CENG 1004: Coursework 1 Mass Balances

Professor Eric S Fraga, Chemical Engineering, UCL Due 12 noon, 18nd October 2013
Answer all the following questions. All have equal weight. Show all work and state all assumptions made. Cite any sources of data required and used. 1. If the percentage of fuel in a fuel-air mixture falls below a certain value called the lower ammability limit (LFL), the mixture cannot be ignited. For example, the LFL of propane in air is 2.05 mole% C3 H8 . If the percentage of propane in a propane-air mixture is greater than 2.05 mole%, the gas mixture can ignite if it is exposed to a ame or spark; if the percentage is lower than the LFL, the mixture will not ignite. (There is also an upper ammability limit, which for propane in air is 11.4%.) A mixture of propane in air containing 4.03 mole% C3 H8 (fuel gas) is the feed to a combustion furnace. If there is a problem in the furnace, a stream of pure air (dilution air) is added to the fuel mixture prior to the furnace inlet to make sure that the ignition is not possible. (a) Draw and label a owchart of the fuel gas-dilution air mixing unit, presuming that the gas entering the furnace contains propane at the LFL, and do the degree-of-freedom analysis. (b) If propane ows at a rate of 150 mol C H in the original fuel-air mixture, what is the
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minimum molar ow rate of the dilution air? (c) How would the actual dilution air feed rate probably compare with the value calculated in part (b)? (>, <, =) Explain. 2. A liquid mixture contains 60.0 wt% ethanol (E), 5.0 wt% of a dissolved solute (S), and the balance water. A stream of this mixture is fed to a continuous distillation column operating at steady state. Product streams emerge at the top and the bottom of the column. The column design calls for the product streams to have equal mass ow rates and for the top stream to contain 90.0 wt% ethanol and no S. (a) Assume a basis of calculation, draw and fully label a process owchart, do the degreeof-freedom analysis, and verify that all unknown stream ows and compositions can be calculated. 1

(b) Calculate (i) the mass fraction of S in the bottom stream and (ii) the fraction of the ethanol in the feed that leaves in the bottom product stream kg E in bottom stream kg E in feed stream if the process operates as designed. (c) An analyzer is available to determine the composition of ethanol-water mixtures. The calibration curve for the analyzer is a straight line on a plot on logarithmic axes of kg E mass fraction of ethanol, x ( kg mixture ), versus analyzer reading, R. The line passes through the points (R = 15, x = 0.100) and (R = 38, x = 0.400). Derive an expression for x as a function of R (i.e. x = f (R)) based on the calibration, and use it to determine the value of R that should be obtained if the top product stream from the distillation column were analyzed. (d) Suppose a sample of the top stream is taken and analyzed and the reading obtained is not the one calculated in part (c). Assume that the calculation in part (c) is correct and that the plant operator followed the correct procedure in doing the analysis. Give ve signicantly different possible causes for the deviation between Rmeasured and Rpredicted , including several assumptions made when writing the balances of part (b). For each possible cause, suggest something that the operator could do to check whether it is in fact the problem. 3. A liquid mixture containing 30.0 mole% benzene (B), 25.0 mole% toluene (T) and the balance xylene (X) is fed to a distillation column. The bottoms product stream contains 98 mole% X and no B, and 96% of the X in the feed is recovered in this stream. The overhead product is fed to a second column. The overhead product from the second column contains 97.0% of the B in the feed to this column. The composition of this stream is 95.0 mole% B and the balance T. (a) Draw and label a owchart of this process and do the degree-of-freedom analysis to prove that for an assumed basis of calculation, molar ow rates and compositions of all process streams can be calculated from the given information. Write in order the equations you would solve to calculate unknown process variables. In each equation (or pair of simultaneous equations), circle the variable(s) for which you would solve. Do not do the calculations! (b) Calculate (i) the percentage of the benzene in the process feed (i.e. the feed to the rst column) that emerges in the overhead product from the second column and (ii) the percentage of toluene in the process feed that emerges in the bottom product from the second column.