York University

Lassonde school of Engineering

Exercises 2-Model Answer

MASS BALANCE

Question 1 A river with 400 ppm of salts (a conservative substance) and an upstream flow of 25
m3/s receive an agriculture discharge of 5.0 m3/s carrying 2000 mg/L of salts as
shown in the figure. The salts quickly become uniformly distributed in the river. A
municipality just downstream withdraws water and mixes it with enough pure water
(no salt) from another source to deliver water having no more than 500 ppm salts to
its customers? What should be the mixture ratio F of pure water to river water?

500 ppm

FQ m3/s
0 ppm
25.0 m3/s
400 ppm Q m3/s

5.0 m3/s
2000 ppm

Question 1- Solution

1 [Link]
CIVL 2240
Question 2 Plateau Creek carries 5.0 m3/s of water with a selenium (Se) concentration of 0.0015
mg/L. A farmer starts withdrawing 1.0 m3/s of the creek water to irrigate the
land. During irrigation, the water picks up selenium from the salts in the soil.
One-half of the irrigation water is lost to the ground and plants, and the other half is
returned to Plateau Creek. The irrigation run-off to the creek contains 1.00 mg/L of
selenium. Selenium is a conservative, nonreactive substance (it does not degrade in
the stream), and the stream does not pick up more selenium from any other source.
(a) If the farmer irrigates continuously, what will be the steady-state
concentration of selenium in the stream downstream from the farm (after
the irrigation run-off returns to the stream)?
(b) Fish are sensitive to selenium levels over 0.04 mg/L. The farmer
agrees not to use more water than will keep the stream selenium level
below this critical concentration. How much water can the farmer
withdraw from the stream to use for irrigation?
Question 2- Solution

2 [Link]
CIVL 2240
Question 3 Five million gallons per day (MGD) of wastewater with a concentration of 10.0 mg/L
of a conservative pollutant, is released into a stream having an upstream flow of 10
MGD and pollutant concentration of 3 mg/L. Assume complete mixing.
a) What is the concentration in ppm just downstream of the release point?
b) How many pounds of substance per day pass a given spot downstream?

Question 3- Solution

Question 4 A lake with constant volume 10x106 m3 is fed by a pollution-free stream with flow
rate 50 m3/s. A factory dumps 5 m3/s of nonconservative waste with concentration
100 mg/L into the lake. The pollutant has a reaction rate coefficient K of 0.25/day.
Assuming the pollutant is well mixed in the lake, find the steady-state concentration
of pollutant in the lake.

Question 1- Solution

3 [Link]
CIVL 2240
Question 5 The two-pond system shown in figure is fed by a stream with flow rate 1.0 MGD and
BOD (a nonconservative pollutant) concentration 20.0 mg/L. The rate of decay of
BOD is 0.3/day. The volume of the first pond is 5 million galleon and the second is
3 million galleon. Assume complete mixing within each pond, find the BOD
concentration leaving each pond.

1 MGD
20 mg/L C1= ?? C2= ??
V1= 5MG V2= 3MG

Question 2- Solution

Question 6 A lagoon is to be designed to accomodate an input flow of 0.10 m3/s of

4 [Link]
CIVL 2240
 0.20/day. The effluent from the lagoon must have pollutant concentration of less
than 10.0 mg/L. Assuming complete mixing, how large must the lagoon be?

Question 3- Solution

Question 7 A simple way to model air pollution over a city is with a box model that assumes
complete mixing and limited capability for the pollution to disperse horizontally or
vertically except in the direction of the prevailing winds (for example, a town located
in a valley with an inversion layer above it). Consider a town having an inversion at
250 m, a 20-km horizontal distance perpendicular to the wind, a windspeed of 2 mis,
and a carbon monoxide (CO) emission rate of 60 kg/s. Assume the CO is conservative
and completely mixed in the box. What would be the CO concentration in the box?

C= ?
Wind 2 m/s
2 m/s
60 kg/s of CO
250 m

20 Km

Question 4- Solution 20 Km

5 [Link]
CIVL 2240
Question 8 The concentration of Species C was measured as a function of time during a chemical 20 marks
reaction. Its observed concentration of Species C at various time intervals is
presented below. Determine the reaction order and rate constant, k. Is Species C
being removed or produced?
Time (hr) Concentration of C (mg/L)
0 100
1.0 80
3.5 50
6.5 26
11.0 10
Question 5- Solution
A plot of the natural log of C versus time produces a straight line on arithmetic paper indicating a
first order reaction. The slop of the line is equal to k = 0.21h-1..
6.3

5.000

4.500

4.000

3.500
ln (C) = -0.2088 (t) + 4.6108
3.000 R2 = 0.9995
ln (C)

2.500

2.000
First Order Removal Reaction
1.500
-1
Slope = K = 0.21 hr
1.000

0.500

0.000
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time, hours

Species C is being removed

6 [Link]
CIVL 2240