[A_Dubbs]

Hey guys, I am doing an enviromental project in my compute programming class and need help with a CO2 issue. I went to a website and found that the average between two different coal types used for giving off energy is 4392 lbs of CO2. Can anyone tell me how I can get this in PPM? It has been so long since I was in chemistry.

[Borek]

Please elaborate, what you wrote so far doesn't make sense.

[A_Dubbs]

My apologies, I don't fully understand the subject myself. Basically, I have read that x pounds of CO2 is produced when one ton of coal is burned. I am wondering what the relationship between the pounds of Co2 and the Co2 released in the atmosphere (in parts per million) is. Maybe these are not related in the way I am looking at it, I don't know much about chemistry. What I want to be able to say is "since x lbs or Co2 is being produced by this coal plant, that is contributing x ppm of CO2 into the atmosphere". Again, maybe it doesn't work that way, I am clueless about this stuff.

[Borek]

OK, now we are getting somewhere

First: take a look at ppm definition.

To calculate concentration of carbon dioxide CO₂ (note: large O obligatory) in atmosphere you will need mass of carbon dioxide and mass of atmosphere (the latter not that difficult to be googled). My bet is that you will find that CO₂ produced in the largest power plants is riduculously low when compared to the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere.

And check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_cycle