Question

Assume as students that you each use 1000 Watts of power for 12 hours each day (lights, computers, class room air conditioning, etc). Much of this energy in Thailand is generated from coal. Assume that the process is only 50% efficient, and if you use 1000 Watts it really requires 2000 Watts of coal power. Calculate how much CO₂ is going into that atmosphere to maintain you at this level of energy consumption for each year and put your answer in metric tones/year CO₂. If you use a spreadsheet make sure you document all of your work so that one can follow all of your assumptions

Answer 1

reaction of coal combution is

C + O₂    CO₂  + 152 Kcal/mol

152 Kcal = 176.776 watt

1 mole of carbon burn produce 176.776 watts then to produce 2000 watt require 2000/176.776 = 11.3137 mole of carbon

11.3137 mole of carbon produce 2000 Watt power thue, 11.3137 mole of carbon require per day then for 365 day require 11.3137 x 365 = 4129.5 mole per year

According to reaction 1 mole of carbon produce 1 mole of CO₂ then 4129.5 mole of carbon produce 4129.5 mole of CO₂

molar mass of CO₂ = 44.01 gm /mol that mean 1  mole  of CO₂ = 44.01 gm

then 4129.5 mole of CO₂ = 4129.5 x 44.01 = 181739.295 gm of CO₂

181739.295 gm of CO₂ = 181.173 kg of CO₂  = 0.181173 metric tones of CO₂

0.181173 metric tones of CO₂ /year