CHEE2001 2020 Week 6 Tutorial Sheet

MASS BALANCING with REACTION

1. Combustion of methane with one reaction

Methane is burned to form carbon dioxide and water in a batch reactor. The feed to the
reactor and the products obtained are shown in the following flowchart:

Reactor
100 mol CH4 40 mol CH4
250 mol O2 130 mol O2
60 mol CO2
120 mol H2O
CH4+2O2 → CO2 + 2H2O

a) How much methane was consumed? What is the fractional conversion of methane?
b) How much oxygen was consumed? What is the fractional conversion of oxygen?
c) Write the balance equations for methane and oxygen (Accum = In – Out + Rσ). Use
each equation to determine the extent of reaction R.
d) How many independent molecular species balances can be written?
e) Write the mass balances for carbon dioxide and water and verify that they are all
satisfied.

Q2. Combustion of methane with two reactions

100 mol/h methane enters a reactor. It burns in the following two reactions:
CH4 + 2O2 → CO2 + 2H2O (desired reaction)

CH4 + 3/2O2 → CO + 2H2O (undesired reaction)

a) What is the theoretical O2 flow rate if complete combustion occurs in the reactor?
b) What is the theoretical O2 flow rate assuming that only 70% of the methane reacts?
c) What is the theoretical air flow rate?
d) If 100% excess air is supplied, what is the flow rate of air entering the reactor?
e) If the actual flow rate of air is such that 300 mol O /h enters the reactor, what is the
2
percentage excess air?

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 CHEE2001 2020 Week 6 Tutorial Sheet

Q3. Dehyrogenation of ethane

Ethane is dehydrogenated to form ethylene in a catalytic reactor according to the following
reaction: C2H6  C2H4 + H2. The process is designed for a 95% overall conversion of ethane.

The reaction products enter a separator which produces two streams: a product stream
which contains H2, C2H4, and 1.5% of the ethane that leaves the reactor, and a second
stream which contains the balance of the unreacted ethane and 5% of the ethylene that
leaves the reactor. This stream is recycled back to the reactor.
Calculate:
a) the composition of the product,
b) the ratio (moles recycled/ mole fresh feed), and
c) the single pass conversion.

Extra questions
Q4. Production of Nitric Acid

Ammonia is burned to form nitric oxide in the following reaction 4NH3 + 5O2 → 4NO + 6H2O

a) Calculate the ratio (lb mole O2 react/ lb mole NO formed

b) If ammonia is fed to a continuous reactor at a rate of 100 kmol NH3/h, what oxygen
feed rate (kmol/h) would correspond to 40% excess O2?
c) If 50 kg of ammonia and 100 kg of oxygen are fed to a batch reactor, determine the
limiting reactant, the percentage by which the other reactant is in excess, and the
extent of reaction (mol) and mass of NO produced (kg) if the reaction proceeds to
completion.

Q5. Pentane Combustion – dry basis analysis

n-Pentane is burned with excess air in a continuous combustion chamber.

C5H12 + 8O2 → 6 H2O + 5 CO2

A technician runs an analysis and reports that the product gas contains 0.27 mole% pentane,
5.3% oxygen, 9.1% carbon dioxide and the balance nitrogen (on a dry basis). Assume 100
mol of dry product gas as a basis of calculation:
a) draw and label a flowchart,
b) perform a degrees of freedom analysis (based on component balances) and show
that the system has -1 degree of freedom. Comment on this result.
c) Relax one piece of data for product composition and use mass balances to prove that
the reported percentages could not possibly be correct. Using the calculated values
from b) determine percentage excess air fed to the reactor and the fractional
conversion of pentane.

Use the CHEE2001 systematic approach for questions 3 -5.