The number of litres of air required to burn 8 litres of C2H2 is approximately?

1 Answer
Jun 3, 2017

We need a stoichiometric equation, ...................and get an approx. volume of 100L air.........

Explanation:

We need a stoichiometric equation to represent the combustion:

HCCH(g)+52O2(g)2CO2(g)+H2O(l)

And thus given that at constant pressure, and constant temperature (conditions that must be reasonably assumed!), one volume of acetylene gas requires 52 volumes of dioxygen for complete combustion..........

And so, if there are 8L of acetylene, we requires a volume of 8L×52=??L dioxygen gas.........

But we are not finished there (says he, finally reading the question!). The percentage of oxygen in air BY volume, is approx. 21%.

And thus we need a volume of ....

20LO20.21LO2L1air100Lair.........