A cyclone is used for removing fly ash from a stack in a coa

A cyclone is used for removing fly ash from a stack in a coal-fired power plant. The cyclone has the following recovieries of various sized ash particles:

Size(um), Fraction of total weight, %recovery

0-5/ 0.6/ 5%

5-10/ 0.18/ 45%

10-50/ 0.12/ 82%

50-100/ 0.1/ 97%

Find the overall recovery of fly ash.

How would I solve this problem? I was thinking there would be one input stream then 5 output streams but I\'m not sure. Thanks!

Solution

Size(um), Fraction of total weight, %recovery

0-5 0.6 5%

5-10 0.18 45%

10-50 0.12 82%

50-100 0.1 97%

Overall recovery of fly ash (by %weight) = 0.6*0.05 + 0.18*0.45 + 0.12*0.82 + 0.1*0.97 = 0.3064 = 30.64%