Prevention of Ozone Layer Depletion by Methyl Bromide Used for Soil Fumigation

Methyl bromide, an effective soil fumigant, has been identified as one of the worst depleters of the ozone layer. Methyl bromides strong suit, its reactivity, is also its Achilles heel. Over 80% of methyl bromide used in 1990 was used for soil fumigation and this application has been targeted directly for elimination. Consequently, the Montreal Protocol (1987) signed by 187 countries, outlawed the use of methyl bromide in the US by 2005. Suitable substitutes for many applications have not been found and the scientific consensus is that substitutes for some applications may never be found. Thus, many millions of pounds of methyl bromide will continue to be vented into the atmosphere. Value Recovery has technology to capture and destroy, or 'scrub', methyl bromide economically from dilute air streams. The technology takes advantage of methyl bromide's reactivity and uses this as a separation strategy by reacting and thus converting methyl bromide into harmless byproducts. Our Phase I proposal is meant to develop the technology and fit it economically to soil fumigation applications. We wish to develop a method based on a soil cylinder model to instantaneously and economically capture and destroy from 95 to 99% of fugitive methyl bromide emissions from soil fumigations.