Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Centre for Energy Studies

2018 – 2019 (II Semester)

ESL 330: Energy, Ecology and Environment

Tutorial Sheet - 1

1. A survey on different species of birds revealed that the body mass of light birds weighing 10 gms
has a daily energy expenditure of 10.3 kcal/day and a basal metabolic rate of 4.5 kcal/day, whereas
for heavier birds weighing about 4 kg it about 500 kcal/day and 100 kcal/day respectively. Determine
the exponent for both cases and give your inference of the relation between daily energy expenditure
and basal metabolic rate in relation to size of the birds.

2. If we approximate the atmosphere to be 79% Nitrogen (N2) by volume and 21% oxygen (O2),
estimate the density of air (kg/m3) and ppmv at 1 atmosphere and ambient temperatures of 40 C and
450 C. (Atomic weight of nitrogen=14).

3. The Indian air quality standard for sulphur dioxide SO2 as per National Ambient Air Quality Standards
(NAAQS) in residential areas is 60 µg/m3. Express it in ppmv. (Atomic weights of sulphur and oxygen
are 32.06 and 16 respectively.) Assume 1 atmosphere and 270 C.

4. A home washing machine removes grease and dirt from clothes in a nearly first-order process in
which 12 percent of the grease on the clothes is removed per minute. The washing machine holds
50.0 L of water and has a wash cycle of 5.00 minutes before discharging the wash water. What will be
the grease concentration (in mg/L) in the discharge water if the clothes initially contain 0.5 g of grease?

5. Five millions gallons per day (MGD) of wastewater, with a concentration of 10.0 mg/L of a
conservative pollutant, is released into a stream having an upstream flow of 10 MGD and pollutant
concentration of 3.0 mg/L.

(a) Find concentration in ppm just downstream?

(b) How many pounds of substance per day pass a given spot downstream? (1 Kg = 2.2 lbm; 1 gallon
= 3.785 L)
 Tutorial Sheet

1. A 4 x 8-ft solar collector has water circulating through it at the rate of 1.0 gallon per
minute (gpm) while exposed to sunlight with intensity 300 Btu/ft2-hr (see following
fig.). Fifty percent of that sunlight is captured by the collector and heats the water
flowing through it. What would be the temperature rise of the water as it leaves the
collector?

2. An uncovered swimming pool loses 1.0 in of water off of its 1000 ft2 surface each week
due to evaporation. The heat of vaporisation for water at the pool temperature is 1050
Btu/lb. The cost of energy to heat the pool is $10.00 per million Btu. A salesman claims
that a $500 pool cover that reduces evaporizative losses by two-thirds will pay for itself
in one 15-week swimming session. Can it be true?

3. Two–thirds of the energy content of fuel entering a 1000-MWe nuclear power plant is
removed by condenser cooling water that is withdrawn from a local river (there are no
stack losses, as is the case for a fossil fuel-fired plant). The river has an upstream flow
of 100m3/s and a temperature of 20oC.
a) If the cooling water is only allowed to rise in temperature by 10oC, what flow rate
from the river would be required?
b) How much would the river temperature rise as it receives the heated cooling water?

4. An electric water heater held at 140oF is kept in a 70oF room. When purchased, its
insulation is equivalent to R-5. An owner puts a 25-ft2 blanket on the water heater,
raising its total R value to 15. Assuming 100 percent conversion of electricity into
heated water, how much energy (kWhr) will be saved each year? If electricity costs 8.0
cents/kWhr, how much money will be saved in energy each year?

5. Mars radiates energy with peak wavelength of 13.2µm.

a) Treating it as a blackbody, what would its temperature be?
b) What would be the frequency and energy content of a photon at that wavelength?

6. The rate at which sunlight reaches the outer edge of the atmosphere of the Earth is 1,370
W/m2 (the solar constant for Earth). The Earth’s orbit has an average radius of 150×106
km. Solar radiation decreases as the square of the distance from the Sun. Estimate the
Solar Constants for:-
a) Mars, whose orbit has a radius of 228×106 km.
b) Venus, whose orbit has a radius of 108×106 km.
 TUTORIAL SHEET 3

1. Suppose human population grows from 6.3 billion in 2000 to an ultimate population
of 10.3 billion following the logistic curve. Assuming a growth rate of 1.5 percent in
2000, when would the population reach 9 billion? What would the population be in
2050?
2. Suppose a logistic growth curve had been used to project the world’s population back
in 1970, when there were 3.65 billion people, and the growth rate was 2.0 percent per
year. If a steady state population of 10.3 billion had been used, what would the projected
population have been for 1995 (when it was actually 5.7 billion) and for 2025?
3. Suppose we stock a pond with 100 fish and note that the population doubles in the first
year (with no harvesting), but after a number of years, the population stabilises at what
we think must be the carrying capacity of the pond, 2000 fish. Growth seems to have
followed logistic curve.
a) What population size should be maintained to achieve maximum yield, and
what would be the maximum sustainable fish yield?
b) If the population is maintained at 1500 fish, what would be the sustainable
yield?
4. Observations of a pond newly stocked with 100 fish shows their population doubles in
the first year, but after many years, their population stabilises at 4000 fish. Assuming a
logistic growth curve, what would be the sustainable yield from this pond if the
population is maintained at 3000 fish?
5. The following statistics are for India in 1985: population , 762 million; crude birth
rate,34; crude death rate, 13; infant mortality rate, 118 (rates are per thousand per year).
Find
a) The fraction of total deaths that are infants less than 1 year old;
b) The avoidable deaths, assuming that any infant mortality above 10 could
be avoided with better sanitation, food, and health care; and
c) The annual increase in the number of people in India.
 Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Centre for Energy Studies
2018 – 2019 (II Semester)

ESL 330: Energy, Ecology and Environment

Tutorial Sheet - 4

1. In a given food chain the first level carnivores on the average ingest 30% of the
production of herbivores and the second level carnivores ingest 65% of the first level
carnivores. The first level and second level carnivores assimilate 75% and 90% of the
ingested food. Estimate the assimilated energy with respected to the production of
the herbivores by the
a. First level carnivores
b. Second level carnivores

2. Plants absorb 340000 kcal/m2/yr sunlight incident on a community in the region. The
absorbed light results in a net plant production of 8833 kcal/m 2/yr and
evapotranspiration of 11977 kcal/m2/yr. The herbivores consume 3368 kcal/m2/yr of
plant mass and additional intake of 536 kcal/m2/yr from other sources respiring 1760
kcal/m2/yr of it. 1478 kcal/m2/yr die of natural causes with the remaining eaten up by
the carnivores, provide a net production of 37 kcal/m2/yr for this higher tropic level
with respiration of the former level amounting to 216 kcal/m2/yr. Estimate the trophic
efficiencies for the producers, primary and secondary consumers of this food chain.

3. In a study of the energetics of a salt marsh carried out, it was found to have one
dominant plant, the grass ‘Spartina alterniflora’ apart from some algae. The trophic
organization of the marsh was a little unusual in that most of the animals there
couldn’t feed on the Spartina directly, hence had to be broken down by the bacteria.
The energy flow diagram of this eco-system is given below. Calculate the trophic
efficiency of the
a. Crabs and nematodes
b. Insects
in the diagram. All units in the figure are in kcal/m2/yr.