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F²C and F⁴C

You may have wondered what this term stood for so let me explain.

As a chemist, I have long abhorred the reference to “carbon emissions” or carbon foot-printing” when what is being talked about is not the element carbon in its myriad chemical forms and molecular combinations, but carbon dioxide originating from the breakdown (usually by combustion) of certain types of organic carbon, notably fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuel combustion builds up in the environment as, unlike carbon dioxide emitted from combustion of biomass such as wood, it cannot be re-constituted back into its original form, at least over short timescales.

As someone working mainly in the pulp and paper industry, the issue comes home again when people start talking about making “carbon-free” or “zero carbon” products. The backbone of all paper products is cellulose which contains 44% carbon and a lot of papers also contain calcium carbonate which is 12% carbon. So the idea of “carbon-free“ paper is going to take a lot of effort even after we’ve run out of fossil fuels to burn, largely for drying the paper and supplying a paper mill’s electricity.

So, how do we refer to the sorts of carbon that comes from fossil fuels and that don’t without having to use a string of words?

F²C is a suggested short-hand for “fossil-fuel carbon” and F⁴C for “free from fossil fuel carbon”.

If you don’t like them, do come up with something better.

Finally, particularly for the non-chemists, if you want to experience what it’s like being a carbon atom, read the all-too-short last chapter in Primo Levi’s “The Periodic Table”. Carbon dioxide does feature in this tale and the author mentions that the atmospheric concentration at the time (early 1970s) was 0.03% whereas today it is approaching 0.04% (400 ppm by volume). However, there is no mention of the greenhouse gas effect of atmospheric carbon dioxide – it is difficult to imagine that this effect would not be a central theme of the story if it had been written today.