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- Newsgroups: sci.environment
- Path: sparky!uunet!haven.umd.edu!ames!agate!boulder!ucsu!cubldr.colorado.edu!parson_r
- From: parson_r@cubldr.colorado.edu (Robert Parson)
- Subject: Re: Chemical mops (was Re: Ozone)
- Message-ID: <1992Nov18.180503.1@cubldr.colorado.edu>
- Lines: 22
- Sender: news@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (USENET News System)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: gold.colorado.edu
- Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
- References: <Bxqy4z.KJu@ucunix.san.uc.edu> <1992Nov15.180329.4931@netcom.com> <1992Nov17.124002.10191@vax.oxford.ac.uk>
- Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 01:05:03 GMT
- Lines: 22
-
- In article <1992Nov17.124002.10191@vax.oxford.ac.uk>, mingos@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
- > In article <1992Nov15.180329.4931@netcom.com>, tomd@netcom.com (Tom Dempster) write
- >
- > Whist I think it's clear from previous postings that ozone replacement is
- > not the solution, due mainly to it being a question of where the O3 <=> O2
- > equilibrium lies. The position of this equilibrium has been (allegedly, for
- > the sceptics) altered by the presence of CFC's . Is anyone aware of any work
- > which has been done which may aid removal of the catalysts - in effect a
- > chemical mop, which will 'soak up' the halogen radicals, and pull them out of
- > the system. For example, one could notionally disperse sodium into the ozone
- > layer, to form NaCl, which would be subsequently washed out without the
- > possibility of forming further Cl radicals ( I am fully aware that this
- > wouldn't work in practice, but it illustrates the principle).
- >
- This idea occurred to some people a few years ago - it wouldn't work, because
- the resulting NaCl microcrystallites would catalyze the decomposition of HCl
- and ClONO2 (which constitute most of the Cl in the strat), producing Cl
- radicals. It would actually be counterproductive.
- As Bryan Hannegan and I both mentioned, however, an idea based on the same
- principle - dumping hydrocarbons into the strat., which would convert ClO
- radicals back to HCl - has been put forward. There are problems with this
- one, too. But people are thinking about this sort of thing.
-