Problem: Ref:

Material Balances in the Production of Vinyl Chloride

G.B. DeLancey, Process Analysis - An Electronic Version Chemical Engineering Education , Winter, 40-45, (1999)

Solved by: Spreadsheets in Chemical Engineering Education a tool in process design and process integration Eugnio C. Ferreira, R. Lima and R. Salcedo (Int. J. Engineering Education , 20:6, 928-938, 2004)

Chlorination reactor

F2= 0.50
Cl2

F6= 0.56

F12= 1.40
C2H4Cl2 inerts

F11= 0.20 F10= 1.60

Separator

F4= 0.56

Pyrolysis reactor

F1= 1.00
Oxyhydrochlorination reactor

C2H4 inerts

F8= 3.60

F9= 1.20
C2H3Cl H2O

F5= 0.44 F3= 0.20

O2

F7= 0.84

HCl

F13= 0.80

Project data values F1 x8,10 1.0000 0.5 Decision variables F2 F3 0.5000 0.2000 F11 F12 0.2000 1.4000 x8,6 x5,7 0.1000 0.4737

x1,1 0.9

F4 0.5556 F13 0.8000 x7,7 0.4737

F5 0.4444 x3,8 0.2222 x8,7 0.0526

F6 0.5556 x5,8 0.2222 x6,9 0.6667

F7 0.8444 x6,8 0.2222 x7,9 0.3333

F8 3.6000 x7,8 0.1111 x5,12 0.5000

F9 1.2000 x8,8 0.2222

F10 1.6000 x5,6 0.9000

Mass Balances Equality Constraints

Eq. # "=0" Eq. # "=0"

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000

13

0.0000

The flow diagram in Figure 1 illustrates a simplified version of the main steps in the production of vinyl chloride (C2H3Cl) from ethylene: The reactions which occur separetely in the different reactors are: Chlorination: C2H4 + Cl2 C2H4Cl Oxyhydrochlorination: C2H4 + 2HCl +O2 C2H4Cl2 + H20 Pyrolysis: C2H4Cl2 C2H3Cl + HCl
The ethylene feed, F1, is 90 mole % ethylene and the remainder is inerts. The chlorine and oxygen feeds, F2 and F3, respectively, are pure. All of the ethylene, oxygen, and chlorine react and all of the hydrocloric acid (HCl) fed to the oxyhydrochlorination unit reacts. Only 50% of the total dichloroethane (C2H4Cl2) fed to the pyrolysis reactor is converted, with the remainder being separated and recycled with inerts in stream F12. The inert concentration in the recycle stream is 50 mole %. Pure hydrochloric acid (HCl) is recycled in stream F13. The final product stream, F9, consists only of vinyl chloride and water. Determine all of the unknown flow rates, Fj, and mole fractions, xij (mole fraction i in stream j). Set F1 = 1 mole/hr as as basis. The species are labeled as shown in the following table. Index Species 1 C2H4 2 Cl2 3 HCl 4 O2 5 C2H4Cl2 6 C2H3Cl 7 H2O 8 Inerts