Here‘s the question:The equation for one of the reactions in the process of turning iron ore into the metal isFe2O3(s) + 3 CO(g) 2 Fe(s) + 3CO2(g)If you start with exactly 8 kg of each reactant, what is the maximum mass of iron you can produce?And I need to find the mass in grams of iron metal produced. How do I go about solving this? Looked through my textbook for any similar problems but there is absolutely no mention on type of process similar to this.nor any section that has equations where you have to solve this kind of problem. How do I figure this out? What do I need to do?
It is a limiting reactant problem. You need to determine which of the starting materials is the limiting reactant, e.g. if at 8 kg which one produces the least amount of Iron. To do this you must assume one of the reactants is unlimited and then have the other one be 8kg or 8000g. Let's first test Fe2O3, which has a molar mass of 159.7g/mo: 8000g Fe2O3/159.7g Fe2O3 50.09 moles Fe2O3 and for every 1 mole of Fe2O3, 2 moles of Fe are produced. So 50.09 moles Fe2O3 X 2 moles Fe100.18 moles Fe. Now let's assume Fe2O3 is unlimited and we have 8000g CO, which has a molar mass of 28.01g/mol. 8000g CO/28.01g CO 285.6 moles CO. For every three moles of CO consumed, 2 moles of Fe are produced. So 285.6 moles CO X 3 moles CO/ 2 moles Fe 428.4 moles Fe. So obviously Fe2O3 is the limiting reactant because from 8kg Fe2O3, only 100.18 moles Fe were produced compared to 8kg of CO producing 428.4 moles Fe. Next to determine the mass of iron produced just take the equation one step further and use the molar mass of Fe which is 55.85g/mol: 100.18 moles Fe X 55.85g Fe 5595 grams of iron metal produced. Hope this helps!
