Any fuel-oxygen mixture that contains more oxygen than is needed to burn the fue

Question

Any fuel-oxygen mixture that contains more oxygen than is needed to burn the fuel completely is called a lean mixture, and a mixture containing too little oxygen to allow complete combustion of the fuel is called a rich mixture. A high-performance heater that burns propane, C3H8(g), is adjusted so that 100.0 g of 02(g) enters the system for every 100.0 g of propane. Is this mixture rich or lean? Compare the (o2C3H8 molar ratio to the stoichiometric ratio in the balanced equation for the reaction. This will indicate whether the mixture is rich or lean.

Explanation / Answer

100 g of O2 means 100/32= 3.125 moles of O2. 100 g of propane= 100/(36+8)= 2.272 moles........Hence ratio of moles = 1.375 and obviously it is rich because 100 g of propane = 2.272 moles of propane requires 2.272*5 moles of O2 (as 1 mole of propane requires 5 moles of O2 for complete combustion) which means 11.36 moles of O2 , while they have provided only 100 g = 3.125 moles of O2. hence propane is more and hence mixture is rich

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