Chemical Engineering Fundamentals I (CF1115B)

ASSIGNMENT 1
Date: 29 March 2022
Submission Date: 6 April 2022
Total marks: 100
Lecturer: D. Hlotse

Question 1 [15]

1.1 Newtonian fluid Reynold’s Number is expressed by the equation below:

ρuD
Re =
μ
Where:

ρ = density of the fluid (kg/m3)

u = velocity of the fluid (m/s)
D = pipe diameter (m)
μ = dynamic viscosity of the fluid (kg/m.s)

Show that the Reynold’s number (Re) is dimensionless. (3 marks)

1.2 Hydrogen can be separated from natural gas by diffusion through a round tube. The
rate of separation is given by:

N=2 πDρR
Where:

N = rate of transportation (mol/cm.s)

D = diffusion coefficient
ρ = molar density (mol/cm3)
R = log mean radius (cm)

What are the units of D for the equation to be dimensionally homogeneous? (3 marks)
1.3 The ideal gas equation is expressed as:

PV =nRT
Where:

P = pressure (N/m2)
V = volume (m3)
n = amount of substance (mol)
R = ideal gas constant
T = temperature (K)

What are the units of R (ideal gas constant) for the equation to be dimensionally
homogeneous? In its simplest form. (4 marks)

1.4 The Prandtl number, NPr, is an important variable in heat transfer calculations and it
is defined as:
Cp μ
N Pr =
k
Where:
J
Cp = heat capacity of a fluid, in
kg . ℃
kg
μ = the fluid viscosity, in
m. s
W
k = the thermal conductivity, in
m. ℃

Demonstrate that NPr is a dimensionless quantity (5 marks)

Question 2 [25]
Ore is mined and sent to a chemical engineering laboratory to recovery minerals X and
Y. A hydrometallurgical process is used to in the recovery of the minerals. The following
recoveries were obtained after running the flotation process 10 times:

Run 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
X (ppm) 150.2 151. 149.5 148.7 151.7 149.2 150.6 150.1 148.9 151.8
3
Y (ppm) 148.2 146. 147.2 146.9 147.3 147.8 148.3 146.4 148.1 147.1
5

2.1 Calculate the sample mean and range of minerals X and Y. (10 marks)
2.2 Determine which mineral has the higher deviation. (10 marks)
2.3 Determine the minimum and maximum value for each mineral. (5 marks)
Question 3 [30]

3.1 An aqueous solution containing 40.0 mass% of pyrite FeS 2 has a specific gravity of
1.2563. A fixed amount of the aqueous solution is needed to provide 232.5 kg of FeS 2.

Calculate the required volume in (L) of the aqueous solution to obtain the 232.5 kg of
FeS2. (10 marks)

3.2 In the burning of C 2H6 in the presence of air, 100 grams of the product is obtained
with the following masses:
Component (i) Mass (g)
CO2 18
CO 10
H2O 4
N2 53
O2 15
Total 100

Calculate and tabulate the mole fractions of the product compositions. (20 marks)

Question 4 [30]

4.1 Presented in the figure above, P 1 = 7500 Pa, P2 = 5000 Pa, ρ A = 845 kg/m3, SG B =
1.0 SG C=11.5 and g =9.8m/s2. Given that h2 = 0.15 m, determine the value of h 1.
 Assuming that liquid A and liquid B are at the same level (Show all steps).
(20 marks)
4.2 In a inorganic chemistry lab, 2 different samples are to stored in incubators. The
storage temperature for the samples should be 12 °C. Calculate the required
temperature for both incubators, if incubator 1 is measured in °F and incubator 2 is
measured in °R. If both incubators were measured in K, what would the required
temperature be?
(10 marks)