CHEN 201 Chemical Process Principles

Exam 1 (OPEN BOOK 90 MINUTES)

3rd March 2016

(4 Problems for a total of 100 POINTS)

PROBLEM 1 (15 POINTS)

In a journal article on measuring flows from pipes the author calculated q in m 3/s using the formula below:

2𝑔𝑉(𝑃1 −𝑃2 )
𝑞 = 𝐶𝐴1 √
1−(𝐴1 /𝐴2 )2

Where q is the volumetric flow rate in m3/s, C is a dimensionless constant, A1 and A2 are areas in m2, V is
the specific volume in m3/kg and P1 and P2 are pressures in kPa and g is the acceleration due to gravity in
m.s-2. Was the calculation correct? Answer Yes or No and explain the reasoning behind your answer.

PROBLEM 2 (35 POINTS)

A mixture of ethanol, methanol and propanol flowing continuously at a rate of 1,200 kg/hr is fed into a
distillation column. The mixture contains 20% methanol. Ninety percent of the methanol is to be recovered
in the distillate along with 60% of the ethanol. All of the 400 kg/hr of propanol fed to the process must be
recovered in the bottoms. All percentage compositions are weight %.
(a) Draw and label a flowchart for this process; determine the degrees of freedom. (15 points)
(b) Perform mass balance calculations to determine the unknown flow rates and the compositions (20
points).

PROBLEM 3 (40 POINTS)

150 m3/hr of seawater with a specific gravity (SG) of 1.04 is desalinated in a reverse osmosis (RO) unit. The
RO unit has a 50% system recovery and produces a reject brine stram and a potable water product stream;
the inlet seawater contains 3.2% by weight sodium chloride (NaCl), 0.5% by weight magnesium sulfate
(MgSO4), 0.3% by weight Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) and the rest water; the membranes installed in the
RO are capable of removing 99.99% of the salts in the feed water; the reject stream has an SG of 1.05 while
the product stream has an SG of 1.0.
(a) Draw and label a flowchart for this process; determine the degrees of freedom. (10 points)
(b) Perform mass balance calculations to determine the flow rates (in kg/hr) and the compositions
(weight percent) of the product and reject streams. (25 points)
(c) Name one other process that is used for desalination of seawater? (5 points)

PROBLEM 4 (10 POINTS)

(a) Name three carbon (CO2) capture technologies. (3 points)
(b) Name two industries in which membranes are used. For what purpose are membranes used in
these industries. (3 points)
(c) What is the difference between upstream and downstream processing? (2 points)
(d) Name three non-chemical processes, other than distillation, pumps and compressors that are
used in chemical engineering applications. (2 points)