Abstract
Various emission sources of anthropogenic and natural PFCs are discussed and tentatively quantified. New (1999) atmospheric measurements for CF4 and C2F6 are presented. While there is good evidence that PFC emissions from the production of primary aluminium have significantly decreased since the late 1980’s and that growing emissions from applications in the semiconductor industry have recently partly offset these reductions, there seems to be a considerable number of emitters of PFCs which can currently not be properly quantified. Examples for these more exotic sources are military applications of PFCs and specialised metallurgical processes. Emissions from the increasing use of PFCs in refrigeration and fire-fighting applications are also poorly characterised. Mainly based on the collected atmospheric observations it is estimated that during the 1990’s total PFC emissions have remained fairly constant at annually about 130 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents.
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Harnisch, J. (2000). Atmospheric Perfluorocarbons: Sources and Concentrations. In: van Ham, J., Baede, A.P.M., Meyer, L.A., Ybema, R. (eds) Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases: Scientific Understanding, Control and Implementation. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9343-4_31
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