IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON

M.Eng. EXAMINATION IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 2018

PART I

For Internal Students of Imperial College London

This paper is also taken for the relevant examination

for the Associateship

MASTERY I

Thursday 7th June 2018: 10:00-13:00

CID NUMBER

Answer ALL parts of the question

Ensure that you have written your CID NUMBER in the box on this page

The question carries 100 marks in total

THIS EXAMINATION PAPER HAS FIFTEEN PAGES IN TOTAL

WHICH INCLUDES THIS COVER SHEET

TURN OVER FOR QUESTION

1
Problem Description

A natural gas reservoir produces approximately 260,000 t yr-1 of gas. In this particular
reservoir, the carbon dioxide content is very high (around 95% on a molar basis) and so,
before the methane in the gas can be used, the carbon dioxide is separated using a
cryogenic separation process and then re-injected into the well.

Following separation, the purified methane resulting from this process is subsequently
transported to a nearby refinery and used in a furnace which produces the site steam
supply.

Questions

(a) In the first stage compressor for the separation process, the gas is compressed
reversibly from 1 bar to 45 bar in a steady-state flow process. In this case, the reservoir
gas stream may be treated as a pure component and a perfect gas with a constant
isobaric heat capacity: 𝑐𝑝 = 6𝑅. The universal gas constant is R = 8.3143 J K-1 mol-1.

Calculate the molar shaft work required to compress the gas reversibly and adiabatically if
the initial temperature is 15 0C. [Hint: first find the exit temperature using the First Law for
a steady-state process].
[15/100 marks]

2 TURN OVER
For Part (a) (continued)

3 TURN OVER
(b) Following compression, the gas stream is cooled from 2500C to 200C in a counter-
current shell and tube heat exchanger. The gas flowrate is 8.60 kg s-1 and the specific
heat capacity of the gas is 1.15 kJ kg-1 K-1

The water used to cool the gas stream is fed into the heat exchanger at a temperature of
150C and leaves at a temperature of 450C. The cooling water flowrate is 18.05 kg s-1 and
the specific heat capacity of water is 4.2 kJ kg-1 K-1.

The overall heat transfer coefficient is 2100 W m-2 K-1. No phase change occurs in the
heat exchanger.

Calculate the heat transfer area required for the heat exchanger.
[10/100 marks]

4 TURN OVER
For Part (b) (continued)

5 TURN OVER
(c) Following further cooling and processing the methane and carbon dioxide binary
mixture, now containing 40 mol% of methane, is separated in a continuous plate distillation
column into a top product containing 90 mol% methane; and a bottom product containing
10 mol% methane. The feed enters as saturated liquid. The column is fitted with a partial
reboiler and a total condenser, and is operated at a reflux ratio of 4.

The methane and carbon dioxide binary mixture has a constant relative volatility of 5
(i.e. α = KCH4/KCO2 = 5). The equilibrium vapour phase compositions y for various liquid-
phase compositions x are plotted in Figure 1.

Using the x-y diagram shown in Figure 1, determine the total number of equilibrium stages
required in the process.
[20/100 marks]

6 TURN OVER
 1.0

0.9

0.8

0.7
Equilibrium curve
0.6
45 line
y 0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0

Figure 1: Separation process x-y plot.

7 TURN OVER
(d) Some of the methane that has been separated in the distillation column is transported
to a nearby refinery and subsequently fed to an onsite furnace to produce the steam
required for other areas of the refinery.

A pure methane feed is mixed with a pure oxygen stream in stoichiometric proportions and
then combusted:

CH4(g) + 2 O2(g) → CO2(g) + 2H2O(g)

The methane and oxygen are both fed to the furnace in gaseous state and at 5oC.

Table 2: Relevant Process Data.

Component Enthalpy of formation (gas) at Mean molar heat capacity

250C, 1 atm (gas)
ΔHof (kJ mol-1) Cp (J mol-1 oC-1)
Methane -74.85 34.31
Oxygen 0 29.10
Carbon Dioxide -393.5 36.11
Water -241.83 33.46

If the methane feed rate is 576 kg hr-1 and 7.5 MW of power is produced in the furnace,
what is the temperature of the outlet gases, assuming that the methane reacts completely?

[Hint: It is useful to draw a process flow diagram, and an enthalpy diagram]

[20/100 marks]

8 TURN OVER
For Part (d) (continued)

9 TURN OVER
For Part (d) (continued)

10 TURN OVER
For Part (d) (continued)

11 TURN OVER
(e) The power removed from the furnace (7.5 MW) is used to generate the site steam
supply in a waste-heat boiler. The waste-heat boiler produces saturated steam at 14 bar
from liquid water at 17.50C. Calculate the flowrate (in kg s-1) at which water must be
supplied to the waste-heat boiler. [10/100 marks]

12 TURN OVER
(f) The furnace inspection hatch is a 1.5 m2, 5 mm thick steel plate (thermal
conductivity: 35 W·m -1·K-1) which is insulated on the inside by a 1 cm thick layer of
ceramic fibre matting (thermal conductivity: 0.05 W·m -1·K -1) covered by a 5 cm thick
layer of refractory brick (thermal conductivity: 1 W·m-1·K-1).

Calculate the heat loss by conduction through the door if the temperature of the brick
surface in the furnace is 510 °C and the outside steel surface of the door is at 30 °C.
[10/100 marks]

13 TURN OVER
(g) The water used for generating steam is transported to the waste heat boiler through a
straight horizontal pipe of length 65 m. The tube has 50mm internal diameter and an
internal roughness of 1.5 μm. The engineer chooses a pump that provides a constant
pressure drop of 0.25 bar over a range of flow rates from 0.5 kg s-1 to 5 kg s-1. The
dynamic viscosity of water is 1 x 10-3 Pa·s

Calculate the mass flow rate that corresponds to a pressure drop of 0.25 bar.
[15/100 marks]

14 TURN OVER
For Part (g) (continued)

15 END OF PAPER
 IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON

M.Eng. EXAMINATION IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 2019

PART I

For Internal Students of Imperial College London

This paper is also taken for the relevant examination

for the Associateship

MASTERY I

Monday 10th June 2019: 10:00 - 13:00

CID NUMBER

Answer ALL parts of the question

Ensure that you have written your CID NUMBER in the box on this page

The question carries 100 marks in total

THIS EXAMINATION PAPER HAS SIXTEEN PAGES IN TOTAL

WHICH INCLUDES THIS COVER SHEET

TURN OVER FOR QUESTION

1
Problem Description

Ethylbenzene (C6H5C2H5) is used as a chemical intermediate in making styrene, the

building block for manufacturing poly(styrene). A byproduct of the process used to make
ethylbenzene is diethylbenzene (C6H4(C2H5)2), which is an intermediate used for
divinylbenzene manufacture.

Ethylbenzene is produced by combining ethylene (C2H4) and benzene (C6H6) using an

acidic catalyst. The formation of diethylbenzene is limited by running the reaction with a
large excess of benzene. The reactions that produce ethylbenzene and diethylbenzene
are:

C6H6 (g) + C2H4 (g) → C6H5C2H5 (g) ξ1 (1)

C6H6 (g) + 2C2H4 (g) → C6H4(C2H5)2 (g) ξ2 (2)

where ξι is the extent of reaction.

Following initial studies it has been decided that a product stream of 95 kmol h-1 of pure
ethylbenzene is required.

To control the selectivity of the process a combined stream of benzene (C6H6), ethane
(C2H6) and ethylene (C2H4) in the ratio of 10:6:1 on a molar basis is fed into the reactor at
400 0C. The feed to the reactor is completely gaseous. In the reactor all of the reactants
and products are kept in the gaseous phase. Due to the feed ratio of the reactants all of
the ethylene reacts. The ethane does not react but moves through the process as an inert
gas. No additional heat is transferred to or from the reactor. The reactor operating
pressure is 1 atm.

Since the demand for styrene is far greater than the demand for divinylbenzene, the
selectivity for the process should favour ethylbenzene production. In this process the
selectivity of ethylbenzene is given by:

𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 𝑜𝑜 𝐶6 𝐻5 𝐶2 𝐻5 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓
𝑆[𝐶6𝐻5 𝐶2 𝐻5 ],[𝐶6 𝐻6 ] = = 0.95
𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 𝑜𝑜 𝐶6 𝐻6 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟

2 TURN OVER
Relevant data are provided in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Component Physical Properties for the range of conditions considered.

C6H6 C2H4 C2H6 C6H5C2H5 C6H4(C2H5)2

Mean molar heat capacity (gas)
cp (J mol-1 oC-1) 138.0 64.5 80.6 207.9 277.2

Standard enthalpy of formation

(gas)
83.0 52.3 -84.7 29.8 -22.3
0
∆𝑓 𝐻298 (kJ mol-1)

Questions

(a) What is the temperature of the reactor outlet gases if a product stream of 95 kmol h-1 of
pure ethylbenzene is produced in the reactor and assuming that the ethylene reacts
completely?

[Hint: Draw a process flow diagram, stream table and an enthalpy diagram and clearly
show your working]
[20/100 marks]

3 TURN OVER
For Part (a) (continued)

4 TURN OVER
For Part (a) (continued)

5 TURN OVER
For Part (a) (continued)

6 TURN OVER
(b) Due to process operating temperatures the reactor is jacketed with an external layer of
insulating ceramic fibre which is covered by a protective layer of aluminium sheet. The
reactor has a 100 mm thick steel wall (thermal conductivity: 20 W·m 1·K-1) which is
insulated on the outside by a 1.135 cm thick layer of ceramic fibre (thermal conductivity:
0.025 W·m 1·K -1) and covered by a 2.0 mm thick aluminium cover (thermal conductivity:
200 W·m-1·K-1). The maximum permissible heat loss through the reactor wall is 925.9 W
over a 1.0 m2 area.

Calculate the outer surface temperature by considering only conduction through the
reactor wall and treating each layer as a slab of material of cross sectional area 1.0 m2, if
the temperature of the inner surface of the reactor is 450 °C.
[10/100 marks]

7 TURN OVER
(c) After passing through the reactor the products are rapidly cooled from 400 0C to 185 0C
in a heat exchanger before being fed to the separation system. This quenching process
reduces the subsequent formation of less desirable diethylbenzene.

The heat removed from the exchanger, at a rate of 12.12 MW, is used to generate the site
steam supply in a waste heat boiler. The waste heat boiler produces saturated steam at
7 bar from liquid water at 18 0C. Calculate the flowrate (in kg s-1) at which water must be
supplied to the waste heat boiler.

[10/100 marks]

8 TURN OVER
(d) Following the first separation stage, the resulting pure ethane gas stream is further
cooled from 180 0C to 25 0C in a counter-current shell and tube heat exchanger. The gas
flowrate is 5.25 kg s-1 and the specific heat capacity of the gas is 2.69 kJ kg-1 K-1

The water used to cool this gas stream is fed into the heat exchanger at a temperature of
15 0C and leaves at a temperature of 45 0C. The cooling water flowrate is 17.375 kg s-1
and the specific heat capacity of water is 4.2 kJ kg-1 K-1.

The overall heat transfer coefficient is 150 W m-2 K-1. No phase change occurs in the heat
exchanger.

Calculate the heat transfer area required for the heat exchanger.
[10/100 marks]

9 TURN OVER
For Part (d) (continued)

10 TURN OVER
(e) The water used for cooling the ethane stream is transported to the cooler through a
straight horizontal pipe of length 19.98 m. The tube has 78 mm internal diameter and an
internal roughness of 1.5 μm. The engineering team working on this part of the process
has chosen a pump that provides a constant pressure drop of 0.25 bar over a range of
flow rates from 5.0 kg s-1 to 20.0 kg s-1. The dynamic viscosity of water is 1 x 10-3 Pa·s

Calculate the mass flow rate that corresponds to a pressure drop of 0.25 bar.
[15/100 marks]

11 TURN OVER
For Part (e) (continued)

12 TURN OVER
(f) The ethane resulting from the separators is compressed reversibly from 1 bar to 25 bar
in a steady-state flow process. In this case, the gas stream may be treated as a pure
component and a perfect gas with a heat capacity ratio 𝛾 = 1.115. The molar gas constant
is R = 8.3143 J K-1 mol-1.

Calculate the shaft work required to compress the gas reversibly and adiabatically if the
initial temperature is 100 0C. [Hint: first find the exit temperature using the First Law for a
steady-state process].
[15/100 marks]

13 TURN OVER
For Part (f) (continued)

14 TURN OVER
(g) Following further cooling and processing the benzene and ethylbenzene binary mixture
resulting from the initial separation process and now containing 50 mol% of benzene, is
separated in a continuous plate distillation column into a top product containing 97.5 mol%
benzene; and a bottom product containing 2.5 mol% benzene. The feed enters as
saturated liquid. The column is fitted with a partial reboiler and a total condenser, and is
operated at a reflux ratio of 1.5.

The equilibrium vapour phase compositions y for various liquid-phase compositions x are
plotted in Figure 1.

Using the x-y diagram shown in Figure 1, determine the total number of equilibrium stages
required in the process. Make sure that you clearly show your calculation steps.
[20/100 marks]

15 TURN OVER
Figure 1: Separation process x-y plot.

16 END OF PAPER
 IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON

M.Eng. EXAMINATION IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 2020

PART I

For Internal Students of Imperial College London

This paper is also taken for the relevant examination

for the Associateship

MASTERY I

Tuesday 2nd June 2020: 10:00 - 13:00

Answer ALL parts of the question

The question carries 100 marks in total

THIS EXAMINATION PAPER HAS SIX PAGES IN TOTAL

WHICH INCLUDES THIS COVER SHEET

TURN OVER FOR QUESTION

1
Problem Description

The utilisation of carbon dioxide is one of the emerging challenges of chemical

engineering. A two-product process for the co-production of methanol (CH3OH) and DME
(CH3OCH3) has been designed by Imperial engineers. It operates as follows:

31980 kmol h-1 of synthesis gas, consisting only of hydrogen and carbon dioxide in
stoichiometric proportions, is compressed from 5 bar to 50 bar and then cooled before
being fed to a gas phase reactor at 250oC where the following reactions take place
simultaneously:

CO2 (g) + 3H2 (g) → CH3OH (g) + H2O (g) 1 (1)

2CH3OH (g) → CH3OCH3 (g) + H2O (g) 2 (2)

where  is the extent of reaction.

The single pass conversion of CO2 is 40% and the relative selectivity of DME to methanol,
RDME,Methanol, is 80% where:

𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐷𝑀𝐸 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟

𝑅𝐷𝑀𝐸,𝑀𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑙 =
𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟

The feed to the reactor is completely gaseous. In the reactor all of the reactants and
products are kept in the gaseous phase. To ensure that no further unwanted side-reactions
occur, the temperature in the reactor is limited by removing 56.0 MW of heat. The reactor
operating pressure is 50 bar.

Following the reactor, the products are cooled and then fed to an initial separator where all
the methanol and water condense. This liquid stream is sent to a fractional distillation
column which produces methanol as the top product and water as the bottom product.
The product gas from the initial separator is passed to a second (cryogenic) separator
which produces a pure DME liquid product and a gas stream containing any unreacted H2
and CO2.

2 TURN OVER
Relevant data are provided in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Component Physical Properties for the range of conditions considered.

CO2 CH3OH CH3OCH3 H2 H2O

Mean molar heat capacity (gas)
cp (J mol-1 oC-1) 42.10 55.75 75.50 29.00 35.00

Standard enthalpy of formation (gas)

0
-394 -205 -184 0 -241
∆𝑓 𝐻298 (kJ mol-1)

Questions

(a) The synthesis gas, consisting only of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, is compressed
reversibly from 5 bar to 50 bar in a steady-state flow process. In this case, the gas stream
may be treated as a pure component and a perfect gas with a heat capacity ratio
 = 1.347. The molar gas constant is R = 8.3143 J K-1 mol-1.

Calculate the shaft work required to compress the gas reversibly and adiabatically if the
initial temperature is 40 0C. [Hint: first find the exit temperature using the First Law for a
steady-state process].
[15/100 marks]

(b) Following the compressor, the gas stream is cooled from 292 0C to 250 0C in a counter-
current shell and tube heat exchanger. The gas flowrate is 111.04 kg s-1 and the specific
heat capacity of the gas is 2.58 kJ kg-1 K-1

The water used to cool this gas stream is fed into the heat exchanger at a temperature of
15 0C and leaves at a temperature of 45 0C. The cooling water flowrate is 95.57 kg s-1 and
the specific heat capacity of water is 4.2 kJ kg-1 K-1.

The overall heat transfer coefficient is 200 W m-2 K-1. No phase change occurs in the heat
exchanger.

Calculate the heat transfer area required for the heat exchanger.
[10/100 marks]

3 TURN OVER
(c) The water used for cooling the synthesis gas feed stream is transported to the cooler
through a straight horizontal pipe of length 49.25 m. The tube has 155 mm internal
diameter and an internal roughness of 1.31 μm. The engineering team working on this
part of the process has chosen a pump that provides a constant pressure drop of 0.5 bar
over a range of flow rates from 50.0 kg s-1 to 150.0 kg s-1. The dynamic viscosity of water
is 1 x 10-3 Pa·s

Calculate the mass flow rate that corresponds to a pressure drop of 0.5 bar.
[15/100 marks]

(d) What is the temperature of the reactor outlet gases if 31980 kmol h-1 of synthesis gas,
consisting only of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, is fed to the reactor in stoichiometric
proportions and 56.0 MW of heat is removed?

[Hint: Draw a process flow diagram, stream table and an enthalpy diagram and clearly
show your working]
[20/100 marks]

(e) The reactor inspection hatch is a 575 mm diameter, 175 mm thick circular steel plate
(thermal conductivity: 35 W m-1 K-1) which is jacketed with a 1.5 cm thick external layer of
insulating ceramic fibre (thermal conductivity: 0.025 W m-1 K-1) and covered by a 2.0 mm
thick protective layer of aluminium sheet (thermal conductivity: 200 W m-1 K-1).

Calculate the heat loss by conduction through the inspection hatch if the temperature of
the inner surface of the reactor is 258 °C and the outside surface is at 30 °C.
[10/100 marks]

(f) To ensure that no further unwanted side-reactions occur, the temperature in the reactor is
limited by removing 56.0 MW of heat. This heat is used to generate the site steam supply
in a waste heat boiler. The waste heat boiler produces saturated steam at 6 bar from
liquid water at 15 0C. Calculate the flowrate (in kg s-1) at which water must be supplied to
the waste heat boiler.
[10/100 marks]

4 TURN OVER
(g) Following further cooling and processing the methanol and water binary mixture
resulting from the initial separation process is sent to a continuous plate distillation column.
The feed now containing 50.0 mol% of methanol, is separated in the distillation column
into a top product containing 95.0 mol% methanol; and a bottom product containing
5.0 mol% methanol. The feed enters as saturated liquid. The column is fitted with a
partial reboiler, a total condenser, and is operated at a reflux ratio of 1.5.

The equilibrium vapour phase compositions y for various liquid-phase compositions x are
given in Table 2 below:

Table 2: Equilibrium line data.

Liquid phase composition, x Vapour phase composition, y

0.000 0.000
0.050 0.276
0.100 0.416
0.200 0.569
0.400 0.729
0.500 0.784
0.600 0.834
0.700 0.879
0.800 0.921
0.900 0.961
1.000 1.000

This data has also already been plotted in Figure 1.

Using the x-y diagram shown in Figure 1, determine the total number of equilibrium stages
required in the process. Make sure that you clearly show your calculation steps.
[20/100 marks]

5 TURN OVER
 CID number:

Graph for Part (g)

IMPORTANT: Show graphical constructions on this diagram and return it with your
script

1.0
Equilibrium curve
0.9
45 line
0.8

0.7

0.6

y 0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
x

Figure 1: Separation process x-y plot.

6 END OF PAPER
 IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON

M.Eng. EXAMINATION IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 2021

PART I

For Internal Students of Imperial College London

This paper is also taken for the relevant examination

for the Associateship

MASTERY I

Thursday 27th May 2021: 10:00 - 13:00

Answer ALL parts of the question

Ensure that you have written your CID NUMBER in the box on the final page

The question carries 100 marks in total

THIS EXAMINATION PAPER HAS SEVEN PAGES IN TOTAL

WHICH INCLUDES THIS COVER SHEET.

AN EQUATION SHEET AND A DATA SHEET

ARE ALSO PROVIDED SEPARATELY.

TURN OVER FOR QUESTION

1
Problem Description

Allyl chloride (C3H5Cl) is an intermediate in the production of plastics and an alkylating

agent. It is produced via the chlorination of propylene (C3H6) at high temperature and
10 bar pressure.

The main reaction is:

C3H6 (g) + Cl2 (g) → C3H5Cl (g) + HCl (g) 1 (1)

However, there is also a side-reaction which produces 1, 2-dichloropropane (C3H6Cl2):

C3H6 (g) + Cl2 (g) → C3H6Cl2 (g) 2 (2)

 is the extent of reaction.

The mixed feed to the reactor consists of a combined stream of chlorine and propylene only
in the ratio of 1:5 on a molar basis. To avoid significant formation of 1, 2-dichloropropane
the temperature of the mixed reactor feed must be kept above 275 °C.

In the reactor, which operates at 10 bar, all components remain in the gaseous phase.
Since the reactions are highly exothermic the reactor is operated adiabatically to reduce
operating costs while maintaining the reactor temperature below 600 °C; ensuring that no
further unwanted side-reactions occur. To achieve this an excess of propylene is used to
act as a diluent and heat sink. Chlorine is therefore the limiting reactant.

The single-pass conversion of chlorine in the first reaction (fCl2,1) is related to the
temperature and residence time of the reaction. For the process technology available it is
estimated at 0.65.

Where:

𝑆𝑃
(𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑐ℎ𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 (1))
𝑓𝐶𝑙2,1 =
(𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑐ℎ𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟)

The single pass conversion of chlorine in reaction (2) is given by:

𝑆𝑃 𝑆𝑃 2 𝑆𝑃
𝑓𝐶𝑙2,2 = 1.2(𝑓𝐶𝑙2,1 ) − 0.75𝑓𝐶𝑙2,1 + 0.1305

The reactor effluent is cooled from the reactor outlet temperature to 100 °C in a series of
heat exchangers, before entering a separation system for subsequent processing.

The lighter components (Cl2, C3H6 and HCl) are initially separated from the allyl chloride
and 1, 2-dichloropropane in a pre-fractionation column. The allyl chloride and
1, 2-dichloropropane from this vessel are fed to a distillation column which produces the
final purified products.

2 TURN OVER
The propylene in the light component stream from the pre-fractionation column is
recovered from the other components using an absorber and drier before being recycled,
compressed from 1 bar to 12 bar and mixed with a fresh propylene feed. The combined
stream of fresh and recycled propylene is then heated to 275 °C in a feed heater before it
is mixed with a fresh stream of chlorine and fed to the reactor.

Relevant data are provided in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Component Physical Properties for the range of conditions considered.

HCl Cl2 C3H6 C3H5Cl C3H6Cl2

Standard enthalpy of formation (gas)
0
∆𝑓 𝐻298 (kJ mol-1) -92.30 0.00 20.40 -5.60 -163.00

Mean molar heat capacity (gas)

cp (J mol-1 oC-1) 28.60 33.50 63.75 78.00 110.00

Questions

(a) Fresh propylene is mixed with recycled propylene and fed to a process heater before it
is mixed with the fresh chlorine feed. This minimises the production of unwanted 1, 2-
dichloropropane.

Due to process operating temperatures the propylene feed heater is jacketed with an
external layer of insulating ceramic fibre which is covered by a protective layer of
aluminium sheet. The pre-heater has a 66.50 mm thick steel wall (thermal conductivity:
20 W·m-1·K-1) which is insulated on the outside by a 0.825 cm thick layer of ceramic fibre
(thermal conductivity: 0.025 W·m-1·K-1) and covered by a 2.0 mm thick aluminium cover
(thermal conductivity: 200 W·m-1·K-1). The maximum permissible heat loss through the
heater wall is 750.0 W over a 1.0 m2 area.

Calculate the outer surface temperature by considering only conduction through the heater
wall and treating each layer as a slab of material of cross sectional area 1.0 m 2, if the
temperature of the inner surface of the heater is 275 °C.
[10/100 marks]

3 TURN OVER
(b) The reactor feed mixture, consisting only of chlorine and propylene in the ratio of 1:5 on
a molar basis, is fed to the reactor at 275 0C.

Calculate the temperature of the reactor outlet stream for a total feed gas flowrate of
1440 kmol h-1 when the reactor is operated adiabatically.

[Hint: Draw a process flow diagram, stream table and an enthalpy diagram and clearly
show your working]
[24/100 marks]

(c) To ensure that no further side-reactions occur, the reactor effluent is rapidly cooled from
558 0C to 180 0C by removing 9.078 MW of heat in a quench exchanger. This heat is used
to generate the site steam supply in a waste heat boiler. The waste heat boiler produces
saturated steam at 7 bar from liquid water at 20 0C.

Calculate the flowrate (in kg s-1) at which water must be supplied to the waste heat boiler.
[6/100 marks]

(d) The water used for cooling the reactor effluent gas stream is transported to the cooler
through a straight horizontal pipe of length 48.40 m. The tube has 52.48 mm internal
diameter and an internal roughness of 45.1 μm. The engineering team working on this
part of the process has chosen a pump that provides a constant pressure drop of 0.25 bar
over a range of flow rates from 0.5 kg s-1 to 10.0 kg s-1. The dynamic viscosity of water is
1 x 10-3 Pa s

Calculate the mass flow rate that corresponds to a pressure drop of 0.25 bar.
[15/100 marks]

(e) Following the quench heat exchanger, the gas stream is cooled further from 180 0C to
100 0C in a counter-current shell and tube heat exchanger. The gas flowrate is
18.74 kg s-1 and the specific heat capacity of the gas is 1.28 kJ kg-1 K-1

The water used to cool this gas stream is fed into the heat exchanger at a temperature of
15 0C and leaves at a temperature of 45 0C. The cooling water flowrate is 15.25 kg s-1 and
the specific heat capacity of water is 4.2 kJ kg-1 K-1.

4 TURN OVER
The overall heat transfer coefficient is 220 W m-2 K-1. No phase change occurs in the heat
exchanger.

Calculate the heat transfer area required for the heat exchanger.
[10/100 marks]

(f) After passing through the pre-fractionation column, and then being further processed in
an absorber and drier, the propylene in the light component stream is recovered from the
other components and recycled. This recycle stream, consisting only of propylene at a
flowrate of 1008 kmol h-1, is compressed reversibly from 1 bar to 12 bar in a steady-state
flow process. In this case, the gas stream may be treated as a perfect gas with a heat
capacity ratio  = 1.15. The molar gas constant is R = 8.3145 J K-1 mol-1.

Calculate the shaft work required to compress the gas reversibly and adiabatically if the
initial temperature is 30 0C. [Hint: first find the exit temperature using the First Law for a
steady-state process].
[15/100 marks]

(g) The allyl chloride and 1, 2-dichloropropane binary mixture resulting from the pre-
fractionation column is sent to a continuous plate distillation column. The feed, now
containing 45.0 mol% of allyl chloride, is separated in the distillation column into a top
product containing 95.0 mol% allyl chloride; and a bottom product containing 5.0 mol%
allyl chloride. The feed enters as saturated liquid. The column is fitted with a partial
reboiler, a total condenser, and is operated at a reflux ratio of 0.5.

For allyl chloride, the equilibrium vapour phase compositions y for various liquid-phase
compositions x are given in Table 2 below:

5 TURN OVER
Table 2: Equilibrium line data.

Liquid phase composition, x Vapour phase composition, y

0.000 0.000
0.050 0.244
0.100 0.405
0.150 0.519
0.200 0.605
0.250 0.671
0.300 0.724
0.350 0.767
0.400 0.803
0.450 0.834
0.500 0.860
0.550 0.882
0.600 0.902
0.650 0.919
0.700 0.935
0.750 0.948
0.800 0.961
0.850 0.972
0.900 0.982
0.950 0.991
1.000 1.000

This data has also already been plotted in Figure 1.

Using the x-y diagram shown in Figure 1, determine the total number of equilibrium stages
required in the process. Make sure that you clearly show your calculation steps.
[20/100 marks]

6 TURN OVER
 CID number:

Graph for Part (g)

IMPORTANT: Show graphical constructions on this diagram and return it with your
script

1.0

0.9

Equilibrium curve
0.8

45 line
0.7

y 0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0

Figure 1: Separation process x-y plot.

7 END OF PAPER