CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

REFRESHER
October - November 2017

For CHEMICAL ENGINEERS LICENSURE EXAMINATION

On November 18, 19 and 20, 2017

DR. LEONARDO C. MEDINA, JR.

CHEMICAL PROCESS
INDUSTRIES AND
PLANT DESIGN
1. A heat treating furnace must process one million parts per year. The
furnace can process only one batch per 8 hour shift for one shift per day
for a maximum of 250 days per year. The cost of the furnace is 25X0.7in
P/year and the furnace time is represented by the equation 0.04X0.5 in
hours per batch which is dependent on the furnace size.

Where X is the number of machine parts processed per batch. The

operating cost is a fixed cost of P104 per batch and P12 per hour for
labor. The optimum size of the furnace to be installed in parts per batch
is

a. 9,000
b. 10,000
c. 11,000
d. 12,000
2. Cost of piping in a fluid processing unit (e.g., distillation) of a
chemical process plant is about ____ of the fixed capital
investment

a. 4%
b. 13%
c. 22%
d. 28%
Table 6-3 page 240 Plant Design and Economics for Chemical
Engineers 5th edition
Piping installed 4% to 17%
3. Water is to be cooled by air in a certain type of forced-draft
cooling tower at a rate of 7,000 gal/hr for 8400 hr/year. The
height of the transfer unit may be considered constant at 15 ft,
and the number of transfer units varies approximately with the
gas velocity as follows for a fixed water velocity of 600 lb/h-ft2
based on the empty tower and a fixed air inlet temperature.
2000
Number of transfer units = 1 .2
Gg
where G g is the air velocity in lb/hr-ft2 based on the empty
tower. If the cost of the tower installed is P 0.8/ft3 for 8 years’
service and direct costs vary as

C D  6 x 10 -6 G g2 , pesos per hour

The optimum mass velocity is

a. 110.7 lb/h-ft2
b. 117 lb/h-ft2
c. 100.7 lb/h-ft2
d. 150.6 lb/h-ft2
4. For a two stage adiabatic compressor where the gas is cooled to the inlet
gas temperature between stages, the theoretical work is given by

  k 1 / k  k 1 / k 
kPV  P2   P3 
W 1 1
   2  
k  1  P1   P2  

where: k = Cp/Cv P3 = outlet pressure
P1 = inlet pressure V1 = inlet volume
P2 = intermediate stage pressure

If P1 = 1 atm and P3 = 4 atm, the optimum intermediate pressure P2 so that

the work is a minimum is

a. 4 atm
b. 2.5 atm
c. 2 atm
d. 5 atm
5. One metric ton of clay was used in the making of ceramic batch. If this represents
30% of the whole batch and the analysis of the other raw materials in the batch is
35% feldspar and 35% quartz and efficiency of manufacture is 80%, the pieces of
ceramic products made weighing 0.091 kg each is

a. 32,080
b. 28,000
c. 28,080
d. 25,860
6. Water is treated with an ion-exchange resin which must be regenerated. A large
tank is available at no cost for storing softened water to smooth any variations in
demand and to supply water while the resin is being regenerated at negligible
time.

Demand averages 2.3 m3/h for all the hours in a year. The time, t in hours that
the resin can be used before it must be regenerated is given by:

160 V
t
F
where: V is the volume of the resin in cubic meters and F is the flow rate of the
water in cubic meters per hour.

Fixed costs are P 9000/m3 for the resin and equipment for a 5 year economic life.
Regeneration costs vary as the 0.8 power of the volume of the resin and are P 55
for a 1-m3 unit.

The total cost for a 1000 m3 of softened water is

a. P 430
b. P 340
c. P 520
d. P 470
7. Aqueous nitric acid is stored in a ________ vessel

a. plain carbon steel

b. stainless steel
c. cast iron
d. thermosetting plastic material
8. Weakest enclosure for a cylindrical vessel is

a. hemispherical closure
b. torispherical closure
c. conical or flat closure
d. elliptical closure
9. Thickness calculated from the stress consideration alone gives its

a. minimum wall thickness

b. maximum wall thickness
c. design wall thickness
d. material of construction
10. Under operating conditions of process vessels, the maximum
pressure is usually expressed in

a. gauge pressure
b. absolute pressure
c. differential pressure
d. vacuum pressure
11. Product S is formed according to the liquid phase reaction:
A  S with – rA = kCA and k = 2/min. A stream containing 5 moles per
liter of A is available at P 10/li. The product is sold at P 2.5/mole.
Operating cost is P 10/day and no recycling of unreacted A can be sold.
Given a backmix reactor, the conversion of A that should be used to
have the maximum profit/day is

a. 89.44%
b. 84.94%
c. 74.63%
d. 95.34%
12. A portland cement contains 4 moles of tricalcium silicate (3CaO.SiO2) to 3
moles of dicalcium silicate (2CaO.SiO2). If there are 23.03 kg of SiO2 per
100 kg of cement, the CaO that should be added to change the ratio from 8
moles of tricalcium silicate to 1 mole of dicalcium silicate is

a. 6.8 kg
b. 78.5 kg
c. 28.4 kg
d. 7.6 kg
13. In the production of HNO3 from sodium nitrate and sulfuric acid it is
found that if the concentration of the sulfuric acid is 38% and that of the
sodium nitrate is 90% pure, 100 kg of 70% acid is formed. Assuming 100%
efficiency, the total kg of reactants that must be used is

a. 190 kg
a. 100 kg
b. 390 kg
c. 290 kg
14. A plant manufactures HCl by the salt process. The volume of
HCl (50% pure, sp. gr. = 1.2) that may be produced by treating
1 ton of salt (95% NaCl) with slight excess of aqueous H2SO4 is

a. 900 l
b. 1090 l
c. 1500 l
d. 500 l
15. A solvent-extraction operation is carried out continuously in a plate
column with gravity flow. The unit is operated 24 h/day. A feed rate of
1500 ft3/day must be handled 300 days per year. The allowable velocity
per square foot of cross-sectional tower area is 40 ft3 of combined
solvent and charge per hour. The annual fixed costs for the installation
can be predicted from the following equation:

C F  8800 Fsf2  51,000 Fsf  110,000; P / year

where Fsf = cubic feet of solvent per cubic foot of feed. Operating
and other variable costs depend on the amount of solvent that must be
recovered, and these costs are P 0.04 for each cubic foot of solvent
passing through the tower. The tower diameter that should be used for
optimum conditions of minimum total cost per year is

a. 4.2 ft
b. 2.4 ft
c. 3.0 ft
d. 3.5 ft
16. Estimate the optimum economic inside diameter of pipe when
10,000 gal of a liquid having a density of 58 lb/ft3 flow through
the pipe per hour. The flow is turbulent. The approximate
value for the optimum diameter of a steel pipe may be
obtained from the following dimensional equation:

2.2 w0.45
Di 
 0.32
where Di = optimum inside pipe diameter, in.
w = mass rate, 1,000 lb/h
 = density of flowing, lb/ft3

a. 5.3 in.
b. 3.3 in.
c. 4.3 in.
d. 3.7 in.
17. For standard steel vessels with no corrosion allowance, operating pressure of 250 psi. and
ellipsoidal head. Brummerstedt has derived a design equation according to API-ASME code
for estimating its fabricated cost. The cost in Peso is shown to be:
Ct = 1.76 V + 1.074 D3 – 0.0495 DV – 0.0302 D4
where: V is the volume in cu. ft.
D is the vessel diameter in ft.
Determine the optimum diameter of a 50 cu. meter vessel.

a. 4.8 feet
b. 12.5 feet
c. 5.9 feet
d. 8.6 feet
18. A batch inorganic chemical operation gives product C from two chemicals A and B
according to the following empirical relation:

C = 2.8 (AB – AC – 1.2 BC + 0.5 C2)0.5

Where A, B, and C are pounds of the respective components. The reaction rate is
sufficiently high to be neglected,and the time to make any batch is essentially
the charging and discharging time including heating up, which totals one (1) hour.
If A costs P0.10 per pound and B costs P 0.05 per pound, what is the ratio of B to
A to give the minimum cost of raw materials per pound of product?

a. 2.5
b. 1.75
c. 2.75
d. 1.24
19. The thick-cylinder equations below are used whenever the pressure
exceeds 0.385SE or when the thickness of the cylindrical shell exceeds half
the radius:

SE  P  12 
Z t  R  Z  1
SE  P  
where: t = thickness, in. E = welded joint efficiency, %
R = inside radius, in. P = allowable working pressure, psi
S = allowable stress, lbf/in2

A seamless cylinder with 10-in. inside diameter is made of SA – 182 grade

F321 stainless steel, to be operated at 1000°F and 3000 psi. The allowable
stress for this material is 14,000 lbf/in2 at the designated temperature.
Without corrosion allowance, the thickness of the cylinder is
a. ¾ in.
b. 5/8 in.
c. ½ in.
d. 5/4 in.
20. The design formulas below are used to find the allowable pressure of
a thick-walled pressure vessel if the thickness, t is known:

 Z 1   Rt 
2
P  SE  with R
 
 Z  1   R 

A seamless forging with an 8 ½ in. ID is 2.25 in. thick and is made of

code material with an allowable stress of 17,500 lbf/in2. The
allowable pressure for this cylinder is

a. 6,500 psi
b. 7020 psi
c. 8030 psi
d. 6800 psi