3 ms·

"It consumes 22,000 tons of coal and emits 44,000 tons of carbon daily." How does that work out? Shouldn't mass be conserved?

• mikeash 11y ago
  I assume "carbon" is short for carbon dioxide here, so you get mass contribution from the air consumed in the process.
  • JoeAltmaier 11y ago
    The 'O' in 'CO2'. C is 12; O is 16. I'm surprised its only 2:1 instead of 3:1 (or more accurately 44:12)
    • danmaz74 11y ago
      Probably because carbon isn't actually pure carbon
  • aftbit 11y ago
    That means the plant consumes 20 billion liters (30 million kilograms) of oxygen in a day.[1] That's insane. Just shows you how huge Earth must be for that to happen and me to still be able to breathe. :) [1]: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=liters+of+oxygen+in+44000+tons+of+carbon+dioxide+ http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=liters+of+oxygen+in+440...
• rbobby 11y ago
  I think the 44k tons daily is a typo. Earlier in the article it said 16k tons annually (in atmosphere... so maybe the rest is ash).
  • MaysonL 11y ago
    16 million tons annually
    • rbobby 11y ago
      Doh. And 16 million tons annually is about 44,000 tons daily.