Friday, March 26, 2010

Up to the challenge? Solve and click "Comments" to give the answers!

A hog farm produces 5,000,000 gallons of liquid waste annually. It is stored in an earthen lagoon until it can be surface incorporated into a 400 acre field. The composition of the liquid waste, on a weight basis is 95% water and 5% solids. An elemental analysis of a dried sample of the solid fraction showed it to be 45% carbon, 40% oxygen, 10% hydrogen, 1% nitrogen, 3% phosphorus, and 1% potassium. The dried solid fraction also contains 12 ppm of lead. There was no lead in the soil prior to this waste being applied to it.

1. Determine the dry weight (tons) of solids that the farmer annually applies to each acre.
2. In how many years would the state’s tolerable limit of 5 pounds of lead per acre-furrow-slice be reached if the farmer’s liquid waste application rate is 100 tons per acre per year.
Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. AnonymousMarch 27, 2010 at 1:08 AM

    1. The dry weight of solids that the farmer annyally applies to each acre is 2.3658823 t/Ac

    2. In 1.889 years that means in two years the tolerable limit of lead will be reached if the farmer applies the liquid waste at the rate of 100 tons per acre per year.

    Yours sincerely,
    Uma Devi, Water Technology Centre, ANGRAU, Hyderabad, India.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Did you know that .......?

......there is more life below the soil surface than there is above.
......1 tablespoon of soil has about 50 billion microbes.
......soil microbes have key roles in nutrient cycling.
......there are 5,000 to 7,000 different species of bacteria in one gram of soil.
......the total living matter in an acre of soil ranges from 5,000 to 20,000 pounds.
......earthworms eat soil to get the organic materials in it. The rest passes through them.
......each year, 15 tons of dry soil per acre pass through earthworms.
......about 42 centuries ago, the Chinese used a soil map to determine taxation amounts.
......soil provide 4,000 gallons of water to grow one bushel of corn; for wheat 11,000 gallons.
......soil is synonymous to the word ‘earth’, the word from which our planet derives its name.
......soil can holds 1,700 tons of water per acre, reducing the risk of floods.
......soils store 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions.