Re: Endless Oil?

From: Charles Edmondson (edmondson_at_ieee.org)
Date: 09/28/04 

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 14:24:01 -0700

Fred B. McGalliard wrote:

> "charliew2" <charliew2@ev1.net> wrote in message
> news:10lj7u4gfmqcm5c@corp.supernews.com...
> ...
>
>>gravity effect involved. Freon 12 is approximately 4 times the density of
>>air, and without constant mixing, it should be expected to sink to ground
>>level.
>
>
> You are overlooking the thermal molecular motions that disperse the gas. If
> there were nothing but Freon 12, no air, it would still form an atmosphere
> getting thinner with altitude, perhaps just a bit faster than air does. I
> think the air adds a higher level of molecular motion and disperses the gas
> to a higher concentration at altitude than would be the case of the pure
> Freon. It wouldn't settle to the ground for the same reason that nitrogen
> does not settle to the ground. In general the gas has an independent partial
> pressure based on it's concentration, and this will drop with altitude
> because the gas is denser than air, but it still diffuses up because of
> thermal excitation.
>
>
Ok, back a few years ago, I got to hear a presentation on this stuff, so
I will pass on the logic of this.

Freon is a very stable gas. As such, it doesn't break down readily in
STP air, but just disperses. Eventually, some of these molecules make
it to high altitude by normal dispersion.

At high altitudes, it enters the ozone layer where it is exposed to
higher levels of UV than are available at lower altitudes. This UV then
manages to break down the Freon, causing the release of chlorine to high
altitudes. Normally, there would be very little chlorine at these
altitudes, as it would normally would have reacted with water and other
substances much lower in the atmosphere.

These chlorine atoms, molecules, however they are supposed to exist, are
the catalysts that cause the destruction of the ozone. The react with
an ozone molecule, break it up, and then is free to react with more
molecules.

This was all tested supposedly in the lab, and was observered to occur.
  I haven't seen the actual papers, or have any data on the methods used
for testing.

Myself, I still would like to have actual observational evidence that
this process was making significant changes to the ozone level before
banning Freon, but they had those great visuals of the ozone hole in
Anartica to use, and politicians that needed campaign issues and money
to use... 

-- 
Charlie
--
Edmondson Engineering
Unique Solutions to Unusual Problems

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