Prajwal Thapa

Assignment 2

1.5 Assume there is enough coal left to last for another 300 years at current consumption rates. a. Determine how long the coal will last if its use is increased at a rate of 5% per year. b. If there is enough coal to last for 10,000 years at current consumption rates, then how long will it last if its use increases by 5% per year? c. Can you predict any other possible consequences if coal burning increases at 5% per year for the short or long term? d. Determine the annual percent reduction in coal consumption to ensure that coal will last forever, assuming the 300-year lifetime at present consumption rates.

ans: a) Time for which coal will last is given by

Where, i= rate of increment in consumption = 5 %, Yo= estimated lifetime of the resource at the present rate of consumption = 300 years = 56.35 years b) Similarly if estimated lifetime of the resource at the present rate of consumption (Yo) = 10000 years =125.91 years c) If coal burning increases at 5% per year the rate of consumption increases and the amount of coal in the earth crust decreases. The coal burning being a major source of air pollution can cause detrimental impacts on human health and the environment. Coal often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide which is hazardous to human health. Carbon monoxide from the incomplete combustion of coal is a very poisonous gas. Coal combustion produces carbon dioxide which is a greenhouse gas that causes climate change. Also, reduction of coal reserves by its excessive use will cause the energy production cost to rise.  d) To ensure that coal will last forever, +.]=300 or, or, i= 1/300= 0.00333 0r, i=0.3333%

1.5 If the half-life of a radioactive isotope is 500 years, how many years will it take for an amount of the isotope to decay to 1% of its original value? ans: Half life time (t1/2) = ln 2 is the time constant. =500/ln2=721.34 Hence, amount of the isotope to decay to 1% of its original value N=Noe t/ N/N0=0.01 for isotope to decay to 1% of its original value -t/ =-4.605 t=3321.89 years

1.9 Burning a gallon of petroleum produces approximately 25 pounds of carbon dioxide and burning a ton of coal produces approximately 7000 pounds of carbon dioxide. a. If a barrel of petroleum contains 42 gallons, if the world consumes 70 million barrels of petroleum per day and if the atmosphere weighs 14.7 pounds per square inch of earth surface area, calculate the weight of carbon dioxide generated each year from burning petroleum and compare this amount with the weight of the atmosphere. b. If a total of 14 million tons of coal are burned every day on the earth, calculate the weight of carbon dioxide generated each year from coal burning and compare it with the weight of the atmosphere.

Ans: a) Gallons of petroleum consumed per day 70*106 * 42 = 2.94 *109 gallons Given, 1 gallon petroleum produces 25 pounds CO2 Therefore, world produces 70*10^6*42*25=7.35*1011 pounds CO2 each day. CO2 produced by world each year =365*7.35*1011=2.68*1014 pounds Now, Radius of earth (R)=4000 mile =253439370.1 inch Surface area of earth= 4* *R2 =8.0716*1017 sq. inch Therefore if atmosphere weighs 14.7 pounds per square inch of earth surface area, atmosphere weight=8.0716*1017*14.7 =1.1865*1019 pounds Therefore, CO2 produced due to petroleum burning per year is ( 2.68*1014 / 1.1865*1019)=22.587 10-6 fraction of weight of atmosphere.

b) 1 ton coal produces 7000 pounds CO2. World produces 14*10^6*7000=9.8*10^10 pounds CO2 each day from coal. Therefore world produces 3.557*10^10 pounds CO2 each year from coal. Hence, CO2 produced due to coal burning per year is (9.8*10^10 / 1.1865*10^19) = 8.26 *10 -9 fraction of weight of atmosphere.
1.17 The earth Policy Institute [27] reports the following worldwide PV production figures. Plot the data on an Excel graph, establish an equation to represent the data, and then answer the three questions posed in Problem 1.15. Compare the results of the two problems.

PV production (MW) 1995 77.6 1996 88.6 1997 126 1998 155 1999 201 2000 277 2001 386 2002 547 2003 748 2004 1194 2005 1786 2006 2521 Ans: The graph to represent above data is given below,
3000 2500 PV production (MW) 2000 1500 1000 500 0 1994 1996 1998 2000 Year 2002 2004 2006 2008

Year

Fig1: Worldwide PV production figure

3000 2500 PV production 2000 1500 1000 500 0 1994

Series1 Nn==60* EXP(0.31*n)

1996

1998

2000

Year

2002

2004

2006

2008

Fig2: Equation representing Worldwide PV production figure The equation to represent above graph is =30* EXP(0.37*n) (from trial and error) The equation plotted is shown in figure 2 Time when PV shipments will reach 10 GW is given by 10000= 30* EXP(0.37*n) where n is no. of year from 1995 n=15.7 or year 2010 in question no. 19 it was 2008 Similarly, time when PV shipments will reach 50 GW is given by 50000= 30* EXP (0.37 *n) n=20.05 years or, year 2015 in question no. 19 it was 2012 time when PV shipments will reach 2700 GW is given by
2700000= 30* EXP (0.37 *n) n=30 years or, year 2025

in question no. 19 it was 2020