A particular coal contains 2.55% sulfur by mass. When the coal is burned, it produces SO2 emissions which combine with rainwater to produce sulfuric acid.
Determine how much sulfuric acid (in metric tons) is produced by the combustion of 1.1 metric ton of this coal. (A metric ton is 1000kg .)
A: ___ metric ton H2SO4
How do you set this up?
Determine the percent of S in sulfuric acid.
Then:
1.1ton/.0255 * 100/percentSinacid =
I tried this & the % of S in sulfuric acid = 32.7%.
However, when I worked 1.1ton/0.0255*11/0.327 I got:13191.82107. The question says to give to 2sig figs. I entered 1.3*10^4, but said that it was incorrect.
Any other suggestions...or did I just enter the numbers incorrectly?
tried this & the % of S in sulfuric acid = 32.7%.
However, when I worked 1.1ton/0.0255*100/0.327 I got:13191.82107. The question says to give to 2sig figs. I entered 1.3*10^4, but said that it was incorrect.
Any other suggestions...or did I just enter the numbers incorrectly?
To solve this problem, we need to follow a step-by-step approach:
Step 1: Calculate the mass of sulfur in the coal.
- The coal contains 2.55% sulfur by mass, which means that for every 100g of coal, there is 2.55g of sulfur.
- Since we're considering 1.1 metric tons of coal (1100 kg), we need to convert the mass of sulfur from g to kg.
- Multiply the mass of coal (1100 kg) by the sulfur content in percent (2.55%) to find the mass of sulfur in kg.
Step 2: Convert the mass of sulfur to mass of sulfuric acid.
- Sulfur combines with oxygen to form sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas when the coal is burned.
- Sulfur dioxide reacts with rainwater to form sulfuric acid (H2SO4).
- The molecular weight of sulfur is 32 g/mol, and the molecular weight of sulfuric acid is 98 g/mol.
- Use the molar ratios to convert the mass of sulfur to mass of sulfuric acid.
- Divide the mass of sulfur (in kg) by the molar mass of sulfur, multiply by the molar ratio between sulfur dioxide and sulfur, and then multiply by the molar ratio between sulfuric acid and sulfur dioxide.
Step 3: Convert the mass of sulfuric acid to metric tons.
- Divide the mass of sulfuric acid (in kg) by 1000 to convert it to metric tons.
Let's do the calculations:
Step 1:
Mass of sulfur = (1100 kg) x (2.55g/100g) = 28.05 kg
Step 2:
Mass of sulfuric acid = (28.05 kg) / (32 g/mol) x (1 mol SO2 / 1 mol S) x (1 mol H2SO4 / 1 mol SO2) x (98 g/mol) = 84.19 kg
Step 3:
Mass of sulfuric acid in metric tons = 84.19 kg / 1000 = 0.084 metric tons
Therefore, the answer is:
A: 0.084 metric tons H2SO4.