CHEE2001 Homework Sheet 2

Due: To EAIT Assignment Chute 29 March 2019 5pm

Answer the following questions. Show workings clearly.

1. Perform the following conversions:

a) Mole % to mass %: Natural gas (90 mol% methane, 7 mol% ethane and 3
mol% propane)
b) Distillation column volumetric feedrate of 2000 L/h to kg/min (0.872 kg/L)

2. A dehumidifier is used to remove water from fresh air containing 4 mole% H2O to
deliver dehumidified air to a room with a water content of 1.7 mole% H2O. A
fraction of the dehumidified air leaving the dehumidifier is recycled and mixed
with the fresh air while the remainder is delivered to the room. The blended
stream entering the dehumidifier contains 2.3 mole% H2O.
Taking 100 mol of dehumidified air delivered to the room as a basis of
calculation, calculate the moles of fresh air feed, the moles of water condensed
and the recycle ratio (recycled air flow / fresh air flow).
Show the full systematic mass balance approach.
3. Consider the production of nut oil. Fresh ground nuts, containing 13 wt% oil (NO)
and 87 wt% solids (S), are mixed with recycled organic solvent (OS) and fed to a
stirred tank extractor. The ratio of organic solvent flow to ground nuts is 3:1. In
the extractor, the ground nuts are suspended in the solvent and essentially all of
the oil in the nuts is extracted to the organic solvent. The extractor effluent
passes to a filter to produce a nut oil/ organic solvent filtrate and a filter cake
containing 75 wt% solids (note: the ratio of nut oil to organic solvent in the filter
cake is the same as the extractor product). The filter cake is discarded and the
liquid filtrate is fed to an evaporator in which the solvent is vaporized while the
nut oil remains as a liquid. The product nut oil is collected and shipped away. The
organic solvent is cooled, condensed and recycled to mix with the fresh nuts.
Make-up organic solvent is added to this recycle stream (to replace the solvent
that is lost with the filter cake) before the organic solvent is mixed with the fresh
nuts (so there are two mixers).

Using a basis of 100 kg/h fresh ground nuts, calculate:

- the yield of nut oil (production nut oil/ feedrate of fresh ground nuts),
- the recycle ratio (recycled organic solvent flow/ makeup organic solvent flow).

Tip: remember that the ratio of organic solvent to nuts into the extractor is 3:1, so the
total mass flow of organic solvent (recycled + make-up solvent) is 3x the mass flow of
feed nuts.

Show the full systematic mass balance.

School of Chemical Engineering CHEE2001 Semester 1 2019