Greenhouse gas F-318: climate detectives looking for unknown sources

Climate protection is mostly associated with the reduction of CO2 emissions. In fact, it is only the most common greenhouse gas. The Paris Climate Agreement, on the other hand, also mentions numerous other substances - including octafluorocyclobutane. The greenhouse gas is better known under the abbreviation F-318 and is particularly problematic for one reason: it has an extremely stable structure. Statistically, it takes more than 1,000 years for the molecules to break down in the atmosphere. Each year, the states report to the world community how much F-318 they have emitted. The problem: The values ​​given do not match the numbers from measuring stations all over the world. In fact, more F-318 was emitted than reported.
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Photo: Global Warming. The Earth became the newest Waterworld., Andrea Della Adriano, Flickr, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode
Forty percent of the emissions were localized in eastern China
Specifically, it is about 2,000 tons per year. At first glance, this doesn't sound like a lot. Due to the long lifespan, the effects on climate change can be compared to the emission of 20 million tons of CO2. Researchers have therefore evaluated data from twelve measuring stations worldwide. By relating the measured emissions to the weather data from the previous days, they were also able to roughly determine where they were caused. The result: around forty percent of the emissions were located in the east of China. The semiconductor and electronics industry was initially suspected. But these industries are also well represented in other countries in the region where no increased emissions were measured.

The search for the climate brought the grid detectives to their destination
So the researchers continued to search for products that can release F-318 and that are also manufactured in eastern China. This type of grid search then brought the climate detectives on the trail of the frying pans. Because these are coated with Teflon to be less adhesive. During Teflon production, however, F-318 can be released. In Europe and North America it has therefore become standard practice to simply burn the by-products in question and thus prevent them from escaping into the atmosphere. In China, the largest Teflon producer in the world, this practice has not yet established itself everywhere. Some of the companies concerned have since admitted this. Climate protection officials should now push the Chinese government to reduce F-318 emissions.