Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L12810 doi:10.1029/2008GL034542 (2008)

Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) has been identified before as a greenhouse gas, but the threat it poses has barely been quantified. Michael Prather and Juno Hsu of the University of California, Irvine, have produced a new estimate of the atmospheric lifetime of NF3 — 550 years. This is about 25% shorter than the previous value, but, they write, “still far beyond any societal time frames”.

The market for NF3 has exploded recently, because its initial use in rocket fuel has expanded to include applications in the semiconductor industry. NF3 is already potentially a bigger contributor to climate warming than the carbon dioxide emissions of some large coal-fired power plants, and global production in 2008 is predicted to be more than 3,500 tonnes — a number that could double by 2010. Yet NF3 is not included in the greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol.