May 1, 2012

Name_____________________________________

Page 1

CHE 368 Final Exam

The exam consists of two equally-weighted problems and a bonus problem worth
one letter grade on the final. You may use your textbooks, the useful equations
handouts, and one page of notes. Turn in the exam sheets with your solutions. To
save time, you may download a Mathcad template for the exam from
http://www.umche.maine.edu/downloadexam
1.

(50%) Invertase is an enzyme which is a byproduct of yeast fermentation and

breaks down table sugar (sucrose) into glucose and fructose. The fermentation
obeys Monod kinetics with the following fractional yields:
C/A = 0.3 grams of cells per gram of substrate consumed
I/A = 0.01 grams of invertase per gram of substrate consumed
E/A = 0.5 grams of ethanol per gram of substrate consumed
The rate of consumption of substrate is:
rA =

2 min 1 C ACC
g
C A + 1 .2
L

Sucrose is continuously fed to a 1000L chemostat at a concentration of 3 g/L.

Plot the concentration of invertase (mg/L) versus volumetric flow rate from 0 to
500 L/min, and then determine the flow rate which gives the maximum
production rate of invertase (g/min).

May 1, 2012

2.

Name_____________________________________

Page 2

(50%) Maximize the concentration of C in the product for the liquid phase
reactions below by choosing the correct reactor configuration (PFR or CSTR),
temperature, and feed flow rate. You have a 1000L tubular reactor. It can be
operated isothermally at either 25C or 300C. It can also be operated with a high
recycle rate making it perform like a CSTR. The feed consists of only species A
at a concentration of 3.0 mol/L.
3A B + C

r1A = k1ACA
85
8

k1A( T) := 7 10

A + 2C 3D

min

kJ
mol

Rg

1
1

T
25
C

r2D = k2DCACC2
75
7

k2D( T) := 3 10

3C + 4D 3E

kJ
mol

Rg

1
1

T
25
C

mol min

r3E = k3ECCCD
70

k3E( T) := 2 10

L
e
molmin

kJ
mol

Rg

1
1

T 25 C

First, justify your choice of reactor and operating temperature.

Then, plot concentration of C versus feed flow rate for the optimal temperature
and reactor type.
For compound C, report outlet concentration (mol/L), fractional yield and
production rate (mol/min).

May 1, 2012

Name_____________________________________

Page 3

BONUS (all or nothing)

A reactor has the following response to a liquid dye pulse tracer experiment
when the flow rate is 20 Liters per minute:
t
minutes
0
2.1
4.2
8.5
12.7
21

C(t)
g tracer/L
0.00
17.25
31.32
9.79
1.15
0.00

You wish to use your reactor to produce a product, B, according to the following
liquid phase reaction:
A B

rA = kC 1A/ 2 k = 0.50 (mol/L)1/2 min-1

If the concentration of A in your feed is 3.0 mol/L, use the Tanks in Series model
to determine how many moles of B you will be able to produce each day at a feed
rate of 20 L/min.