Oxidation Energy? 1

[researchdesign]

Trying to figure out if oxidation of nonferrous metals gives off enough heat to impact moisture content in a 20 ton pile after a sit period of 2 days. (approx. percent composition - soil 70 %, metals 20 %, 10 % rubber and foam)

 

[ornerynorsk]

With that much soil it would be doubtful. Ambient humidity will have a lot more to do with it than corrosion energy release. My 2 cents.

 

[researchdesign]

I was actually wrong about the content. There is mostly metals (60 %) and about 30 % soil, but they are tiny particles (< 10 mm). Any information about oxidation and the amount of heat corrosion gives off would help. Thanks

 

[CoryPad]

The difficulty with this is your kinetic information (2 days). The thermodynamics are fairly straightforward. The free energy of formation for nonferrous metals is around 1000 kJ mol^-1, but it is practically impossible to know how many moles of metal have corroded in 2 days. What is the environment? Ambient Earth surface temperature? Humidity level? What are the heat transfer mechanisms? Conduction into the Earth's crust? Convection into the atmosphere? Your problem is underdefined.

 

[arunmrao]

Well said Cory. Reminds me of my teacher in Kinetics of Metallurgy. He would always say a chemical reaction is thermodynamically possible ,but kinetically not. The kinetic conditions have to be addressed, to determine if a reaction will proceed or not.