Revision on Material Balance

Question 1

Ethylene oxide is produced by the catalytic oxidation of ethylene.

C2H4 + C202 C2H40

An undesired competing reaction is the combustion of ethylene to carbon dioxide and water.

C2H4 + 302 2CO2 + 2H20

The feed to a rector contains 2 mol C2H4/mol O2.The single pass conversion of ethylene is 25%. The yield
in the reactor is 0.70 mol C2H4O produced/mol C2H4 consumed. A separator is used to separate the reactor
product into three streams. The first stream contains unreacted C2H4 and O2 and recycled back to the
reactor. In the second stream, carbon dioxide and water are discarded. The third stream is the product of
C2H4O. Taking a basis of 2 mol of ethylene entering the reactor (not the fresh feed to the process) :

a) Draw and label a process flowchart. (10 Marks)

b) Perform degree of freedom analysis on the reactor. (5 Marks)

c) Solve for all unknown molar flow rate in the flow chart. (15 Marks)
Question 2

A fertiliser plant produces ammonia in a catalytic reactor with fresh feed containing 74.25% H2 , 24.75%
N2, and inert gases of 0.7% CH4 , 0.3% Ar, on mole basis. The feed is mixed with a recycle stream and is
passed through the converter, the conversion per pass is limited to 25%. The converter outlet gases pass
through the heat exchanger where it cools down. Later, the gases are passed through a condenser which
separates 65% of the ammonia present in the converter outlet gas. Non condensable gases (H2 , N2) and
uncondensed ammonia are recycled back. In order to limit the concentration of inerts to 10 mole% in the
mixed feed, a portion of the recycled stream is purged.

a) Write out the chemical process stoichiometric equation. (1 Mark)

b) Draw a flowchart of the process (as in Figure 1) and label the equipment for Unit Operation 1, 2 and 3;
and the compositions for Stream A, Stream B and Stream C. (6 Marks)

c) Write out the equations for the total moles fed to the reactor (n1 ), moles of ammonia produced (n2 )
and recycle stream (n3 ). For a fresh feed of 100 kmols-1, perform the calculations to solve all unknowns in
the flowchart. (12Marks)

d) Calculate the recycle feed rate and recycle ratio, purge gas rate, product ammonia mass rate. (6 Marks)
Question 3

Sodium hydroxide is produced in flakes for household plumbing cleaners by a crystallization process. In
the process, 10 000 lb/hr of a 40% aqueous solution of NaOH is fed to the mixer. The fresh feed is mixed
with recycle filtrate containing 45% NaOH from the crystallizer. The combined streams are fed to an
evaporator that removes water to produce 50 wt% NaOH solution, which in turn serves as the crystallizer
feed. The crystallizer produces a filter cake (wet solids) that is 95 wt% NaOH crystals and 5% filtrate
solution, where the solution contain 45% dissolved NaOH.

a) Draw and completely label the flow chart for the operation, do degree of freedom analysis for overall
system and each unit. (10 Marks)

b) Determine the rate of evaporation, the feed rates for the evaporator and crystallizer, the rate of NaOH
produced and rate of the recycled solution. (13 Marks)

c) Supposed the filtrate were discarded instead of being recycled, how is the production rate of NaOH
(filter cake) will be affected? (2 Marks)
Question 4

The fresh feed to an ammonia production process contains 24.75 mole % nitrogen, 74.25 mole%
hydrogen, and the balance inert (I). The feed is combined with a recycle stream containing the same
species, and the combined stream is fed to a reactor in which a 25% single-pass conversion of nitrogen is
achieved. The products pass through a condenser in which essentially all of the ammonia is removed, and
the remaining gases are recycled. However, to prevent buildup of the inert in the system, a purge stream
must be taken off from the recycled gas. The recycle stream contains 12.5 mole% inert. (Assume 100 mol
fresh feed).

a) Draw the block diagram to represent the process above and label all the unknowns. (7 Marks)

b) Calculate the overall conversion of nitrogen. (12 Marks)

C) Determine the ratio moles purge gas/mole of gas leaving the condenser, and the ratio (moles fresh
feed/mole fed to the reactor). (16 Marks)
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Question 8
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Question 10
Question 11
Question 12
Question 13