Question

A swimming pool in the neighborhood of a smelter receives atmospheric SO2 deposition. The average concentration over the pool is 300 micrograms SO2/m3. If SO2 deposition velocity is 1.2 cm/sec and all SO2 deposited on the pool is transformed to H2SO4,how much NaOH must be added to the pool (moles per square meter of surface area) weekly to neutralize the H2SO4 and prevent the pool from becoming acidified?

Answer 1

You need to multiply the velocity by the concentration in the air to calculate the flux of SO2 into the pool:

1.2cm/s---->0.012m/s

Now the moles per unit area in a week:

1 week---->(7x24x3600)=604800s

moles of SO2 MW(64,065g/mol)

1 mol of SO2 forms 1 mol of H2SO4, thus you have:

33.98 mol of H2SO4 and from the reaction:

you can calculate the moles of NaOH: