[WARRAVEN]

As Everyone knows I write for the paintball magazine "Paintball 2 extremes". I came here once for some help on the air stuff, but I had to scrap my data .

My next one is on the environmental impact of the paintball industry, and a question is just bugging me I can't seem to find a good answer on. We use Carbon dioxide as a propellent on some markers, how does the release of that gas affect the environment? It is a 20 oz. counter usually at 850 psi. I'm also not sure on how that compares to other gaseous pollution, because we breath out C02 as well, and there is industrial pollution along those lines as well.

What do you think?

               Raven  
P.S. I will mention the forum in the article if I use the info, probably not specific names because I don't like playing favorites...

[jdurg]

Personally, I believe that the paintballs themselves would have more of an environmental impact, if any at all, than the CO2 cartridges would.  The amount of CO2 in those things is pretty small when compared to the CO2 produced by your car when you're on your way to the paintball meet.  With all the movement and running around, your body will wind up exhaling more CO2 than those cartridges will give out.  

So let's do a quick mathematical calculation of how much CO2 those cartridges will be given out.  First we have to convert the psi into atmospheres.  1 psi contains about 0.068 atm, so the pressure of the cartridges is approximately 57.84 atm.  The 20 ounce cartridges equals ~0.591 L.  Using PV=nRT, we get about 1.39 moles of carbon dioxides which is about 61 grams of the gas.  

To put this in perspective, a human being exhales about 408 L of CO2 per day.  (www.cchem.berkeley.edu/chem1a/fall03/labsamplewrite.htm).  Using a pressure of 1 atm and a temperature equal to normal body temperature, the ideal gas law says that a human being exhales about 16.03 moles of CO2 which is equal to about 705 grams of CO2!  So I would easily be able to conclude that the CO2 cartridges are no more harmful to the environment than a human being is just by breathing.

[kevins]

I think not only the CO2 gas, how about the organic solvent ?

[WARRAVEN]

Ah, paintballs however are non-toxic and degrade extremely fast. While the fields and industries and cars and stuff may cause environmental impact, the play themselves does not. The only thing that would occur under digestion is a sickening taste in the mouth and probably odd colored bowels later,lol.

                          Raven  

[Donaldson Tan]

it depends how carbon dioxide used for propellent is manufactured. if the Co2 used is actually a byproduct of a chemical process or it's extracted from air, why not? I think carbon dioxide is obtain industrially as the byproduct of cracking ethane and propane for ethene.