How is mass conserved when #1*kg# of hexanes is combusted with #14.7*kg# of air?

1 Answer
Oct 17, 2017

Well mass is conserved ABSOLUTELY, so if you start with #15.7*kg# of petrol and air, you are going to finish with #15.7*kg# of combustion products, but we can be a little bit more discriminating.

Explanation:

We write the combustion rxn for hexanes, #C_6H_14#...

#C_6H_14(l) + 19/2O_2(g) rarr 6CO_2(g) + 7H_2O(g) + Delta#

And is this balanced?

We gots #(1000*g)/(86.18*g*mol^-1)=11.6*mol# with respect to hexanes...

And we need #19/2*"equiv"# of dioxygen....

i.e. #19/2*molxx11.6xx32.00*g*mol^-1-=3527.5*g#.

Now we gots #14.7*kg# air, which is #23.2%# by MASS dioxygen, i.e. #3.41*kg#. So we haven't got quite enuff dioxygen for complete combustion....we could invoke incomplete combustion, i.e.

#C_6H_14 + 9O_2 rarr 5CO_2(g) + CO(g) +7H_2O(g)#

But I am not going to bother because the question is poorly proposed.

So finally, if you start with #15.7*kg# of reactant, you are going to finish with #15.7*kg# of product in whatever form... Conservation of mass, an absolute property of EVERY chemical reaction, confirms this.