MadSci Network: Environment & Ecology
Query:

Re: Why can't we use ozone produced by computers to patch the ozone hole?

Date: Wed Jan 24 18:37:37 2001
Posted By: Renafaye Norby, Faculty, Science Education, Black Hills State Univ.
Area of science: Environment & Ecology
ID: 979886309.En
Message:

1. We have no practical effective way of "collecting" ozone from computers 
to transport to the stratosphere. Ozone is a highly reactive molecule that, 
when adjacent to another ozone molecule is going to form 3 O2 molecules. 
Therefore by the time we got our collection of ozone molecules transported 
to the stratosphere, they would probably all be O2 molecules and no use to 
fixing the problem.
2. It would cost a lot of money to develop a technology that would 
transport ozone to the stratosphere, and no one has committed the time or 
money to developing that technology.
3.  The ozone depletion is caused by Chlorine molecules that have migrated 
to the stratosphere from the troposphere, and can continue to deplete ozone 
more than once, so to solve the problem it is necessary to get rid of the 
Chlorine molecules (and the sulfur dioxide molecules) that are making the 
reaction possible. Putting more Ozone in the stratosphere doesn't solve the 
problem as long as there are Chlorine molecules there to continue the 
destruction.

For more technical information on Ozone depletion in the stratosphere, see:    http://satlab.mslab.usna.edu/~casey/satlab/ozone/#prod   


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