Fixing one carbon atom into sugar takes at least eight photons and stores per mole of .

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Energy from Physics, Ch Heat engines on fuel: exergy, real cycles, biomass and the nuclear heat source

Problem

Fixing one carbon atom into sugar takes at least eight photons and stores 478 kJ478\,\mathrm{kJ} per mole of CH2O\mathrm{CH_2O}. ((a)) Find the energy of a mole of photons at 600 nm600\,\mathrm{nm}, and the efficiency of the photochemical step for light of that wavelength. ((b)) A C4\mathrm{C_4} crop is capped at 6.06.0 per cent of incident sunlight. On a site with a year-round mean of 180 W m−2180\,\mathrm{W\,m^{-2}}, find the largest dry-matter yield this allows, in tonnes per hectare per year, at 16 MJ kg−116\,\mathrm{MJ\,kg^{-1}}. ((c)) The crop actually yields 20 t ha−1 yr−120\,\mathrm{t\,ha^{-1}\,yr^{-1}}. What fraction of its ceiling is that?

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