3.1.

4 Material balance calculations

-Assumptions:
The following assumptions are made:

Working hours of the factory assumed to be 330 days/ year. Production rate of Methanol is
assumed to be 1000000 tons/ year, which yields 3945.7 kmol/hr outlet of the reactor.

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The general equation for material balance is presented by the following eq:

Input – output + Generation - Consumption = Accumulation

-For steady state without chemical reaction:

0 0 0

Input – output + Generation - Consumption = Accumulation

Input- output=0

-For steady state with chemical reaction:

Input – output + Generation - Consumption = Accumulation

- Material Balance on mixing point for the feed and recycle
stream before entering the reactor (R-101):

CO

H2
7
CO2

CO

H2 CO
1
CO2 2 H2

CO2

 CO balance :
y1co* n1CO + y7co* n7CO = y2co* n2CO

 CO2 balance :
y1co2 * n1CO2 + y7co2* n7CO2 = y2co2* n2CO2

 H2 balance :
(1-y1co-y1co2)* n1H2 + (1- y7co-y7co2)* n7H2 = (1- y2co-y2co2)*
n2H2
-Material Balance on Reactor (R-101):

CO + 2H2 CH3OH

CO2 + H2 CO + H2O

CO2 +3H2 CH3OH + H2O

𝑛3𝑖=𝑛2𝑖+Σνξ

CO CH3OH

CO

H2 2 3 H2O

CO2

CO2 H2
Figure 1: Diagram of Reactor (R-101)
C2H6O

C2H5OH

Note: There is a recycle stream that contains unreacted gases coming from (S-101) and is joined
with the feed stream to the reactor. Recycle ratios are 7-9 which can be reduced to 3-4 by the use
of a water cooled reactor due to the higher heat removal rate.

-Assumption : There is some impurities (Dimethyl ether & Ethanol ) coming out with the
produced methanol that will be considered only in the mass balance calculations and will be
removed in the purification section of the process, otherwise they will not be considered in the
energy balance calculations since there is no chemical side reactions have been included.
-Equations :

 CH3OH
𝑛3CH3OH= 𝑛2CH3OH + ξ(1) + ξ(3)

 CO2
𝑛3𝐶𝑂2= 𝑛2𝐶𝑂2 -ξ(2) – ξ(3)

 H2
𝑛3H2= 𝑛2H2 -2ξ(1) – ξ(2) – 3ξ(3)

 CO
𝑛3CO= 𝑛2CO -ξ(1) + ξ(2)

 H2O
𝑛3H2O= 𝑛2CO + ξ(2) + ξ(3)