# How should an electronics plant report fluorinated gases used in etching and chamber cleaning?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/electronics-plant-fluorinated-gas-emissions

Count what is not destroyed. Gases such as CF4, C2F6, NF3 and SF6 are used in etch and clean steps; part reacts, part is broken down in abatement, and the rest escapes. IPCC 2006 gives default use and destruction rates, but purchase records and abatement data per tool give a far better figure.

## The calculation

- Gas bought and drawn per tool, from purchase and cylinder records.
- Share used up in the process, from the tool or IPCC defaults.
- Share destroyed by point of use abatement, from tested efficiency.
- Remaining emissions x the gas's GWP.

## Why it matters

These gases have global warming potentials thousands to tens of thousands of times CO2, so small leaks can rival a plant's electricity emissions.

## Don't forget

- Heat transfer fluids and refrigerants.
- Nitrous oxide used in some deposition steps.
- By products formed in the process, such as CF4 from other gases.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads gas, refrigerant and electricity invoices into a dated, fingerprinted record, so the quantities behind each gas figure trace back to the documents.

- [SF6 switchgear leaks](https://senseible.earth/answers/sf6-switchgear-leak-scope-1)
- [Penang chip assembly Scope 2](https://senseible.earth/answers/penang-semiconductor-assembly-scope-2)
- [Refrigerant leaks Scope 1](https://senseible.earth/answers/data-centre-chiller-refrigerant-leaks-scope-1)

Sources: [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 3 Industrial Processes](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/), [IPCC AR6 WG1, Chapter 7, Table 7.15 (GWP100)](https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/), [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-10-21.