CPE 420 TUTORIAL 2

1) The flow rate of water through a pipe is reported as 20 cubic feet per minute. Taking density of
water as 1 g/cm3, calculate the mass flow rate in kg/s.
Ans: 9.439 kg/s
2) Liquid toluene is flowing through a pipe at a rate of 175 m3/h. Determine:
i. The flow rate of this stream in kg/ min.
ii. The molar flow rate in mol/s.
Ans: 2526 kg/min (ii) 457 mol/s
3) A sulfuric acid solution (H2SO4) with a concentration of 0.50 Molar flows into a reactor at a rate of
1.25 m3/min. The specific gravity of the solution is 1.03 (relative to water at 4C). Calculate the
following:
i. The total mass flow rate of Solution.
ii. The mass concentration of H2SO4 in the stream in kg/m3.
iii. The mass flow rate of H2SO4 in kg/ s.
iv. The mass fraction of H2SO4 in kg/kg.
v. The molar flow rate of H2SO4 in gmol/s.
Ans: (i) 21.46 kg/s (ii) 49 kg/m3 (iii) 1.021 kg/s (iv) 0.048 kg/kg (v) 10.42 gmol/s
4) A mixture of a liquid is 10.0 mol% ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH), 75.0 mol% ethyl acetate (C4H8O2) and
15.0 mol% acetic acid (CH3COOH). Calculate :
i. The average molecular weight of the mixture.
ii. The mass fractions of each component.
iii. The moles of a sample (in lb-moles) containing 25.0 kmol of ethyl acetate.
Ans: (i) 79.6 g/gmol (ii) 0.0578 g EA/g, 0.8291 g EC/g, 0.1131 g AA/g (iii) 73.49 lb-moles
5) A combustible gaseous mixture is contained in a tank at pressure 90 atm and temperature of
110C. The mixture has the following molar composition as shown in Table 1. If the number of
moles for this gaseous mixture is 250 mol, calculate:
Table 1: Molar composition of combustible gaseous mixture
Compound
Molar Composition
Methane, CH4
20%
Ethylene, C2H4
30%
Hydrogen, H2
50%
i.

The mass fraction of each compound.

ii. The average molecular weight of the mixture.
iii The gas mixture volume (in m3) using ideal gas law.
(Relative atomic mass: C = 12.00, H = 1.00, O = 16.00)
Ans: (i) 0.2540 g CH4 /g, 0.6667 g C2H4/g, 0.0793g H2/g (ii) 12.6 g/mol (iii) O.O8734m3

6) Explain briefly and give an example for each of the following processes:
i. Batch process.
ii. Continuous process.
iii. Transient process.
iv. Steady state process.
7) A liquid stream containing 50 mol% of benzene and the balance toluene is fed to a continuous
single-stage evaporator at a rate of 1320 mol/s. In this process, 48% of benzene in the feed is
evaporated. The liquid and vapor streams leaving the evaporator containing both toluene and
benzene and the liquid stream contain 42.5 mol% of benzene.

i. Draw and label a flowchart of the process.

ii. Determine the composition leaving the evaporator as vapor.
Ans: (ii) 0.6182 mol B/mol, 0.3818 mol T/mol
8) Air consists of approximately 21 mol% oxygen and 79 mol% nitrogen. Liquid nitrogen is produced
by liquefying air and distilling it at low temperature. The process uses two distillation columns as
shown in Figure 1. All compositions are reported in mole percent. On a basis of 150 kmol/h of liquid
nitrogen produced, calculate:
i)
ii)
iii)

The molar flow rate of feed

The molar flow rate of stream 1
The percent recovery of nitrogen in the nitrogen-rich product stream.

Ans: (i) 193.93kmol/h (ii) 116.36kmol/h, 77.58 kmol/h (iii) 97.4%

9) A process for the separation of a propelyne-propane mixture to produce 99 mol% propylene and
95 mol% propane is shown in the figure below. A liquid mixture containing 50 mole% propylene
and 50 mole% propane is fed to a distillation column. The mixture of overhead product leaving
the DC-1 is fed to the column DC-2. The overhead product from the second column contains
97% of propylene in the feed to this column. The bottom product come out from DC-2 is
consisting of pure propylene and recycles back to DC-1.

i. Redraw and label a flowchart of this process.

ii. Assuming basis of calculation is 100 mol/h mixture fed to the DC-1, calculate the amount of

propylene recycles to DC-1.

Ans: 1.4658 mol

10) A widely employed method of gas purification is to selectively absorb undesirable

constituents of the gas into a specifically selected liquid medium. The liquid medium is
subsequently regenerated by chemical or heat treatment to release the absorbed material. In a
particular installation, the purification system for the removal of sulfur compounds, designed
to operate at a feed rate up to 820 mol/h, is temporarily subjected to a feed rate of 1000
mol/h. Since the absorption system simply can accommodate only 82% of this flow, the
overload is bypassed and the exit H2S concentration of the absorption system is reduced far
enough so that the mixed exit stream contains only 1% H2S and 0.3% COS on a mole basis.
The feed stream consists of (mole basis) 15% CO2, 5% H2S, 1.41 % COS, and the balance is
CH4. The flow diagram for the process is given in the figure below:
i. Redraw and completely label the flow diagram for the process.
ii. Make a table of Degree of Freedom Analysis for the absorption tower, the mixing point, and the
overall process. Which unit should you solve first? Justify your answer.
iii. Determine flow rates of the streams D, E and F and their respective compositions.
Ans: (iii) 51.77 mol/h D (0.783 mol D/mol) 948.23 mol/h F, 768.23 mol/h E (0.829 mol E/mol)