up in China, said the report.

 

Nitrogen trifluoride was developed as an alternative to perfluorocarbons (PFCs), which were categorised as greenhouse gases and subject to the Kyoto protocol

 

Air Products told the New Scientist that compared to PFCs, only a small proportion of nitrogen trifluoride is released into the air by the electronics industry.

 

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By: Mark Watts
+44 20 8652 3214

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