Greenhouse gases... and beyond

Jour Fixe talk by Dennis Pingen on December 13, 2017

Dennis Pingen is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Zukunftskolleg affiliated with the Department of Chemistry.

We all worry about the emission of CO2 and the actual CO2 content in the air, but what about the other greenhouse gases? CO2 is probably the most abundant, but not the most harmful. Other gases are much more harmful, even though some are not even greenhouse gases. What has already been done to reduce the exhaust of harmful components in chemistry. CO2 is relatively easy to extract from air and can be used in chemical processes to make these cleaner. CO2 on itself is actually not even toxic. Maybe it is time to review the CO2 sources in comparison to the other greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases. In addition, a look at the positive side of CO2 is also interesting. With respect to the emission of CO2, are the current options really a breakthrough that will invert the greenhouse effect from the part of CO2? Or do we just want to believe that? Dennis's presentation encouraged a great discussion.