You are viewing a free preview of this lesson.
Subscribe to unlock all 10 lessons in this course and every other course on LearningBro.
In industrial and laboratory chemistry, it is not enough to simply make a product — you need to consider how efficiently you are making it. Two key measures of efficiency are atom economy and percentage yield. They answer different questions: atom economy asks "how much of the reactant atoms end up in the desired product?" while percentage yield asks "how much product did I actually obtain compared to the maximum possible?"
Atom economy measures the proportion of reactant atoms that are converted into the desired product. It is a theoretical measure based on the balanced equation — it does not depend on how the reaction is actually carried out.
Atom economy (%) = (Mᵣ of desired product / sum of Mᵣ of all products) × 100
Alternatively (and equivalently):
Atom economy (%) = (Mᵣ of desired product × its coefficient) / (sum of Mᵣ × coefficient for all products) × 100
Calculate the atom economy for the production of ethanol by fermentation.
C₆H₁₂O₆ → 2C₂H₅OH + 2CO₂
Subscribe to continue reading
Get full access to this lesson and all 10 lessons in this course.