Saving Stratospheric Ozone: Putting the Problem in Perspective and Evaluating Hydrohalocarbons and their Mixtures as Potential Solutions

Stratospheric ozone depletion by halocarbon gases is reviewed. Some insight is offered to explain the technical and political difficulties currently facing industrial producers and end use consumers. Industry estimates that 40% of the ozone destruction caused by halocarbons from the United States is a result of air conditioning and refrigeration. A partial solution employing mixtures of gases relatively harmless to the ozone layer is investigated to replace refrigerant fluids currently in use. Computer subroutines developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology for modeling mixtures using a semi-empirical equation of state are utilized to generate results. Superior properties are predicted for an application defined within the temperature range of human comfort. Benefits and shortcomings are discussed that are both specifically applicable to this approach and generally applicable to the development of replacements.