US EPA

1737936 

Journal Article 

Evaluation of ozone depletion potentials for chlorobromomethane (CH2ClBr) and 1-bromo-propane (CH2BrCH2CH3) 

Wuebbles, DJ; Jain, AK; Patten, KO; Connell, PS 

1998 

1 

Atmospheric Environment
ISSN: 1352-2310
EISSN: 1873-2844 

32 

2 

107-113 

English 

10.1016/S1352-2310(97)00322-1 

WOS:000071107700001 

Chlorobromomethane (CH2CIBr) and 1-bromo-propane (CH2BrCH2CH3 or simplified as 1 - CH3H7Br) are being considered for use as solvents and potentially in other applications. As with other chemicals that contain chlorine and/or bromine, it is important to determine the potential environmental effect from use and emissions of such compounds, including effects on stratospheric ozone. In this paper, the Ozone Depletion Potentials (ODPs), an important measure of the potential effects on ozone, are evaluated for these two compounds using our two-dimensional chemical-transport model of the troposphere and stratosphere. This is the first time these compounds have, to our knowledge, been evaluated with atmospheric models. Our model results show that the main removal process (ca. 99%) in the atmosphere for these compounds is the reaction with OH radicals. Photolysis has only a minor (⩽ 1 %) effect on the atmospheric lifetimes of either compound. The atmospheric lifetimes of CH2ClBr and 1 - C3H7Br due to atmospheric reactions are evaluated to be 0.40 yr (146 d) and 0.03 y (11 d), respectively. However, oceanic losses are likely to be important for CH2ClBr. Because of limited data on solubility and degradation in sea water, the lifetime for ocean loss currently has a range of 0.43-0.65 yr. This results in a total lifetime for CH2CIBr of 0.21-0.25 yr. An ocean sink for 1 - C3H7Br is likely to have an insignificant effect on its atmospheric lifetime or ODP. The ODP for 1 - C3H7Br is evaluated to be 0.006, while the ODP for CH2 ClBr including the effects of the ocean sink is 0.11–0.13. There are additional uncertainties in these values due to ambiguities in measured reaction rates and in the model treatment of atmospheric processes.