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Ch.18 - Chemistry of the Environment
Chapter 18, Problem 79b

In 1986 an electrical power plant in Taylorsville, Georgia, burned 8,376,726 tons of coal, a national record at that time. (b) If 55% of the SO2 could be removed by reaction with powdered CaO to form CaSO3, how many tons of CaSO3 would be produced?

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First, understand the chemical reaction involved: sulfur dioxide (SO2) reacts with calcium oxide (CaO) to form calcium sulfite (CaSO3). The balanced chemical equation is: SO2 + CaO → CaSO3.
Determine the amount of SO2 that can be removed. Since 55% of the SO2 is removed, calculate the mass of SO2 that reacts using the total mass of coal burned. Assume the coal contains a certain percentage of sulfur, which will be converted to SO2.
Calculate the moles of SO2 removed using its molar mass. Use the formula: moles = mass (in tons) / molar mass (in g/mol). Convert tons to grams for this calculation.
Using the stoichiometry of the reaction, determine the moles of CaSO3 produced. Since the reaction is a 1:1 ratio, the moles of CaSO3 produced will be equal to the moles of SO2 removed.
Convert the moles of CaSO3 to tons using its molar mass. Use the formula: mass (in tons) = moles × molar mass (in g/mol) / conversion factor from grams to tons.

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Key Concepts

Here are the essential concepts you must grasp in order to answer the question correctly.

Stoichiometry

Stoichiometry is the calculation of reactants and products in chemical reactions based on the conservation of mass. It involves using balanced chemical equations to determine the proportions of substances consumed and produced. In this case, understanding the stoichiometric relationship between sulfur dioxide (SO2) and calcium oxide (CaO) is essential to calculate the amount of calcium sulfate (CaSO3) formed.
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Chemical Reactions

Chemical reactions involve the transformation of reactants into products through breaking and forming chemical bonds. The specific reaction in this scenario is the neutralization of sulfur dioxide with calcium oxide to produce calcium sulfate. Recognizing the type of reaction and the products formed is crucial for determining the quantities involved.
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Chemical Properties

Mass Percent and Yield

Mass percent refers to the percentage of a specific component in a mixture or compound, while yield indicates the amount of product obtained from a reaction compared to the theoretical maximum. In this question, calculating the mass of CaSO3 produced requires understanding the mass percent of SO2 removed and applying it to the total coal burned to find the resultant product mass.
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Related Practice
Textbook Question

The estimated average concentration of NO2 in air in the United States in 2006 was 0.016 ppm. (a) Calculate the partial pressure of the NO2 in a sample of this air when the atmospheric pressure is 755 torr (99.1 kPa).

Textbook Question

In 1986 an electrical power plant in Taylorsville, Georgia, burned 8,376,726 tons of coal, a national record at that time. (a) Assuming that the coal was 83% carbon and 2.5% sulfur and that combustion was complete, calculate the number of tons of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide produced by the plant during the year.

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Textbook Question

The water supply for a midwestern city contains the following impurities: coarse sand, finely divided particulates, nitrate ions, trihalomethanes, dissolved phosphorus in the form of phosphates, potentially harmful bacterial strains, dissolved organic substances. Which of the following processes or agents, if any, is effective in removing each of these impurities: coarse sand filtration, activated carbon filtration, aeration, ozonization, precipitation with aluminum hydroxide?

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Textbook Question

An impurity in water has an extinction coefficient of 3.45⨉103 M-1 cm-1 at 280 nm, its absorption maximum (A Closer Look, p. 576). Below 50 ppb, the impurity is not a problem for human health. Given that most spectrometers cannot detect absorbances less than 0.0001 with good reliability, is measuring the absorbance of a water sample at 280 nm a good way to detect concentrations of the impurity above the 50-ppb threshold?

Textbook Question

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