Why is it so difficult to break down CO2 in the stratosphere?

Question

I read that someone is offering a reward to the first person to invent a method to rid our planet of the greenhouse effect by breaking down the CO2 in the stratosphere.

Why is this prospect so difficult. Don't plants break down CO2 into Oxygen?

CO2 is a linear molecule but can also have a dipole moment. The bonds in CO2 aren't that strong are they?

I also just thought that we, as humans, produce CO2 when we exhale. It sounds silly, but could the carbon dioxide that humans produce by the simple act of breathing add to the perils of global warming?

I'm not suggesting putting millions of plants in the stratosphere. What I meant by mentioning plants is that if plants can do it, why can't scientists figure it out?

Answer 1

There are no plants photosythesizing up there...

Each year we humans burn 2 million years worth of CO2 stored as fossil fuels. That is way more than we breathe out, trust.

Answer 2

Unfortunately we do not have a way to really change the CO2 in the stratosphere, partly because the stratosphere is so large and more importantly, it is situated 10 kilometers above the earths surface!!!

There is no way to break down CO2 remotely in the atmosphere, it must be contained in a reaction vessel before any reactions can be carried out, at the moment there are not many thing we can do with CO2 that do not require vast amounts of energy or reagents.

If scientists where to create a machine that breaks up CO2 efficiently they would have to to make it on a large scale in order to process a reasonable amount of atmosphere and then they would find a way to get it and the power source to the stratosphere.

Answer 3

CO2 is a very stable end product of combustion (oxidation). There is nothing in the stratosphere to absorb carbon (and you certainly don't want carbon linking with nitrogen to form cyanide ions!) All known chemical reactions that remove carbon from CO2 are endothermic, requiring an input of energy.

I'm having quite a little difficulty finding out how much CO2 there really is in the stratosphere, and how it stays there. CO2, being heavier than air, should flow downward. Although CO2 may reach the stratosphere by being much warmer than normal atmospheric gases, when it cools down it is more dense.

CO2 has a molecular weight of 48, making its density 48g/22.4 L @ 20° C, or 293°K, while air has a density of 29 g/22.4L at the same temperature. By Charles' Law, for CO2 to have the same density as air, or less, its temperature must be ≥ 293*48/29, or 485°K (212°C vs 20°C). The 48/29 ratio in absolute temperature must be maintained for CO2 to maintain buoyancy.

Answer 4

There are few plants that grow that high, and the Ocean has trouble reaching up there as well.

Industry has overloaded the ocean's ability to absorb most harmful greenhouse gases, and the resulting thawing of the earth's polar regions have greatly accelerated what CO2 emissions from Industry started, by releasing huge amounts of methane into the atmosphere (an even tougher gas for the oceans to neutralize that CO2).

Think of the ph level of a swimming pool being out of wack, and you have an idea of the problem when the pool is the world's oceans. When an acid is neutralized by a base it becomes a salt, and the Oceans acidity levels have risen to dangerous levels as a result of greenhouse gas absorption, literally becoming so acidic that about 19% of the world's coral has died, and God knows how many species of animal and plant life have been effected.

I wish we had an anwer for this one, but even Yahoo answers is stumped.

Answer 5

CO2 is fully oxidized and therefore is extremely stable.

There are no plants in the stratosphere to consume the CO2 once it reaches there.

CO2 emitted by power plants and other industrial processes is usually the result of combustion, so it is very hot when it leaves the stack and easily rises too high for plants to have any effect.

CO2 exhaled by humans stays at ground levels where plants can use it.

Answer 6

The bonds are that strong. Plants can only do so much. We are producing so much excess CO2 that the balance is knocked out of kilter. And we are cutting down so much, and killing the oceans plankton(which are the planets lungs) with pollution that the balance is further out of whack. Even when you die, you give off further CO2.

Answer 7

Because some peoples are in government in USA, China and Europe, believes is most important make money than preserve the planet.
USA makes alone 24% of all world pollution, China others 15%, but there are 300 million peoples on USA and 1300 millions on China.
And have more, is not a technical problem to stop pollution. Is a financial problem. Its possible to change all world eletricity production (thermo, hydro, atomic, winds, geothermic) by solar energy, woud be 80.000km2 (or 30.900mi2) of fotovoltaics panels around the world...who will to pay this? George W. Bush?
Do your portion! Use trains or buses to travel, change your car by a economic car, to plant trees, say to your eletricity company to invest in renewables sources (if dont do, still) and your government to invest in biofuels (here in Brazil, we do it since 1977. Ethanol from sugarcane with gas and pure. Today we have too biodiesel from seeds. its more easy, than to build atomic bombs or radar invisible planes).
Probably, will be necessary many ways to stop the CO2. When one to burn wood, it is transformed in fog, the most part, CO2. But when one to plant a tree, the CO2 is kidnaped from atmosphere and we have wood. When you use biofuels, to happens the same . Biofuels->fog->plant. When one use oil or derivateds of oil to burn(in thermos, cars or warm on winter), we have fog again but none trees to absorb this fog...and always have a bit more of CO2.
But when is used hyroeletricity, or eletricity from the winds or solar, none CO2 was made.
Do you know how to do the cars more eficients(greatest distance with same portion of gas)? Do it more lights and with smallest motors. Cars with aluminium or carbon fiber body, like airplanes.
Its not a technical problem!!
*** Ricardo Souza, Sao Paulo, Brazil.