Q4.138CP

Question

Question: In 1997, at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, the major industrial nations agreed to expand their research efforts to develop renewable sources of carbon-based fuels. For more than a decade, Brazil has been engaged in a program to replace gasoline with ethanol derived from the root crop manioc (cassava).

(a) Write separate balanced equations for the complete combustion of ethanol (C2H5OH) and of gasoline (represented by the formula C8H18).

(b) What mass of oxygen is required to burn completely 1.00 L of a mixture that is 90.0% gasoline (d = 0.742 g/mL) and 10.0% ethanol (= 0.789 g/mL) by volume?

(c) If 1.00 mol of O2 occupies 22.4 L, what volume of O2 is needed to burn 1.00 L of the mixture?

(d) Air is 20.9% O2 by volume. What volume of air is needed to burn 1.00 L of the mixture?

Step-by-Step Solution

Verified
Answer

 

Answer:

  1. The balanced equation for the complete combustion of ethanol and gasoline are,  C2H5OHl+3O2g2CO2g+3H2Ol2C8H18l+25O2g16CO2g+18H2Ol
  2. The mass of the oxygen gas is 2.51x103 g.
  3. The volume of O2 is 1.76x103 L.
  4. The volume of the air is 8.42x103 L.

 

1Step 1: (a) Reactions

The balanced equation for the complete combustion of ethanol is,

 C2H5OHl+3O2g2CO2g+3H2Ol

 The balanced equation for the combustion of gasoline is,

 2C8H18l+25O2g16CO2g+18H2Ol

2Step 2: (b) Determination of mass of oxygen

The equation for the complete combustion of ethanol is,

 C2H5OHl+3O2g2CO2g+3H2Ol

 

The volume of ethanol is,

 V=1.00L×10100×1000mL1LV=100.0mL

 

Now, the mass of oxygen gas using the volume of ethanol is,

 =100.0mL×0.789gC2H5OH1mLC2H5OH×1molC2H5OH46.0gC2H5OH×3molO21molC2H5OH×32.0gO21molO2\hfill=165.0g

 

 The equation for the combustion of gasoline is,

 2C8H18l+25O2g16CO2g+18H2Ol

 

The volume of gasoline is,

 V=1.00L×90100×1000mL1LV=900.0mL

 

Now, the mass of oxygen gas using the volume of ethanol is,

=900.0mL×0.742gC8H181mLC8H18×1molC8H18114.0gC8H18×12.5molO21molC8H18×32.0gO21molO2\hfill=2.34×103g 

 

Now, the total mass of the oxygen gas is,

 165.0g+2.34×103g=2.51×103g

 

Thus, the mass of the oxygen gas is 2.51x103 g.