Design I Name:_________________

Fall 2015 Section:________________

Exam 1

Problems 1 through 4 deal with this situation.

1,3-butadiene is produced by dehydrogenating n-butane in the presence of steam via the reaction

𝐶4 𝐻10 (𝑔) → 𝐶4 𝐻6 (𝑔) + 2𝐻2 (𝑔)

The reaction takes place at 925 K and 1 bar.

1. (10 pt) Draw the I/O diagram for a process that uses pure butane as a raw material and
produces 100 kmol/h of a product that is 95% 1,3-butadiene and 5% n-butane. Complete the
mass balances around it.

2. (10 pt) The reactor effluent contains 1-3 butadiene, hydrogen, water, and a small amount of n-
butane. Draw the recycle structure for this process that is consistent with your I/O structure.
List all species in each stream.

3. (10 pt) Using the table below, synthesize a separation sequence. What physical property
difference should you exploit to recover the water? What physical property difference will you
exploit to separate hydrogen from the C4 species?
Species Mole fraction in Boiling Point at 1 Effective Molecular
the reactor bar diameter
effluent
Hydrogen 21.4% Low 2.2 Angstrom
1,3 butadiene 10.7% -4.4⁰C 7.2 Angstrom
n-butane 0.6% -1⁰C 6.8 Angstrom
water 67.3% 100 ⁰C 4.6 Angstrom

4. (Extra credit). Your customer would like a purer grade of butadiene, but this reaction is
equilibrium limited, and, as the table shows, butane and 1,3-butadiene are difficult to separate.
What could you do to shift the reaction equilibrium so as to reduce the amount of butane in the
reactor effluent?
 5. (35 pt) A heat exchanger network has several hot streams and one cold stream. The hot
composite stream is plotted on the TQ diagram, shown below. The cold stream enters the
network at 30⁰C and leaves at 90⁰C, and has a flowrate-heat capacity of 10 kW/K.
a. Sketch the cold composite curve for the case where there is no cold utility. Is this
feasible? Why or why not?
b. The minimum temperature difference for heat transfer is 10⁰C. Sketch the cold
composite curve for the minimum utility case. What is the minimum steam
consumption in kW? What is minimum cooling water consumption in kW? Where is the
pinch point?

TQ Diagram
100
90
80
70
60
T (⁰C)

50
40 Hot Composite

30
20
10
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Q (kW)
Problems 6 through 9 deal with this situation.

n-butanol (NB) has been proposed as an alternative fuel. It can be produced from an azeotropic mixture
of ethanol (E) and water (W) via the reaction

2𝐸 → 𝑁𝐵 + 𝑊
The reaction takes place in the presence of a heterogeneous catalyst at 150⁰C and 1 atm. The per-pass
conversion of ethanol is 37%. Normal boiling points are given below.

Species Normal Boiling Composition

Point
Ethanol 78.4⁰C 100% ethanol
Ethanol/Water 78.2⁰C 89.4% ethanol
azeotrope 10.6% water
N-butanol/Water 92.1⁰C 24.8% n-butanol
azeotrope 75.2% water
water 100⁰C 100% water
n-butanol 117.7⁰C 100% n-butanol

In addition, please note that water can be removed from n-butanol using a zeolite adsorbent.

6. (10 pt) What should be done with the unreacted ethanol in the reactor effluent?
a. Dispose of it as waste
b. Sell it as a byproduct
c. Recycle it to the reactor in a pure ethanol stream
d. Recycle it to the reactor in a stream containing the ethanol/water azeotrope.

Briefly explain your answer:

7. (20 pt) Draw the I/O diagram for a process that produces 75 kmol/h of NB, using an azeotropic
mixture of ethanol and water as a feed, and is consistent with your answer to question 6.
Complete the mass balances around it.

8. (20 pt) Draw a recycle structure for this process that is consistent with your answers to questions 6
and 7. Number your streams, complete the mass balances, and then enter the component flow
rates in the stream table template at the bottom of the page. (You may use fewer than 10 streams.
If you need more than 10, add them to the right.

Streams
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)
Ethanol
Water
N-
Butanol
9. (15 pt) Synthesize a separation sequence and draw your flowsheet in the space below.
10. (5 pt) A silica adsorbent will be used in a pressure swing adsorption system. The adsorption step
takes 15 minutes. Regenerating the bed takes 30 minutes. How many beds do I need in my PSA
system?

11. (15 pt) A zeolite bed adsorbs 18 kg/h of water. The bed must operate for 2 hours before
regenerating. The adsorption capacity of the zeolite is 0.3 g water/g zeolite, and the bulk density of
the zeolite is 0.6 kg/L. What is the volume of the adsorption bed?

12. (15 pt) Consider the attached TQ diagram. The minimum temperature difference for heat transfer
is 10⁰C. What is the minimum steam consumption in kW? What is minimum cooling water
consumption in kW? Where is the pinch point?