Dear Chegg, I need help with following environmental chemistry / earth science q

Question

Dear Chegg, I need help with following environmental chemistry / earth science question(s) and hope someone can help me with answering it;

Organic carbon can be stored for long periods under cool and anaerobic conditions. One example is that fjords, which make up a very small fraction of the oceanâs area, are responsible for 1/10 of all carbon storage in the ocean, due to the cool anaerobic conditions at the bottoms of fjords. Suppose that Russia decided to generate CO2 emissions credits by burying waste plant matter (sawdust, recycled paper, straw, etc.). The idea would be to fill the inactive open pit Mir diamond mine in Siberia with plant matter and then flood it with water. The mine is a cone with a diameter of 1200 m and a depth of 525 m.

The volume of Mir Diamond mine in Siberia is 0.198km3.

By using following datas, answer following questions with step by step calculation(s);

a) What is the density of sawdust? Find thereafter a typical elemental composition for wood and estimate how many grams of carbon, moles of carbon and metric tons of CO2 equivalents would fit in the Siberian Mir Diamond mine.

b) How does this compare with the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere?

Explanation / Answer

The Density of sawdust = 210 kg/cu.m = 0.21 specific gravity

The volume of Mir Diamond mine = 0.198 cu.km.= 198,000,000 cu.m.

The quantity of sawdust required to fill mine

                                        198000000 x 0.21 = 41,580,000 tons

Saw dust require to fill Mir diamond mine = 41.58 million tons

1kg of wood generates 1.65 to 1.80 kg of CO2

1 ton of wood generates 1.65 tons CO2

1 mole of CO2 = 44.0 grm

1 ton        “       = 22,730 moles of CO2

1 ton of wood=1,65 tons of CO2=1,65 x 22,730 = 37,504 moles CO2

Let us assume wood and saw dust has same specific gravity is same

Then total tons of moles of CO2 fit into the mine

                    = 41,580,000 x 37,504 = 155,941,632,000=155.94 billion moles of CO2 fit into the mine

1ton CO2 = 22,730 moles

Total tons of CO2 fit into mine = 155,940,000,000/22730

                                                  = 6,860,536 tons of CO2

The total weight CO2 available in atmosphere = 2,966, 000,000,000 tons

The Mine CO2 constitute 2.3 % of total CO2 in the atmosphere

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