Question

When a hydrocarbon fuel is burned, almost all of the carbon in the fuel burns completely to form \(\mathrm{CO}_{2}\) (carbon dioxide \(),\) which is the principal gas causing the greenhouse effect and thus global climate change. On average, \(0.59 \mathrm{kg}\) of \(\mathrm{CO}_{2}\) is produced for each \(\mathrm{kWh}\) of electricity generated from a power plant that burns natural gas. A typical new household refrigerator uses about \(700 \mathrm{kWh}\) of electricity per year. Determine the amount of \(\mathrm{CO}_{2}\) production that is due to the refrigerators in a city with 300,000 households.

Short answer

Answer: The total amount of CO2 production due to refrigerators in a city with 300,000 households is approximately 123,900,000 kg per year.

Step-by-step solution

Determine the total kWh used by refrigerators in the city annually.

To find the total electricity consumed by all refrigerators in the city, we need to multiply the average electricity usage by the total number of households: Total kWh = (Number of households) * (Average electricity usage per refrigerator) Total kWh = (300,000 households) * (700 kWh/household)

Calculate the total CO2 produced from this electricity generation.

Now that we have the total kWh used by refrigerators in the city, we can find the total amount of CO2 produced from this electricity generation by multiplying the total kWh by the average CO2 produced per kWh: Total CO2 produced = (Total kWh used) * (Average CO2 produced per kWh) Total CO2 produced = (Total kWh from step 1) * (0.59 kg CO2/kWh)

Complete calculations and present the result.

Now we will complete the calculations using the values obtained in the previous steps to find the total amount of CO2 production due to the refrigerators in the city with 300,000 households: Total kWh = (300,000 households) * (700 kWh/household) = 210,000,000 kWh Total CO2 produced = (210,000,000 kWh) * (0.59 kg CO2/kWh) = 123,900,000 kg The total amount of CO2 production due to the refrigerators in a city with 300,000 households is approximately 123,900,000 kg per year.