Global warming nitrous oxide

Each greenhouse gas differs in its ability to absorb heat in the atmosphere. HFCs and PFCs are the most heat-absorbent. Methane traps over 21 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide absorbs 270 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide. Often, estimates of greenhouse gas emissions are presented in units of millions of metric tons of carbon equivalents (MMTCE), which weighs each gas by its GWP value, that is, Global Warming Potential. 

Abstract Presently, a growing interest is focused on unregulated emissions of nitrous oxide (N20) from stationary and mobile sources in order to anticipate future restrictive legislations, since N20 exhibits a significant higher global warming power than that of C02. 

Recent estimates indicate that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by a third since the beginning of the industrial age, and that it contributes significantly to global warming. Other major contributors include methane, tropospheric ozone, and nitrous oxide. Methane is the principal component of natural gas, but it is also produced by other sources such as rice paddies and farm animals. Tropospheric ozone is generated naturally and by the sunlight-... 

Adipic acid is of considerable importance since it is a precursor to nylon and polyester, which are extensively used in many products. Between two and three million tonnes are produced worldwide each year. Currently, its main method of manufacture is a costly, multistep process involving concentrated nitric acid. Nitrous oxide is produced as a by-product in such quantities that they measurably contribute to global warming and ozone depletion [24], A cleaner alternative to this process is clearly highly desirable. 

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhonse gas with a radiative forcing effect 310 times that of CO2 and a lifetime in the troposphere of approximately 120 years. Part of the N2O is converted to NO in the stratosphere, and so contributes to depletion of ozone. Nitric oxide (NO) is very reactive in the atmosphere and has a lifetime of only 1-10 days. It contribntes to acidification and to reactions leading to the formation of ozone in the troposphere, and so also to global warming. 

Besides NOx oxides, there is nitrous oxide (N2O), which is of special interest in isotope geochemistry. N2O is present in air at around 300 ppb and increases by about 0.2% per year. Nitrous oxide is an important greenhouse gas that is, on a molecular basis, a much more effective contributor to global warming than CO2 and that is also a major chemical control on stratospheric ozone budgets. 

Global warming/climate change—a few difficult-to-control trace gases— principally carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (NjO), and CFCs—with highly nncertain risks... 

Nitrous oxide contributes severely to global warming and the depletion of ozone in the stratosphere (Crutzen 1981, Bouwman 1996). Almost 90% of the global atmospheric N2O is formed during the microbial transformation of nitrate (NO ) and ammonia (NH ) in soils and water. In OECD countries the agricultural contribution to N2O emissions is estimated at 58% (IPCC 2001). Soils fertilised with inorganic fertilisers and manure stores are seen as the largest sources (Chadwick et al. 1999, Brown ef al. 2002). 

Globally, the oxides of nitrogen, NO (nitric oxide), NO2 (nitrogen oxide), and N2O (nitrous oxide), are key species involved in the chemistry of the troposphere and stratosphere. NO and N2O are produced mostly by microbial soil activity, whereas biomass burning is also an important source of NO. Nitric oxide is a species involved in the photochemical production of ozone in the troposphere, is involved in the chemical produaion of nitric acid, and is an important component of acid precipitation. Nitrous oxide plays a key role in stratospheric ozone depletion and is an important greenhouse gas, with a global warming potential more than 200 times that of CO2. 

Livestock accounts for 9 percent of the word s human-caused carbon dioxide (C02), but other greenhouse gases are far worse livestock produces 37 percent of human-induced methane (which pound for pound causes twenty-three times as much global warming as C02) and 65 percent of human-related nitrous oxide (a manure-related gas that causes 296 times as much global warming as C02). 

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