[Whwang]

Bacterial digestion is an economical method of sewage treatment. The reaction 5CO2 + 55NH4 + 76O2 ---> C5H7O2N + 54NO2 + 52H2O +109H is an intermediate step in the conversion of nitrogen in organic compouinds into nitrate ions. How much bacterial tissue is produced in a treatment plant for every 1.0 x 10^4 kg of wastewater containing 3.0% NH4 ions by mass? Assume that 95% of the ammonium ions are consumed by the bacteria.

Um, i know that you're always supposed to start with the givens, but i just don't know how to begin the setup. Will someone guide me/help me figure out how to do this?

[Albert]

I'm not sure to have understood the problem (I guess because of my poor English). Do bacteria react with 10⁴ Kg of a 3% solution of NH₄⁺? And, if that's how things are, what product represents bacterial tissue?

[Will]

Bacterial digestion is an economical method of sewage treatment. The reaction 5CO2 + 55NH4 + 76O2 ---> C5H7O2N + 54NO2 + 52H2O +109H is an intermediate step in the conversion of nitrogen in organic compouinds into nitrate ions. How much bacterial tissue is produced in a treatment plant for every 1.0 x 10^4 kg of wastewater containing 3.0% NH4 ions by mass? Assume that 95% of the ammonium ions are consumed by the bacteria.

I'm assuming the C₅H₇O₂N is the bacterial tissue.
To work out the answer you can work out the mass of ammonium consumed (10000000 x 0.03 x 0.95) which can be converted to moles of NH₄⁺ consumed by dividing by the M_r(18.0386).
Now that you know the moles of ammonium consumed you can work out the moles of bacterial tissue by dividing by 55.
To convert that into grams you just have to multiply by the M_r(113.1153).
I got 32493.8g of bacterial tissue as the answer, hope that's right!