UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND ELECTRONICS

Convenor of the Board of Examiners: Dr J R E Christy

External Examiner: Professor R Allen

Tuesday 10th May 2005

9.30am 11.30am
(2hrs)

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 1

This paper consists of FIVE questions

Candidates should attempt FOUR questions.

Please answer each section in a separate book.

Students should assume reasonable values for any data not given in a question nor available
on a datasheet, and should make any such assumptions clear on their script.

Students in any doubt as to the interpretation of the wording of a question, should make their
own decision, and should state it clearly on their script.

Only a calculator from the list approved by the College of Science and Engineering may be
used in this examination

The examination paper that you are now sitting is to be marked ANONYMOUSLY.

Please write your name in the space indicated at the top right hand corner on the front cover
of the answer book. Also enter your examination number in the appropriate space on the
front cover.

Write ONLY your examination number on any extra sheets, worksheets or graph paper used
and firmly attach these to the answer book(s).

Relevant supporting data and equations are bound with the examination paper.
Question 1

a) Draw a sketch of a countercurrent double pipe heat exchanger, indicating

directions of flow. Explain why this is preferred to a cocurrent heat
exchanger when both streams are undergoing sensible heat change.
(5)

b) 9.5kg/s of a mixed organic stream with a specific heat capacity of 1895 J

/kg /K must be heated from 20C to 100C before it is charged into a
reactor. A steam heater was originally used to carry out all of this duty. It
has now been decided to transfer heat from another stream to carry out
the same duty. This process steam has a flowrate of 5.6kg/s, a specific
heat capacity of 2200 J/ kg /K, and is to be cooled from 144C to 50C.

(i) Calculate the heat transfer rate from the process stream undergoing full
cooling.
(3)

(ii) Calculate the exit temperature of the organic, with inlet temperature of
20C, from a heat exchanger in which it is contacted with the hot process
steam. (3)

(iii) Draw a temperature profile for the exchanger in (ii) and calculate the heat
transfer area of this exchanger if the overall heat transfer coefficient is
750 Wm-2 K-1 . (5)

(iv) If the latent heat of steam is 2200kJ/kg and steam costs 0.2p/kg, calculate
the hourly saving. (4)

Note: The logarithmic mean of x and y is (x-y)/ ln(x/y)

CE0001 Chemical Engineering 1 MAY 2005

Question 2

The first order reaction A B is to be carried out in a liquid phase CSTR. The rate
constant at the temperature of operation is 4hr-1, the required production rate is 40,000
te/yr, and the expected conversion is 80%.

The molecular weight of A is 100kg/kmol and a working year may be taken to be

8,000 hours.

a) How many kmols of A must the reactor contain? (5)

b) How much B must it contain? (4)

c) What will be the residence time in the reactor? (4)

d) If a plug flow reactor (PFR) of the same volume as the CSTR could be (5)
used, what conversion could it achieve?

e) Explain briefly why it might not be possible to construct and operate (2)
such a PFR.

CE0001 Chemical Engineering 1 MAY 2005

Question 3

A plant is to be designed to produce 106 kmol/year of ethylbenzene (C6H5C2H5) from

ethene (C2H4) and benzene (C6H6) by the following reaction:

C2 H 4 + C6 H 6 C6 H 5C2 H 5

In addition, ethylbenzene reacts further to form diethylbenzene (C6H4(C2H5)2),

triethylbenzene and higher substitutions. However, the main side reaction is to form
diethylebenzene

C 2 H 4 + C6 H 5 C 2 H 5 C6 H 4 (C 2 H 5 )2

Excess benzene (several times the stoichiometric requirement) is added to inhibit the
multiple substitutions and to ensure that virtually all of the ethene reacts, but even with
this excess, 1kmol of diethylbenzene is formed for every 10kmol ethylbenzene. In
addition, small quantities of heavy oils are irreversibly formed.

a) Determine the economic potential if 97% of the ethene and benzene are
converted to useful product (the other 3% leaving in waste streams). (8)

b) i) Devise a separation sequence to recover unreacted benzene for recycle,

and to obtain pure ethylbenzene as a product and diethylbenzene as a
potential byproduct. A small amount of ethane enters with the ethene and
this must be removed from the products.
(6)

ii) Suggest what might be done with the diethylbenzene, noting that the
reaction in which it is formed is reversible.
(3)

iii) Clearly show how the heavy oils would leave the process. Would you
separate these from the diethylbenzene or allow them to be recycled?
Give a reason for your answer. (3)

Data

Material Value (/kmol) Normal boiling point (K)

Ethylbenzene 40 409

Diethylbenzene 20 456

Benzene 30 353

Ethene 5 169

Heavy oils 0 ~510

CE0001 Chemical Engineering 1 MAY 2005

Question 4
The Haber Process involves the reaction of nitrogen and hydrogen to
form ammonia according to the reversible reaction:

N2 (g) + 3H2 (g) <=> 2NH3 (g) hr = -92kJ/mol

The nitrogen is supplied from distillation of air and comes mixed with
trace amounts of argon. The hydrogen is supplied mixed with methane
in the ratio 1 mole methane (CH4) to 10 moles hydrogen. The nitrogen
and hydrogen feed ratio is stoichiometric for the above reaction.

a) If the reaction conditions (temperature, pressure) are chosen such that the
conversion of nitrogen is 25%, determine the molar product flow rate and
composition from the reactor for a reactor feed of 100kmol/h nitrogen.
You may ignore the flow rate of argon in this calculation. (8)

b) At what rate must heat be removed if the reactor is to be run

isothermally? (2)

c) It is proposed to separate the product ammonia and to recycle all of the

nitrogen and hydrogen, but methane and argon are difficult to separate
from the nitrogen and hydrogen. Explain why methane is removed by
means of a purge stream from the recycle. If the overall conversion of
nitrogen and hydrogen in the process is 97%, determine the flow rate and
composition of the purge and recycle stream, assuming that unreacted
nitrogen and hydrogen only leave the process in the purge. [Note that this
leads to a different methane flow through the reactor than that used in
part (a).] (10)

Data and Potentially Useful Equations

The approximate average specific heats of the substances are as follows:

N2 (g) 30 kJ kmol-1K-1

H2 (g) 30 kJ kmol-1K-1

CH4(g) 75 kJ kmol-1K-1

NH3(g) 60 kJ kmol-1K-1

CONT/

CE0001 Chemical Engineering 1 MAY 2005

In the general case for steady state with n components and m reactions present, a mass
balance gives

inout
f=
inout,

for each component i,

and an enthalpy balance gives

n
i =1
(f i ,o u t h i ,o u t f i ,in h i ,in )= Q + W

CE0001 Chemical Engineering 1 MAY 2005

which, when there is no phase change and the average mass specific heat of the reactant
stream is the same as that of the product stream, becomes

n
f c
i =1 i ,in p,i
(Tout Tin ) + m
hr ,k = Q + W
k =1 k

where the symbols are as defined in the lecture course.

CE0001 Chemical Engineering 1 MAY 2005

 Question 5

a) You are provided below with an equation to calculate the vapour pressure of
1,2 dichloroethane.

Giving reasons for your answers, in what phase would you expect to find 1,2
dichloroethane (C2H4Cl2) under the following conditions of temperature and
pressure (values quoted to 2 significant figures). If you believe that there may
be uncertainty, explain why and list all possible phase combinations:

i) 110C, 5.0 bar (absolute)

ii)
110C, 2.5 bar (absolute)
iii)
20C, 0.050 bar (absolute) (6)

b) 1,2 dichloroethane is to be stored at atmospheric pressure, with nitrogen in

the vapour space rather than air. The nitrogen enters the vapour space at a
flow rate of 2m3/hr (measured at STP) and leaves, saturated with 1,2
dichloroethane to be discharged to atmosphere via the flare stack.

i) Determine the mole fraction of 1,2 dichloroethane in the nitrogen leaving the (4)
tank when the temperature of the liquid is 20C.
ii) If 1,2 dichloroethane has a value of 400/te, determine the cost of the 1,2 (10)
dichloroethane lost over an 8000 hour working year.

Data

0C = 273.15K

1 kmol of an ideal gas occupies 22.4 m3 at STP

The vapour pressure of 1,2 dichloroethane (in bar) as a function of temperature (in K) is:

( )
ln P * =
4281
+ 12 .09
T

Relative atomic masses: H 1 kg/kmol, C 12 kg/kmol, Cl 35.5 kg/kmol

CE0001 Chemical Engineering 1 MAY 2005

 inout
END OF PAPER

CE0001 Chemical Engineering 1 MAY 2005