Comparison of Gas concentration

over Sacramento and Palmdale

Atul Lunawat
SARP 2009
 Overview
 Background and Objective:
CFCs and HCFCs
Why Sacramento versus Palmdale?
 Methodology:
Onboard DC-8
Field work
The Chemistry lab
Results
Conclusion
Future Work
References
 CFCs

 Developed in early 1930s.

 Used in a variety of industrial, commercial and
household applications like:
 Coolant in refrigeration units.
 Aerosol propellants.
 Electronic Cleaning Solvents.
 Blowing Agents.
 CFCs
 CFCs are non-reactive and hence they tend to rise
into the stratosphere.
 Why are CFCs bad?
 Destruction of Ozone Layer.
 Trapping of heat, contributing to Global Warming.

In 1973, this danger became clear, leading to

Montreal Protocol in 1987.
 How safe are HCFCs???

 HCFC's have ozone depletion potentials around

0.01-0.1, so that during its lifetime a typical HCFC
will have destroyed 1-10% as much ozone as the
same amount of CFC.
 Since the HCFC's are more reactive in the
troposphere, fewer of them reach the stratosphere.
 However, they are also more reactive in the
stratosphere, so they release chlorine more quickly.
 The short-term effects are therefore larger than one
would predict from the steady-state ozone depletion
potential.
Gases I have selected to study
 H-1211 (Bromochlorodifluoromethane)
 Used in Fire Extinguishers.
 HCFC-141b (1,1-Dichloro-1-fluoroethane)
 Mainly used as refrigerant.
 HCFC-142b (1-Chloro-1,1-difluoroethane)
 Mainly used as chemical intermediate and blowing agent.
 HFC-134a (1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane)
 Mainly used as refrigerant.

 C2Cl4 (Tetrachloroethylene)
 Used for fabric dry cleaning.
 HCFC-22 (Chlorodifluoromethane)
 Chlorodifluoromethane
 Colorless gas better known as HCFC-22 or R-22.
 Once commonly used as a propellant and in air
conditioning applications as an alternative to CFC-11.
 ODP = 0.055 and GWP = 1700
 From January 1st, 2010, it will be illegal to import,
produce, or sell R-22 for use in new equipment or pre-
charged in new equipment.
 In 2015, the production and no importing of HCFC-22 will
be limited to 10% of each country's 1989 consumption
level and in 2020, production and importing of HCFC-22
will be illegal.
 Re-use of recovered HCFC-22 will be permitted until
2030.
Why Sacramento versus
Palmdale???
 Sacramento
 Capital of California.
 Seventh largest city with estimated population of
460,242.
 It is the core culture and economic center of
Sacramento Metropolitan area.
 Cited as one of the ten most livable regions in
America in 2004.
 Industries – Transportation, IT, Construction,
Health-care
 Palmdale

 Small city located in the north-east reaches of

Los Angeles County, California.
 As of January 1, 2009, the California state
department of finance estimates that Palmdale
has a total population of 151,346.
 Industries – Aerospace, manufacturing.
 Methodology

 Data Gathering:
 Collected air samples on board DC-8 at various
altitudes and lat-long.
 Collected ground air samples.
 Data Analysis:
 5 column system – the GCs.
 Mass Spectrometry.
 Chromeleon.
University of California, Irvine 5-Column System
 Average Data Comparison

H- HCFC- HCFC- HCFC- HFC-

1211 141b 142b 22 134a C2Cl4
Sacrament
o 4.67 26.65 29.21 316.50 97.59 13.57
Palmdale 4.43 29.03 24.67 247.40 78.61 6.68
Backgroun
d 4.57 21.82 21.54 196.91 45.96 1.64

All values are in pptv

Comparison of Averages of Sacramento,,
Palmdale and Background data
Comparison of Delta values of
Sacramento and Palmdale
 Back Trajectories

 Palmdale seems much more influenced by the

LA region.
 Sacramento appears to import pollutants more
from the east.
 Industries in Los Angeles

 Steel Fabrication is the second largest industry.

 Los Angeles is a major producer of:
 Furniture fixtures
 Petroleum products and Chemicals
 Print material
 Rubber goods
 Electronic equipment
 Glass, Pottery, Ceramics and Cement products.
 Conclusion

 Gas concentration in Palmdale is higher than

Sacramento due to its close proximity to high
population city like Los Angeles and heavy
industrialization.
 HCFC-22 concentration alone is higher than the
sum of remaining gases indicating possible leak
from a chemical plant.
 Palmdale air is not affected by transport from
Sacramento.
 Future Work

 Study of the industries around Palmdale and Los

Angeles to verify the cause of high HCFC-22
levels.
 Study the gas concentration in Palmdale with
different meteorological conditions, so as to
verify the source of Palmdale gas concentration.
 References

 http://www.centerforsustainability.org/
 http://stason.org/
 http://www.wikipedia.org/
 The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete
the Ozone Layer. UNEP, 2000.
 http://www.city-data.com
 Acknowledgements
 Dr Sherwood Rowland
 Dr Don Blake
 Dr Melissa Yang
 Dr Alexandra Novak
 The Whole Air Sampling team
 Rowland/Blake research group
 NASA
 Everyone else responsible for
making SARP possible.
Thank You