A particular coal contains 2.5% sulfur by mass. When this coal is burned, the sulfur is converted into sulfur dioxide gas. The sulfur dioxide reacts with calcium oxide to form solid calcium sulfite.

Question

If the coal is burned in a power plant that uses 1800 tons of coal per day, what mass of calcium oxide is required daily to eliminate the sulfur dioxide?

How many grams of calcium sulfite are produced daily by this power plant?

It's the second question I need help with. I figured out how to find the mass if CaO, which ended up being 79 tons. The reason why I put that up as well is because it may be needed to answer the second question.

So I answered the first part by doing this:
1.9979(45)=89.9055tons of SO2 a day.
0.8753(89.9055)=78.6942 which was the right answer, but then I don't know what to do from there for the second part of the question.

Can you show me step-by-step how to do it?

Answer 1

I tried to convert the tons to grams and got 7.2E7, but that ended up being wrong.

I also need a balanced equation.

Answer 2

78.69 tons CaO x (molar mass CaSO3/molar mass CaO) = ? which is a shortcut. The long way is

78.69 tons CaO x (1 mol CaSO3/1 mol CaO) x (molar mass CaSO3/1 mol CaSO3) x (1mol CaO/molar mass CaO) = ?

By the way, you worked your part the long way too. The short way is this.
S + O2 --> SO2
SO2 + CaO ==> CaSO3
1 mol S = 1 mol SO2 = 1 mol CaO

1800 tons x 0.025 = tons S
tons S x (1 mol S/32.066g S) = mol(tons) S.
g S = mols S x molar mass CaO = tons CaO

1800 x 0.025 x (1/32) x 56.077 = 78.696 tons CaO.l

Answer 3

So I followed that and got 168.58 and I put it as a scientific notation since it wanted only two sigfigs (1.7E2, I had to round as well), but it was wrong.

Answer 4

Check the problem. It asks for GRAMS, not tons.
I obtained 168.6 tons.Convert that to grams and round to two s.f.

Answer 5

Ah, ok. Thanks for all the help.

Answer 6

Still got it wrong. I converted from tons to grams, still no good.

Answer 7

What answer did you get for grams? I agree that 7.2E7 is not right.
168.58 tons x 2000 tons/lb x 453.6 g/lb = about 1.5E8 grams.

The equation you want is
CaO + SO2 ==> CaSO3

Answer 8

Yeah, I ended up getting it. It was a calculation error and I got the equations as well; I had to have two with the phases. Thanks.