[michieldotv]

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.

[hechang1997]

I think the article is talking about capturing inert N2 from atmosphere directly with benzene, not about nitrogen pollutants like NOx.

[isthisnametaken]

Atmospheric nitrogen sounds bad.

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

[thaumasiotes]

> dihydrogen monoxide

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

[throwaway_pdp09]

Because people know carbon monoxide is toxic and will quickly make the false association.

[thaumasiotes]

People know chlorine is toxic and salt is half chlorine... :/

[wenc]

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).