Behind the SCENE: Evangelos Panos, Laurence Strubbe, Andreas Frömelt and Alena Lohrmann on Greenhouse Gases & Climate
Video coming soon…
SCENE (Swiss Center of Excellence on Net-Zero Emissions) is a Joint Initiative, co-financed by the ETH Board. The four research institutes of the ETH Domain, PSI, Empa, WSL & Eawag, as well as ETH Zurich & EPFL are involved. SCENE covers a wide range of research areas related to the goal of net-zero emissions and provides a network for cross-institutional collaboration.
Evangelos Panos is the head of PSI’s Energy Economics Group at the Laboratory for Energy Systems Analysis of PSI Centers for Nuclear Engineering and Sciences & Energy and Environmental Sciences and the leader of the SCENE Flexible Low-Carbon Energy Systems Action Area.
Laurence Strubbe is a former postdoctoral researcher at Eawag’s Department of Process Engineering, currently an R&D Engineer at Circular Water Technologies VITO.
Andreas Frömelt is a group leader at Eawag’s Department of Process Engineering.
Alena Lohrmann is a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zürich’s Energy Systems Analysis Group.
These researchers are involved in the Greenhouse Gases & Climate Action Area in the SCENE Project.
“Did you know that if the urine you produce in a year leaves the wastewater treatment plant as nitrous oxide, it would have a global warming effect almost equivalent to flying from Switzerland to Singapore and back?”
“Back of the envelope”-calculation behind this statement, assuming the worst case:
- An average Swiss adult produces approximately 2 L urine / day (women: median 2 L/day, men: median 1.78 L/day): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4226251/
- 9 g nitrogen / L urine: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24037158/
- 9 g N/L * 2 L = 18 g N / day
- Ratio of the molecular mass of N2O to N: (14 + 14 +16) g N2O / (2 * 14) g N = 44 g N2O /28 g N
- Global warming potential (GWP) of N2O = 298 CO2-eq / N2O. This means that 1 million metric tonnes of N2O is equivalent to 298 million metric tonnes of CO2 (CO2-eq). In other words, N2O has 298 times more GWP than CO2. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Glossary:Carbon_dioxide_equivalent
- (18 g N / day) * (44 g N2O / 28 g N) * (298 CO2-eq / N2O) = 8429 g CO2-eq / day = 8.429 kg CO2-eq / day
- (8429 g CO2-eq / day) * (365 days / year) = 3076585 g CO2-eq / year ≈ 3.1 metric tonnes CO2-eq / year
- Myclimate CO2 Emissions Calculator: 3.3 metric tonnes CO2-eq (round trip Zürich – Singapore, direct flights, economy, Boeing 777): https://co2.myclimate.org/en/flight_calculators/new
“The non-CO2 emissions from all humans and livestock, including nitrous oxide, account for about 21 % of the total greenhouse gas emissions in Switzerland.” https://www.bafu.admin.ch/en/greenhouse-gas-inventory
“In 2021, about 2600 people in Switzerland lost their lives due to local air pollution.” https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/countries/eea-member-countries/switzerland
“Did you know that three days after viewing an image with data, people can retain 65% of that information, compared to just 10% for information they only hear and do not see?” http://brainrules.net/vision/
SCENE (Swiss Center of Excellence on Net-Zero Emissions): https://www.scene-project.ch/
ETH Board Joint Initiatives: https://ethrat.ch/en/eth-domain/joint-initiatives/
PSI’s Laboratory for Energy Systems Analysis: https://www.psi.ch/en/lea
PSI’s Energy Economics Group: https://www.psi.ch/en/eem
Eawag’s Department of Process Engineering: https://www.eawag.ch/en/department/eng/organisation/
ETH Zürich’s Energy Systems Analysis Group: https://esa.ethz.ch/the-group.html
SCENE’s Greenhouse Gases & Climate Action Area: https://www.scene-project.ch/action-areas/greenhouse-gases-climate/