A compressed air storage cylinder has a volume of 0.5m^3 and contains air at an absolute pressure of 1.

8 MPa and temperature of 19c / 20c. A quantity of the air is released during which the temperature of the remaining air falls to 15c and the pressure to 1.5 MPa. Calculate the mass of the air released. The characteristic gas constant for air is 287 Jkg^-1K^-1.

First, let us assume compressed air is an ideal gas. Now, lets find the number of moles of air in the initial condition: n1 = P1*V1/(R*T1) n1 = (1.8*10^6 Pa * 0.5m^3) / (287 J/kg*K * 293K) = 10.7mol air. To find the number of moles of air in the final condition, we also use the ideal gas law, but this time setting each condition equal to each other like so: (P1*V1)/(n1*R*T1) = (P2*V2)/(n2*R*T2). Now the only unknown variable is n2 so if we rearrange we find n2 = n1 * (T1/T2) * (P2/(P1) ***Note: R, V1, and V2 are cancelled out since R1=R2 and V1=V2*** n2 = 10.7mol * (293/288) * (1.5/1.8) = 9.07mol air. n1-n2 = 10.7 - 9.07 Finally, 28.97g/mol air * 1.63 mol = 47.2g air