Login or Sign Up
Menu
Ask a New Question

A tank car containing concentrated HCL (molarity 12.1) derails and spills exactly 1500 L of acid. Solid potassium hydroxide is required ot neutralize the spill.

(a) Write a balanced chemical equation.
HCl + KOH -> kCl + H2O

(b) What is the molar ratio between acid and base?
1:1

(c) How many moles of acid were spilled?
-the acid is HCl
volume = 1500 L
concentration = 12.1 mol/L
# of mol = 1500 x 12.1 = 1.82 x 10^4 mol

(d) How many moles of base are needed to neutralize the spill?
1.82 x 10^4 mol

Did I do all of the questions above correctly?

Right on!!. Very good work. You're doing great.

Thanks a lot DrBob :)

By the way, neutralizing with KOH is not a very good idea. I know this is just a problem and for that purpose one base is just as good as another. But I wanted to point out that KOH is a very strong base, and molarity for molarity, probably can do more physical harm to the human body than HCl. So if you neutralize concentrated HCl (12.1 M is concd HCl) with solid KOH, it is difficult to get an exact neutral point and the excess base (if too much is added) can do damage. When neutralizing strong acids, one usually uses NaHCO3 (soda) so that a little overshoot in neutralizing doesn't hurt anything because an excess of soda is no big deal. This may be more than you ever wanted to know about concd HCl in a spill but sometimes a little extra knowledge comes in handy.:-)

Thanks :D

Yes, you have answered all the questions correctly. Well done! You correctly wrote the balanced chemical equation for the neutralization reaction between HCl and KOH, stating the molar ratio as 1:1. You calculated the number of moles of acid that were spilled by multiplying the volume (1500 L) by the concentration (12.1 mol/L), resulting in 1.82 x 10^4 mol. Lastly, you correctly identified that the same number of moles of base (KOH) are needed to neutralize the spill, which is also 1.82 x 10^4 mol.