CO2 Pollution?

[phishstik]

I'm not a hippy tree hugger, whatever. Just wondering, the CO2 we use for paintball, isn't it the same gas everyone is complaining about causing global warming? The news is always saying how its bad, I know theres gases much worse, but it seems to me it's really easy to get CO2, and do whatever you want with it.
Just a question.

phishstik

[Ethon]

Its not necessarily just Co2. Its other chemicals that are burned and released with it, ie. fossil fuels. They are what eats the ozone layer. Just plain Co2 doesn't have such a drastic effect because the ozone layer can repair itself faster then the co2 can eat it away.

[in trauma]

carbon monoxide is more fo a problem it is produced with the burning of fossil fuels

[Richy_C]

quite the oppisite, CO2 helps the trees

[Magadeth]

every time you exhale, you are realeaseing co2.

[Guesswho?]

CO2 helps the trees and everything, didnt you go to school???

[phishstik]

Well, if you do a search on Google for CO2 pollution, I think its pretty clear that too much IS BAD.
BUT
Wouldn't it also depend on HOW the CO2 for the tanks is collected? I mean, if its taken out of the atmosphere, then its just going back in when we use it, no harm.
Or is CO2 collected differnetly? Anyone know?

[paintballer56]

whoever made this thread is a fruit

[phishstik]

ya thanks
but your no help at all

[iipaintballer]

The amount of CO2 that we release when we play paintball is negligible. Like the other guy said we exhale CO2.

[orryn]

Living organisms and cars produce much more CG2 than what is released by paintball markers. In anycase, the C02 that is released is readily absorbed by trees and other plants to be used in photosynthesis. CO2 is part of the natural exchange of gases that occurs in nature. However, CO, carbon monoxide, is not commonly found gas in nature. CO has a large affinity for another oxygen atom. This is why when CO reaches the ozone problems occur. Ozone, O3, gets stripped of one oxygen atom: CO + O3 ----> O2 + CO2. This results in the depletion of ozone. While it is true that CO2 contributes to the greenhouse affect, the small amount of CO2 that is being discharged from paintball markers is really insignificant.

Hope that helps some.

[phishstik]

k thanx
by the way, does anyone know how those factories, like Dupont or whoever, actually produce the CO2? Must be easy to do, cause CO2 seems pretty cheap.

[strongboy2005]

the co2 we use in our guns is pulled straight out of the air, so we aren't adding to it, we're just reuseing it and putting it back into the air after each shot we fire.

[orryn]

You can produce CO2 pretty well by using a combustion reaction.

CnH(2n+1) + O2 ----> H2O + CO2

The only problem with this is you get water vapor. They probably use a form of electrolysis. Run a current through a carbon containing solution and you can get CO2 to bubble off. I not sure exaclty how they do it though. :)

[strongboy2005]

I didn't know that's how they made C02, are you sure they don't just get it straight from the air?

[orryn]

I guess they could, but to me that would seem difficult. Air has a lot of stuff in it, so naturally it would be kinda hard to separate everything. I was actually looking around, and it turns out, you can burn pure carbon to make CO2 (which makes sense: C + O2 ---> CO2). And I know how to easily make pure carbon, but you could use coal or graphite. That seems like a really easy to to make CO2, but I'm guessing that dupont and other chem engineering places have better ways of doing it.

A cool chem trick is take table sugar (C6H12O6) and add very concentrated sulfuric acid (H2SO4). Stir the two together and you should get a large column of pure carbon to come out of the beaker. Looks like a big turd. :)