9/27/2009

Assignment 1

Student’s ID : 0638775
Name: Bhavin Jambucha
Under guidance of Professor : Frank Zeman
ENVT – 715-F01, Pollution Prevention and Waste Minimization
Fall 2009
M.S. in Environmental Technologies

Assignment for Chapters 2 & 3.

Q. 2.3: Name the compounds using IUPAC rules.

Solution. a) 3-Chloro toluene (or) m-Chloro toluene

b) 4-Propyl Nitrobenzene

c) Chloro Naphthalene

d) Trinitro Toluene

e) 3,3’,5,5’-Tetrachlorobiphenyl

Q. 2.9: An industry discharges 500 m3/day of wastewater containing 12 mg/L of

cadmium into a river that serves as drinking water source for a downstream
community. The stream flow is 3500 m3/min. Assuming that the cadmium acts in
a conservation fashion (i.e., it disperses in the water and is not removed by
precipitation, adsorption, volatilization, bio-uptake by organisms in the river, or
by water treatment process) and that the average daily per capita consumption
of water is 2 L/day, what is the average daily intake of cadmium due to water
consumption?

Solution. Conversion: 1 L = 1 m3

 Flow of waste water = 500 m3/day

= 500 L/day
 500 
=  = 0.347 L/min
 24  60 

 Percentage cadmium in waste water = 12 mg/L

So, % Cadmium per min in discharge = 12 x 0.347
= 4.164 mg/min

 Now, Flow of river is 3500 m3/min (3500 L/min) in which 0.347 L/min is
the discharge from industry containing 4.164 mg/min Cadmium. This
means that river contains (3500-0.347) = 3499.653 L/min fresh water.

Assignment 1: Pollution Prevention and Waste Minimization 2

Prof. Frank Zeman
  Thus, % Cadmium in river can be determined as follows:
 4.167  0.347 
=  
 3499.653 
= 4.128 x 10-4 mg/L in stream

 From 3500 L/min flow, people consume 2 L/day i.e. (13.89 x 10-4) L/min

 So, average intake of cadmium daily per person will be :

 4.167  104  13.89  104 
=  
 3500 
-10
= 1.638 x 10 mg Cadmium

Q. 3.8. A power plant burns 4000 kg of coal containing 5.0 percent sulfur per hour.
Assuming that all of the S is converted to SO3 during combustion and that there
is enough moisture in the air to convert all of the SO 3 to H2SO4, how much acid is
produced per hour in the atmosphere?

Solution: Basis: 1 Hour

Basic data and conversions used:
Atomic Weights: Hydrogen 1, Sulfur 32, Oxygen 16
Chemical Reaction for production of acid (sulfuric acid): SO3 + H2O = H2SO4

Calculations:
Coal burnt: 4000 Kg
Sulfur burnt = Sulfur in this coal (5%) = 0.05 x 4000 = 200 Kg
Molecular weight of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) = 2 + 32 + 64 = 98

From the chemical reaction above, we can say that, for every 98 Kg of H 2SO4
produced, 32 Kg of sulfur is used (burnt).

 200 × 98 
So, for 200 Kg sulfur burnt, H2SO4 produced will be   = 612.5 Kg
 32 

So, 612.5 Kg of acid (sulfuric acid) per hour is produced, when coal is burnt at the
rate of 4000 Kg per hour.

Assignment 1: Pollution Prevention and Waste Minimization 3

Prof. Frank Zeman
Q. 3. 12. McDonald’s has sold about 100 billion hamburgers over the past year.
a) If the paper packaging for these hamburgers had been reduced by only
about 10g per hamburger, how much solid waste would have been
prevented?
b) If it takes 17 trees to produce a metric ton of paper, how many trees
would have been saved if the reduced packaging had been used?
c) If it takes 200,000 L of water to produce 1 metric ton of paper, how much
water would have been saved and how much less wastewater would
have needed to be treated?

Solution: a) When weight of paper packing is reduced by 10 gm per hamburger, for

100 billion hambergers, it will be 10 x 100 x 1000,000,000 gm
= 10 x 100 x 1,000,000 Kg
= 10 x 100 x 1000 MT
= 1,000,000 MT.

b) If 17 trees are needed to produce 1 MT of paper, then, for producing

above 1,000,000 MT of paper, we will require

 1,000,000 
  = 58,824 trees.
 17 

In another words, we can save these 58,824 trees, if weight of paper for
packing each hamburger is reduced by 10 gm.

c) Water required to make 1 MT of paper = 200,000 Litre = 200 M3

Water required to make above 58,824 MT of paper = 200 x 58,824 =
11,764,800 M3

This means that if weight of paper for packing each hamburger is reduced
by 10 gm, we can save 11,764,800 M3 of water and hence 11,764,800 M3
less waste water is needed to be treated.

Assignment 1: Pollution Prevention and Waste Minimization 4

Prof. Frank Zeman