Question

Ventilation during intensive care can be modeled as a mixing problem. A patient is placed on a ventilator to remove CO2. Suppose that the rate of ventilation is 100 mL/s, with the percentage of CO2 (by volume) in the inflow being 0. Suppose also that air is absorbed by the lungs at a rate of 10 mL/s and gas consisting of 100% CO2 is excreted back into the lungs at the same rate. The volume of a typical pair of lungs is around 4000 mL. If the patient starts ventilation with 20% of their lung volume being CO2, what volume of CO2 will remain in their lungs after 150 minutes? (Round your answer to the nearest whole number.)

Answer 1