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Have you heard about the gas most capable of causing global warming? It is sulfur hexafluoride, or SF6, which has thousands of times more warming effects than carbon dioxide and is widely used in high-power electrical equipment for electrical insulation.
It seems that the end of its use is near, after Korean researchers announced the development of an environmentally friendly alternative that has the same electrical insulation properties, which will increase the hope of completely eliminating SF6 gas and contribute to reducing global warming.
The benefits of SF6 and its catastrophic effect on warming
Many people may not have heard of SF6 before. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, non-flammable synthetic gas that has a number of unique and useful properties in a number of industrial applications. Therefore, it is widely used in many industrial, scientific and medical applications. This gas is considered a highly efficient electrical insulator and does not conduct electricity, a property that makes it a safe option for use in high-voltage electrical equipment, such as transformers, switches, and circuit breakers.
In contrast, SF6 is one of the most powerful greenhouse gases, with a global warming capacity 25,200 times greater than carbon dioxide. According to the latest studies. Which means that the effect of one kilogram of this gas is equivalent to the effect of more than 25 tons of carbon dioxide. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), annual emissions of SF6 have increased steadily since the 1980s, resulting in atmospheric concentrations of the gas now reaching around 10 parts per trillion.
The environmental impact of SF6 is particularly concerning because it remains in the atmosphere for an extremely long time, with an estimated lifetime of more than 3,200 years. This means that today’s emissions will continue to affect the environment for thousands of years. It is therefore important for industry and policymakers to take steps to reduce emissions and find more sustainable alternative solutions.
Although many efforts have been made around the world to develop an environmentally friendly gas that can replace sulfur hexafluoride, they have not yet achieved noticeable results, because developing a replacement gas for sulfur hexafluoride is more difficult than developing new medicines, some experts say.
Environmentally friendly alternative gas
In this context, researchers from the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) recently created an “environmentally friendly insulating gas” to replace sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and they also developed a new technology to make it usable in high-power electrical equipment.
And according to Science Tech Delby website Quoting a statement from the institute, the innovative gas, which was called “K6,” has the same electrical insulating properties in addition to the fact that it does not harm the environment.
The institute did not reveal the chemical composition of the new gas, but said that the development process included several stages that included classifying materials with low global warming potential, currently used in industry, and then analyzing their electrical and chemical properties. The materials included in the composition of the new gas were chosen based on the results of tests of insulation performance and flammability, and then the ideal proportions were extracted for application to energy devices with the aim of developing an environmentally friendly insulating gas.
The new gas does not contain any toxic components or components that are dangerous to health and the environment, according to the statement, and its ability to cause global warming is less than 1%, that is, less than the ability of carbon dioxide gas. The “boiling point” of this gas is very low, at minus 26 degrees Celsius, which makes it a stable gas applicable in most regions of the world.
The new gas has passed application tests on ultra-high voltage (145 kV) circuit breakers at the transmission level in accordance with international standards of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
According to Dr. Yun Ho Oh, head of the Environmentally Friendly Energy Devices Research Center at the Korea Electric Technology Research Institute, K6 gas has better performance than SF6 gas, in addition to being environmentally friendly. Therefore, it is expected that the new gas will have a significant impact in making devices used in the field of high energy less harmful to the environment and less contributing to global warming.
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