Re: Yeast explosion: Volume of CO2

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: Re: Yeast explosion: Volume of CO2
From: David Brockman Wheeler <dwheeler at leland_Stanford.EDU>
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 1995 13:25:43 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <199507191939.PAA16232 at looney_actwin.com> from "Aquatic-Plants-Owner at actwin_com" at Jul 19, 95 03:39:03 pm

Hoa wrote:

>Does anyone know how much volume the 5lbs of CO2 will occupy at atmospheric
>pressure? 

Simple: 1 mol/44g CO2 * 2200 g/lb * 5 lb * 22.4 L/mol = 5.6E3 L 
 
>I wonder if the scenerio above happened while the windows were
>closed, would it suffocate people in a small house or apartment?

Harder: 750 ft^2 * 8 ft ceiling = 6000 ft^3 * 7.5 US gal/ft^3 = 4.5E4 gal
        4.5E4 gal * 3.79 L/gal = 1.7E5 L
   now if all the CO2 escapes into this volume:
        5.6E3 L/1.7E5 L * 100% = 3.2% (v/v)
   In North America the ambient CO2 is ~0.03% (v/v) and so is negligible.
According to the Merck Index, 11th Ed., "Humans cannot breathe air contg
   more than 10% CO2 without losing conciousness." Thus, 5 lb should not
   be dangerous, but you would not want to expose skin, eyes or mucous
   membranes to the escaping gas until it has been diluted by the house's
   air to avoid acid burns.

David B. Wheeler
MD/PhD 4/8 Neurosciences
Stanford University

disclaimer: the above is not official medical opinion nor should these
            opinions be used to justify idiotic behavior or I will
            disavow any knowledge of the aforementioned non-medical
            opinions...;-}