Linde's sustainable development technology achieves green recognition

Linde’s commitment to sustainable technology was exemplified recently when the company won the ‘Green Solar Manufacturing’ Cell Award for its on-site fluorine (F2) generator technology.

The company received the award at the 2009 International Solar Technology Awards.

Linde’s revolutionary F2 cleaning process solution eliminates the use of nitrogen triflouride (NF3), a harmful greenhouse gas, from the manufacture of thin film solar panels.
NF3 is a greenhouse gas that is widely used in products such as computer chips, flats-screen LCDs and thin-film solar photovoltaic cells.

The most recent round of UN climate talks put NF3 on track to be included on the list of emissions-restricted gases of the successor to Kyoto for 2012 onwards.

In contrast, F2 has no global warming potential and is lower cost to manufacture than gases derived from fluorine, such as NF3.

Replacing NF3 with fluorine in a 1GW thin film Si fab would result in the elimination of NF3 consumption and therefore negative greenhouse gas contribution to the environment.

Gasworld