How many grams of CO2 are released in the reaction of one gram of HCl with one gram of CACO3?

Question

I want this info to create food (CO2) in an aquarium with algae.

How many grams of CO2 are released?

Answer 1

Normally, the amount of CO2 that comes from a known weight of CaCO3 is easy to determine; you can do it as a proportion (you don't need to convert to moles or anything like that)

mol. wt of CO2/mol. wt of CaCO3 x wt of CaCO3

[12 + (2 x 16)]/[40 + 12 + (3 x 16)] = 44/100 x 1g = 0.44g

However, in your case, because you specify only 1 g of HCl was used, we need to see what the limiting reagent is (which one will run out first) We need to see if there is enough acid to react with the whole gram of CaCO3.

moles HCl in 1 g: 1/(35.45 + 1) = 0.0274mole
moles CaCO3 in 1g: 1/100 = 0.01mole
So there is excess acid; you'll get the full 0.44g of CO2.