A 200-MW coal-fired power plant consumes 1200 kg/min of coal to generate this electricity. It is using coal with a 7.3% ash content (i.e., 7.3% of the coal mass becomes ash upon combustion), and pollution control strategies employed prevent 99.6% of this ash from being released to the atmosphere. Presume all other ash is contained to be collected for disposal.
(a) If the density of the ash is 650 kg/m^3, what volume of ash would be collected by the pollution control measures at this facility each month? Assume 1 month = 30 days.
(b) If the quantity of ash released from the power plant each minute were to be eventually despersed in 4,000,000 m^3 of air at 25 degrees Celsius and 1 atm, what would be its concentration expressed in ppm? Assume particulate matter to have a "molecular weight" of 29.0 g/mol.