Increased flat-screen TV production sparks new emissions fear in scientists

by Stevie Smith - Jul 3 2008, 11:52

Demand for flat-screen televisions is on the rise, and so is concern in the scientific community regarding the potential ecological damage that could be caused by a vital industrial chemical used during the manufacturing process of LCD screens.

According to professor Michael Prather, director of the environment institute at the University of California (Irvine), some 4,000 tonnes of nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), a gas considered to be 17,000 times more damaging than carbon dioxide (CO2), has already been produced by flat-screen makers during 2008.

Worried scientists have outlined that NF3 is currently gathering in the atmosphere and has a half-life of around 550 years. They also note that the accumulating gas has not yet been measured as it is not an emission covered by the Kyoto protocol due to production levels being only trace when the environmental treaty was first drafted in 1997.

The Kyoto protocol includes six man-made greenhouse gases, which are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). Nitrogen trifluoride exists as one of more than a dozen less prominent emission gases excluded when the protocol was formed.

In the main, NF3 is used by electronics manufacturers as a flushing agent to help remove the by-products of chemical vapour deposition during the placement of thin films for liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, which are used to create currently in-demand flat-screen televisions, computer monitors, and mobile device displays.

Prather’s research suggests that production of NF3 is surging alongside increasing consumer demand for flat-screen technology, and is likely to double by 2009. In referencing the current 4,000 tonnes of NF3 production attributed to 2008, Prather has warned that such a figure equates to around 67 million tonnes of CO2, which is the same as Austria’s annual carbon dioxide output.

On the back of rising environmental concerns, prominent flat-screen panel maker Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology has already stopped using NF3 in its production processes. However, Air Products, which produces NF3 for the consumer electronics industry, insists that scant little of the gas is actually released into the atmosphere during manufacturing.

Countering that, Prather has said that because NF3 is not governed by the Kyoto protocol, it is far more likely that electronics companies will not exercise due care and attention when using it.

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