Question

Carbon dioxide is the gas that is mainly responsible for global warming (the greenhouse effect). The burning of fossil fuels is a major cause of the increased carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, but carbon dioxide is also the end product of metabolism.

a.Using glucose (C6H12O6) as an modelof food, and combustion as a model for how our bodies “burn” food to create energy, calculate the annual human production of carbon dioxide in kg. Assume that each person consumes 5.0 x 102g of glucose per day, that the world’s population is 6.5 billion, and that there are 365 days in a year.

b.If the world’s production of CO2from the burning of fossil fuels is ~35,000 Tetragrams (1012g) per year, is human respiration (as calculated in part a) contributing significantly to global warming? Justify your answer.

Answer 1

a C6H12O6 +60 6CO₂ + 6H2O molar mass of glucose = 180. 156 g/mol 180.156 g of glucose = I mole glucose 500 g of glucose = 4.77537 mol I mole glucose gives 6 moles Co₂ 2.87537 " gives 16.6522 moles of CO2 molar mass of CO₂ = 44.01 g/mol 16.6522 moles of CO₂ = 732.865 gr of co by total population in a year - 6.5 X 109 persons x 365 days X 732-8659 CO2 12 dag. person = 1.7381 X 10 Kg (armuel human production of 1.7387x 10 kg.

b) I No, production of CO₂ from burning fossil fuels is very large compared to that of human respiration. CO₂ from fossil fuels = 35000 Tetragrams con from human respiration = 1.74 Tetragrams 1.74 is very small/ negligible number compared to 35000. Hence, co, produced from human respiration is not significant compared to burning of fossil fuels.