Mina is a chemical engineer working for a wastewater treatment facility. One of the byproducts of sewage treatment is sludge. After microorganisms, grow in the activated sludge process to remove nutrients and organic material, a substantial amount of wet sludge is produced. This sludge needs to be dewatered, one of the most expensive parts of most treatment plant operations. Mina suggests that the sludge be dried and sold as fertilizer. She also mentions that burning the sludge as fuel is also effective. To burn this, fuel oil is mixed with it, and the mixture is burned in a furnace with air. Her boss agrees with burning but further data is needed in order to proceed with the plan. Since additional cost is required for the fuel oil, Mina needs to determine if burning is worth it. The data below shows the analysis for the sludge and the combustion products Sludge (%) Combustion Products (%) S 32 SO2 1.52 C 40 CO2 10.14 H2 4 O2 4.65 O2 24 N2 81.67 CO 2.01 a. Determine the weight percentage of carbon and hydrogen in the fuel oil to be used in order to produce a combustion products analysis, shown above, that is acceptable in DENR regulations. b. To be able to determine the additional cost needed for the fuel oil, how much dry sludge needs to be burned for every pound of fuel oil in the mixture?
Mina is a chemical engineer working for a wastewater treatment facility. One of the byproducts of sewage treatment is sludge. After microorganisms, grow in the activated sludge process to remove nutrients and organic material, a substantial amount of wet sludge is produced. This sludge needs to be dewatered, one of the most expensive parts of most treatment plant operations. Mina suggests that the sludge be dried and sold as fertilizer. She also mentions that burning the sludge as fuel is also effective. To burn this, fuel oil is mixed with it, and the mixture is burned in a furnace with air. Her boss agrees with burning but further data is needed in order to proceed with the plan. Since additional cost is required for the
fuel oil, Mina needs to determine if burning is worth it. The data below shows the analysis for the sludge and the combustion products
| Sludge (%) | Combustion Products (%) |
| S | 32 | SO2 | 1.52 |
| C | 40 | CO2 | 10.14 |
| H2 | 4 | O2 | 4.65 |
| O2 | 24 | N2 | 81.67 |
| CO | 2.01 |
a. Determine the weight percentage of carbon and hydrogen in the fuel oil to be used in order to produce a combustion products analysis, shown above, that is acceptable in DENR regulations.
b. To be able to determine the additional cost needed for the fuel oil, how much dry sludge needs to be burned for every pound of fuel oil in the mixture?
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