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Is there any way to create ozone that could be
used to fill the holes in the ozone layer?
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Question Date: 2001-02-12 | | Answer 1:
There are actually two problems here. It isn't
very difficult to make Ozone -- it is one of the
more common industrial pollutants and may be
responsible for increased rate of lung cancer in
high latitude cities. However, the quantity needed
is substantial -- Ozone is being lost by a
catalytic process in which the pollutant (C
Cl2 F2) is not destroyed --
so that a small quantity of this material can
reduce a large quantity of Ozone. The other
issue is getting the ozone into the upper
atmosphere. Ozone is very highly reactive, and has
a relatively short lifetime in the troposphere --
and is indeed heavier than normal air. On the
other hand -- it might be possible to introduce a
competitive catalytic agent which creates ozone to
the upper atmosphere... One still must keep the
scale of this process in mind. Millions of tons of
Freon are released each year. One possibility for
dealing with such scales is creation of a suitable
biological organism which can multiply on its own
accord. This has already been done for
combating oil-spills, however, the key issue is
subsequent control. So -- there might be ways --
but the issue is are the cures worse than the
disease?
| | Answer 2:
There are several ways to produce ozone. The most
common one is passing an electric discharge
through a tube filled with oxygen, and the
reaction
3O2(g) + energy ----->
2O3(g) will take place. Now, even
if we can produce ozone in the lab or even in
industrial quantities, we as a planet lack the
technological capability to produce any gas that
would make a significant change in the planet's
atmosphere. It is way too big for human endeavors
at the current level of technical
development. But that does not mean it is not
possible, for things that used to be way beyond
the capabilities of humankind only fifty years ago
are now commonplace. Here we can only wait and
see. An important additional remark is that the
ozone "hole" is not actually a hole, something set
there and stable.Scientist use that term to refer
to a seasonal variation of the concentration of
ozone in the upper layers of the atmosphere. We
can say that the ozone layer gets thinner during
the winter and almost regains its normal thickness
during the spring. This effect was discovered in
1985
| | Answer 3:
There are lots of ways to create ozone - the
problem is to get the ozone to the right place to
fill the hole in the ozone layer of the upper
atmosphere. Too much ozone created at ground
level is a major contributor to smog. It would be
too expensive to make ozone down here and try to
transport it to the upper atmosphere over
Antarctica. If some ozone gets produced naturally
each year, would it be possible to do something to
enhance this natural process, or to reduce the
processes that destroy the upper-atmospheric
ozone?
| | Answer 4:
I believe the problem is not that there is not
enough ozone produced in the upper atmosphere but
that the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that have made
their way up into the upper atmosphere are very
long lived (they are meant to be inert for use on
the ground) and disrupt the process that creates
the ozone that protects us from damaging solar
radiation. We've done a lot to curtail use of
CFCs so the situation should improve, albeit
slowly. My guess is that it would take a lot
of energy and effort to make additional ozone in
the upper atmosphere and spread it around. I
think it would also have to be done continuously
as long as the problem exists. If the "ozone
hole" problem ever became bad enough to try adding
more ozone, how do you think we'd go about doing
it? I wonder how much ozone would have to be made
in order to fill the hole.
| | Answer 5:
That's a great question. The funny thing about
the ozone in the atmosphere is that sunlight and
other natural things continuously break it down,
even before man-made chemicals were ever
introduced into the atmosphere. It gets broken
down and then re-synthesized over and over again.
You see, ozone is really really labile (do you
know what that means?). If you look up
labile, you will find that ozone is very delicate,
in a way, and is always being destroyed and then
re-made. So, the problem with the man-made
chemicals in the air (called CFCs for short) is
that they speed up the process of breaking ozone
down, but they don't speed up the process of
making ozone. Eventually however, a long as we
stop using CFCs it will all be o.k. It is not a
permanent problem. Still, the idea of filling big
balloons with ozone and sending them up into the
ozone layer is pretty good. There are, however,
some problems. By the time you get to the ozone
layer (several hours), most of the ozone will be
gone. Two ozones can combine to form three
oxygens, and that is what happens. Still, we may
be able to generate enough ozone (electrically) to
theoretically supplement the layer. You've got a
good idea about replacing the ozone. But, since
we know that it will replace itself over time, it
makes sense to solve the problem by stopping the
emission of CFC into the air.
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