CHEN 201 CHEMICAL PROCESS PRINCIPLES

QUIZ 2 (OPEN BOOK 90 MINUTES)

29th March 2016

(4 Problems for a total of 100 POINTS)

PROBLEM 1 (20 POINTS)

Nitrogen and hydrogen gases are fed to a reactor in stoichiometric quantities that react to form ammonia;
the conversion of nitrogen to ammonia is 25%; calculate the amount of nitrogen required to produce 100
tons/day of ammonia (5 points). Clearly a single-pass operation is extremely wasteful; therefore if we
decide to separate the product stream and recycle the unreacted gases back to the reactor, how much
(fresh) nitrogen is required to make 100 tons/day of ammonia and what would be the flow rate of the
recycle stream? (15 points).

PROBLEM 2 (30 POINTS)

Coal, with the following elemental composition by weight: 71.31% C, 1.42% H, 6% S, is burned, using air, in
a furnace to produce a flue gas. A dry gas analysis of the flue gas revealed the following molar composition:
77.75% N2, 3.14% CO, 9.41% CO2, 1.8% SO2 and 7.89% O2. Assuming a basis of 100 mol/min of dry gas
product calculate the following (a) flow rates of the feed and air stream, (b) ratio of water vapour and dry
gas, (c) selectivity of CO2 relative to CO, (d) percent excess air and (e) if only 900 ppm (parts per million) of
SO2 is allowed in the final exit gas, find the ratio of kilogram of SO 2 removed per kilogram of coal fed to the
furnace.

PROBLEM 3 (20 POINTS)

A local factory has offered to donate, free of charge, excess waste grains from its plant, to a heating plant
at a university campus. As the heating plant engineer, your job is to determine whether it is technically
feasible to utilize this material as fuel. Chemical analysis of the grains gave the following elemental
composition by weight: 14.4% C, 6.2% H, 78.8% O and 0.6% S. You placed 1.00 kg of this grain into an
evacuated laboratory reactor and heated the material in the presence of oxygen. Only CO, CO2, SO2 and
H2O were detected in the exit gases and no unburned material was left in the reactor at the end of the
experiment. What was the volume of the gases produced (assume ideal gas conditions and the gas volume
was measured at 20oC and 1 bar). What is the mol% of SO2 in the exit gas? How much oxygen (in kg) would
it take per 1.00 kg of grains to convert the entire CO to CO2? Are the grains suitable as a heating fuel?

PROBLEM 4 (30 POINTS)

Methanol (CH3OH) is produced by the reaction of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. In a methanol production
plant fresh feed to the process contains hydrogen, carbon dioxide and 0.400% mol inerts. The reactor
effluent passes to a condenser that removes all of the methanol and water produced but none of the
reactants or inerts. These reactants and inerts are recycled to the reactor. To avoid buildup of the inerts, a
purge stream is withdrawn from the recycle. The feed to the reactor (not the fresh feed to the process)
contains on a molar basis 28% CO2, 70% H2 and 2.0% inerts. Assume a basis of 100 mol/hr feed to the
reactor (not fresh feed).
(a) Derive and balance the chemical reaction required for the production of methanol.
(b) Sketch the process flow diagram, identifying all the relevant variables and flow rates.
(c) Calculate the molar flow rate and compositions of the following: (i) the fresh feed, (ii) the total feed
to the reactor, (iii) the recycle stream, and (iv) the purge stream.