The facts and math behind ghetto CO2 generators

RyanTheRhino

Well-Known Member

• Feb 8, 2010

• #1

baking soda & vinegar CO2 generator

Hello everyone, today i got a little bored and wanted to figure out if a cheap baking soda & vinegar CO2 generator could happen.


WOW I messed up a calculation it is help full

ADD 680ml of vinegar to 46g of baking soda to raise a 6x6x6 room +2000 PPM CO2


that a lot of vinegar too.. ha-ha you’ll be leaving the store with 24 packs of vinegar

Vinegar (HC2H3O2)+ baking soda(NaHCO3)

The Reaction

HC2H3O2 + NaHCO3 ===> NaC2H3O2 + H2CO3

Acetic acid plus sodium bicarbonate makes sodium acetate plus carbonic acid

The NaC2H3O2 is a salt called sodium acetate.( The residue left over)




The H2CO3 (carbonic acid) then breaks down into water and carbon dioxide:

H2CO3 ===> H2O + CO2



So,
1 mole of HC2H3O2 = 60.0200 g/mol
1 mole of NaHCO3 = 83.9998 g/mol

The density of HC2H3O2 is 1.049 g/ml so 60.1 grams of vinegar = 63 ml
I just looked at the vinegar in my pantry and turns out store bought vinegar is only 5% HC2H3O2 by volume so,

63 ml * .05 = 3.15

63/3.15 = 20

so you will need 20*63 =1260 ml of store bought vinegar to complete the reaction

Final CO2 produced is 44.02 grams
Correction this also reduces the % mass yield down to 3.3 %.

For a 6’ x 6’ x 6’ room I reaction would bring the PPM up 3714 PPM
So to reach a PPM of 2000 for a 6’ x 6’ x 6’ room (2000/3714)=.539 reactions

.54 * 1260ml of Vinegar = 680 ml or .68 L
.54 * 84g of baking soda = 45.36 or 1.6 ounces

It was worth a shot but this just proves that unless you have a lot of vinegar using baking soda and vinegar is a waste of time.

 

RyanTheRhino

Well-Known Member

• Feb 8, 2010

• #2

yeast fermentation CO2 generator

In the fermentation process yeast is the cause of the chemical reaction (digestion I’m guessing) I am no biologist, but here we go.

Sugar (C6H12O6)

Ethyl alcohol (CH3CH2OH)

Carbon Dioxide (CO2)

C6H12O6 ====> 2(CH3CH2OH) + 2(CO2)
So,
1 mole of sugar (C6H12O6) = 180g

2 moles of CO2 = 88.02g

After fermentation 180 g of sugar will raise a 6’ x 6’ x 6’ +7426 PPM so far so good, but now we have to factor in the time it takes yeast to process sugar. Sorry I tried I could not find the rate of metabolism for yeast. I will instead us the time it took me to ferment wine made with 5lbs of sugar. It took 2.5 months so lest say 75 days
454g in a pound so 454*5= 2270 g

2270/180 = 12.66 or 1/12.5 the scale.

75 days /12.66 = 5.9 days

7426PPM/6 days = +1248 PPM a day for 6 days.

NOTE>>>> THIS NUMBER IS ONLY VALID IF THE YEAST HAVE REPRODUCED FULLY

A= Pe^rt is for continually compounded growth (exponential growth)

7426= P(e^(2270/75)(.205)

P original production of PPM/day = 15

lets test it in a month
x = 15*(e^((2270/75)(1 month is 1/12 of a year so * .08333)

PPM/day after a month = 186.5
PPM/day after 2 months = 2327 Note that the sugar would have run out long before then


Ok I really don’t want to do this cuz its a lot of number crunching ,but I will take the average of every 5 day span of ppm/day production to figure out when the sugar would run out.


Day 1 = 15 (15+35)/2 = 25 25*10days= 250 ppm 7426 - 250 = 7176ppm left
Day 10 =34.4 (35+52)/2 = 61 61*5 = 305 = 6871
Day15 = 52 (53+7 /2 =65 65*5 = 325 = 6546
Day20 = 78 (78+129)/2 = 103 103*5= 517=6028
Day25 = 129 (129+180)/2 = 154 154*5=772= 5255
Day30 = 180 (180+273)/2=226 226*5=1132=4122.5
Day35 = 273 (273+413)/2=343 343*5 = 1715= 2407
Day40 = 413 (413+626)/2=519 519*5=2600 = done<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<run out of sugar before this date
Day45 = 626
Day 50 = 947
Day55 = 1434

 

jawbrodt

Well-Known Member

• Feb 8, 2010

• #3

Thanks guys, I'm glad I never bothered.

 

RyanTheRhino

Well-Known Member

• Jun 9, 2010

• #4

yea i dont know if it would be worth my time for either