Southern California’s Water
Most of southern California’s water is imported. The California Aqueduct delivers up to 4.2 million acre-feet, the Colorado River Aqueduct 3,069.6 acre-feet, and the Los Angeles Aqueduct 275,000 acre-feet, for a combined total of 4,478,069.6 acre-feet of water per year. Since 1 acre-foot = 1233.5 m3, 4,478,069.6 acre-feet = 5,522,006,580.6 m3. To determine the mass of 5,522,006,580.6 m3 we’ll use the formula: mass = volume x density. Since the density of water is defined as 1000 kg/m3, 5,522,006,580.6 m3 x 1000 kg/m3 = 5,522,006,580,000 kg of water (mass).
Hydrogen to Replace the California and the Colorado River Aqueducts
The next task is to calculate how much hydrogen would be needed to create 5,522,006,580,000 kg of water. The first step is to understand the chemical formula for water, which is H2O. This means that one molecule of water contains two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.
Next, we need to determine the molar mass of water, which is approximately 18.01528 grams per mole. Since we are given the mass of water in kg, we need to convert the mass to moles using molar mass.
First, we need to convert the mass of water to grams:
5,522,006,580,000 kg * 1000 = 5,522,006,580,000,000 g
Next, we calculate the number of moles of water:
5,522,006,580,000,000 g ÷ 18.01528 g/mol = approximately 3.07 x 1014 mol.
Since we need two molecules of hydrogen for every molecule of water, the number of moles of hydrogen required is double that of water: 3.097 x 1014 * 1.00784 g/mol = approximately 6.18 x 1014 g, or 611,800,000,000 kg of hydrogen.
This much hydrogen would be needed to replace the water from the California and Colorado Aqueducts.