3. An unscrupulous coal-fired power plant operator decides that the scrubbers on his plant are costing too much money to operate, so he decides
3. An unscrupulous coal-fired power plant operator decides that the scrubbers on his plant are costing too much money to operate, so he decides to shut them down at night when the resultant black smoke will not be noticed. This plant consumes 3,400 metric tons of coal per day, and the scrubbers are shut down for 8 hours per day. This plant produces 160 tons of fly ash per ton (English units) of coal burned. The particulates have the diameter composition given below. A. Calculate the total mass of fly ash produced by this plant in this mode of operation for 1 day. B. Calculate the terminal velocity for each particle size. (assume a density of 2.5 g/mL) C. Calculate the coagulation rate for the particles (that can be calculated from data given in your text). D. Calculate the half-life required for all of the particulates below a dp of 1.0 to coagulate. What is the time required for 10 half-lives to pass for each of these (this will approximate the time required for the particles to coagulate and settle)? E. Calculate the time required for each particle above a dp of 1.0 to settle, assuming the smoke-stack is 400 feet tall. F. Assuming the plant operator gets away with this for 1 month (30 days), how long can the local population expect to continue seeing dust settling after the scrubbers have begun operating? (Hint: Which particle is up the longest?)
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