Calcium oxide, or lime, is produced by the thermal decomposition of limestone in the following reaction. What mass of lime can be produced from 1.5 x 10^31.5x103 kg of limestone?

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1 Answer
anor277
Jul 7, 2017

Approx. 850*"tonnes"850⋅tonnes

Explanation:

CaCO_3(s) stackrel(Delta)rarr CaO(s) + CO_2(g)

You have the stoichiometric equation, which tells you UNEQUIVOCALLY that 100.09*g of CaCO_3(s) undergoes decomposition with heat to give 56.09*g of so-called "burnt lime" or "quicklime" (i.e. "calcium oxide") and 44.0*g of carbon dioxide........

If you haven't already realized "mass is conserved". What does this mean in this context?

With respect to CaCO_3 we heated a molar quantity of (1.5xx10^6*g)/(100.09*g*mol^-1)~=15000*mol.

And thus if such a molar quantity of calcium carbonate were reacted we would get a molar quantity of 15000*mol with respect to "carbon dioxide"........i.e. approx. 660*"tonnes". Take that atmosphere!

We also get 15000*molxx56.08*g*mol^-1=841*"tonnes" with respect to "calcium oxide", i.e. "quicklime", CaO........

In what industry do you think that these reactions would have direct relevance? Or rather in what industry are these reactions routinely performed on these scales or larger?

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