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Re:A step towards new nitrogen products by michieldotv on Monday August 24, 2020 @05:36AM (#24258943)
Atmospheric nitrogen is a big source of environmental and human harm in the Low Countries. The nitrogen deposits are literally smothering what little nature is left.

It already led to a full-blown crisis in The Netherlands where construction sites were ordered to shut down. In Belgium, with the lack of effective national governance, the nitrogen problem is not being laying dormant.

This kind of innovation hopefully bodes well for Belgium which has both an abundance of nitrogen _and_ a pervasive petrochemical industry.

Re:A step towards new nitrogen products by hechang1997 on Monday August 24, 2020 @06:35AM (#24259281)
I think the article is talking about capturing inert N2 from atmosphere directly with benzene, not about nitrogen pollutants like NOx.
Re:A step towards new nitrogen products by isthisnametaken on Monday August 24, 2020 @05:57AM (#24259073)
Atmospheric nitrogen sounds bad.

And the Netherlands has to contend with some serious dihydrogen monoxide issues, too.

Re:A step towards new nitrogen products by thaumasiotes on Monday August 24, 2020 @06:23AM (#24259205)
> dihydrogen monoxide

I always wanted to know why this name was picked over "hydrogen hydroxide".

Re:A step towards new nitrogen products by throwaway_pdp09 on Monday August 24, 2020 @07:24AM (#24259582)
Because people know carbon monoxide is toxic and will quickly make the false association.
Re:A step towards new nitrogen products by thaumasiotes on Monday August 24, 2020 @09:17AM (#24260322)
People know chlorine is toxic and salt is half chlorine... :/
Re:A step towards new nitrogen products by wenc on Monday August 24, 2020 @01:22PM (#24262945)
I'm not sure if you are actually referring to nitrogen?

Nitrogen (N2) constitutes 78% of the air we breathe. It's an inert, nontoxic gas and one of the least hazardous gases around -- the primary hazard being that of asphyxiation in closed spaces at high concentrations (due to displacement of O2).

I'm not sure I follow that Belgium has an abundance of nitrogen. Every country in the world has an abundance of nitrogen - it's literally 78% of the air around us. To extract nitrogen, you pull air into a separation column and out comes N2. Any country in the world can do this. The two inputs are air and electricity (to power the compressor and other equipment).