University of San Agustin

College of Technology
Chemical Engineering Department

Simulation On the Production of Nitrous Oxide Using CAPE-OPEN to

CAPE-OPEN Simulation Environment

Rupert John Angelo*

Jaro, Iloilo City, Philippines

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article history: This paper aims to conduct as simulation study on the effect of the pressure and
Received 00 (Month) 00 temperature on the production of nitrous oxide. The advantages and disadvantages of the
Received in revised form 11 March 19 nitrous oxide usage for health remedies were also discussed.
Accepted 00 (Month) 00

Keywords:
Nitrous Oxide, COCO, COFE

1. Introduction

In this paper, CAPE-OPEN Flowsheet Environment (COFE) of CAPE-OPEN to CAPE-OPEN (COCO)

simulation environment was utilized to conduct as simulation on the production of nitrogen oxide. COFE is an
intuitive graphical user interface to chemical flowsheeting. COFE has sequential solution algorithm using
automatic tear streams. COFE displays properties of streams, deals with unit-conversion and provides plotting
facilities. COFE flowsheets can be used as CAPE-OPEN unit operations; so you can use COFE Flowsheets as
unit operation inside COFE (flowsheets in flowsheets) or inside other simulators. Nitrogen oxides are a group of
seven gases and compounds composed of nitrogen and oxygen. The two most common and hazardous nitrogen
oxides are nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide. Nitrous oxide, commonly called laughing gas, is a greenhouse gas
that contributes to climate change. Nitrogen oxides are emitted from vehicle exhaust, and the burning of coal, oil,
diesel fuel, and natural gas, especially from electric power plants. They are also emitted by cigarettes, gas stoves,
kerosene heaters, wood burning, and silos that contain silage. Nitrogen oxides react with sunlight and other
chemicals to form smog. Nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide react with substances in the atmosphere to form acid
rain. Nitrogen dioxide is used to produce rocket fuels and explosives.
1.1 Nitrogen Oxide

Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) is used in the food industry as a mixing and foaming agent (E942) in the production
of whipped cream, 1,2 and as a fuel booster in the motor industry. 3 It is also a familiar agent in obstetric, dental,
emergency, and anaesthetic practice, where use is made of its analgesic and anaesthetic properties. However,
nitrous oxide was used recreationally long before its medical potential was realized. Joseph Priestly is accredited
with first synthesizing the gas in 1772, 3 and by the late 18th century inhalation of nitrous oxide became a popular
public entertainment. 4 The gas became a fashionable addition to British high-society parties in the early 1800s
thanks to its euphoric and relaxant properties, which led chemist Humphrey Davy to coin the term ‘laughing gas’
(Randhawa and & Bodenham, 2015).
Nitrous oxide fulfils many of the desirable properties of an ideal agent for the food industry in that it is
non-flammable, bacteriostatic, colourless, tasteless, and odourless. 1 It also has properties that attract recreational
drug users. It is legal, cheap, readily available, and undetectable on routine drug screens. It has a very rapid onset
of action, such that the physiological effects (behavioural disinhibition, analgesia, and euphoria) begin within
seconds of inhaling the gas. Its rapid offset of action and lack of hangover effect mean that the user may safely
resume normal activities within a short time of exposure. As one university student described the experience: ‘it
came on fast and totally wipes you out … and in five minutes you are ready to do your homework’ (Wagner et.al.,
1998).

1.2 Uses of Nitrogen Oxide

The best-known uses of nitrous oxide are as a medical anesthetic and analgesic. An anesthetic causes a
patient to lose touch with all sensation of pain — and often lose consciousness — while an analgesic simply
lessens the severity of the pain. Tylenol, for example, is an analgesic (Ross, 2019).

Worldwide, nitrous oxide is the No. 1 inhaled anesthetic in the medical profession, always administered as a 50/50
blend of nitrous oxide and pure oxygen. As a patient in the U.S., you're most likely to encounter nitrous oxide at
the dentist's office, but in Europe, Canada and Australia it's commonly used as a pain reliever during childbirth
(Alcohol and Drug Foundation, 2018).

The chief advantages of nitrous oxide as a pain reliever are that it delivers immediate and powerful analgesic
effects and can be cut off just as quickly, with patients recovering full sensation within minutes of removing a
nitrous inhalation mask. Emergency medical personnel use nitrous oxide for quick pain relief during a variety of
medical situations, including heart attacks, severe burns, kidney stones, fractures and dislocations.So how does
this gas work? When nitrous oxide is inhaled, the gas enters the blood stream through the lungs and travels quickly
to the brain, where it triggers the release of the body's natural opioids, endorphins and dopamine. The anesthetic
effect of nitrous oxide is achieved by temporarily stabilizing neuron activity in the brain (Oglesbee, 2014).

In the food industry, nitrous oxide is a highly effective propellant for dispensing fatty liquids like oil and heavy
cream. To dispense whipped cream, nitrous gas is compressed into a liquid and mixed with heavy cream inside
sealed, pressurized canisters. Because the liquid nitrous oxide displaces all oxygen in the can, an unopened
canister of whipped cream will never go rancid. Nitrous oxide is highly soluble in fat, and when pressure inside
the canister is released, the liquid nitrous instantly turns to gas, expanding the volume of the cream four-fold
(Wagner, 1992).

1.3 Dangers of recreational nitrous oxide use

Nitrous oxide has a number of specific adverse effects of relevance to patient selection for
general anaesthesia involving the agent, 11,12 but also poses risks to fit subjects engaged in recreational
use. High concentrations of inhaled nitrous oxide constitute a hypoxic inspired mixture. The dangers of
such mixtures in the dental chair will be familiar to older generations of anaesthetists, and contributed
to the Department of Health banning general anaesthesia by non-anaesthetists outside the hospital
setting. 13 The likelihood and severity of resultant hypoxaemia will depend on the effectiveness of nitrous
oxide delivery, air entrainment, depth of respiration, and breath-holding to alter washout of nitrogen,
oxygen, and carbon dioxide from the lungs. Such hypoxaemia should be well tolerated by a fit person
but could give rise to seizures, arrhythmias, or even respiratory or cardiac arrest in patients with epilepsy,
cardiac disease, or other co-morbidities, especially if combined with other centrally acting or
arrhythmogenic drugs (Randhawa and & Bodenham, 2015).

Nitrous oxide affects everyone differently, based on:

 The amount taken

 The user’s size, weight and health
 Whether the person is used to taking it
 Whether other drugs are taken around the same time

The following effects may be felt almost immediately and can last for a few minutes: 2,4,5

 Euphoria
 Numbness of the body
 Sedation
 Giddiness
 Uncontrolled laughter
 Uncoordinated movements
 Blurred vision
 Confusion
 Dizziness and/or light-headedness
 Sweating
 Feeling unusually tired or weak
 Sudden death

If a large amount of nitrous oxide is inhaled it can produce: 2,4,7

 Loss of blood pressure

 Fainting
 Heart attack
Basis:

Stream NH3 O2 NH3-O2 NO + H20 Unit

Pressure 500 500 500 499.9 Pa
Temperature 500 500 500 500 K
Flow rate 1 1 2 2 mol / s
Mole frac Ammonia 1 0 0.5 0.5
Mole frac Oxygen 0 1 0.5 0.5
Mole frac Water 0 0 0 0
Mole frac Nitric oxide 0 0 0 0

NH3

Mixer_2
O2 NH3-O2

NO + H20

CSTR_4

First trial : Pressure increases to 1000 PA

Stream NH3 O2 NH3-O2 NO + H20 Unit

Pressure 1000 1000 1000 999.9 Pa
Temperature 500 500 500 500 K
Flow rate 1 1 2 2 mol / s
Mole frac Ammonia 1 0 0.5 0.5
Mole frac Oxygen 0 1 0.5 0.5
Mole frac Water 0 0 0 0
Mole frac Nitric oxide 0 0 0 0

NH3

Mixer_2
O2 NH3-O2

NO + H20

CSTR_4
2nd trial: Pressure decreases to 50 PA

Stream NH3 O2 NH3-O2 NO + H20 Unit

Pressure 50 50 50 49.9 Pa
Temperature 500 500 500 500 K
Flow rate 1 1 2 2 mol / s
Mole frac Ammonia 1 0 0.5 0.5
Mole frac Oxygen 0 1 0.5 0.5
Mole frac Water 0 0 0 0
Mole frac Nitric oxide 0 0 0 0

NH3

Mixer_2
O2 NH3-O2

NO + H20

CSTR_4

3rd trial : pressure in nh3 10 Pa and pressure in O2 60Pa

Stream NH3 O2 NH3-O2 NO + H20 Unit

Pressure 10 60 10 9.9 Pa
Temperature 500 500 500 500 K
Flow rate 1 1 2 2 mol / s
Mole frac Ammonia 1 0 0.5 0.5
Mole frac Oxygen 0 1 0.5 0.5
Mole frac Water 0 0 0 0
Mole frac Nitric oxide 0 0 0 0

NH3

Mixer_2
O2 NH3-O2

NO + H20

CSTR_4
4th trial: temperature increases to 600K

Stream NH3 O2 NH3-O2 NO + H20 Unit

Pressure 500 500 500 499.9 Pa
Temperature 600 600 600 500 K
Flow rate 1 1 2 2 mol / s
Mole frac Ammonia 1 0 0.5 0.5
Mole frac Oxygen 0 1 0.5 0.5
Mole frac Water 0 0 0 0
Mole frac Nitric oxide 0 0 0 0

NH3

Mixer_2
O2 NH3-O2

NO + H20

CSTR_4

5th trial: temperature decreases to 300K

Stream NH3 O2 NH3-O2 NO + H20 Unit

Pressure 500 500 500 499.9 Pa
Temperature 300 300 299.999 500 K
Flow rate 1 1 2 2 mol / s
Mole frac Ammonia 1 0 0.5 0.5
Mole frac Oxygen 0 1 0.5 0.5
Mole frac Water 0 0 0 0
Mole frac Nitric oxide 0 0 0 0

NH3

Mixer_2
O2 NH3-O2

NO + H20

CSTR_4
6th trial: temp decreases to 10K

Stream NH3 O2 NH3-O2 NO + H20 Unit

Pressure 500 500 500 499.9 Pa
Temperature 10 10 N/A 500 K
Flow rate 1 1 2 2 mol / s
Mole frac Ammonia 0 0 0 0.5
Mole frac Oxygen 1 0 0.5 0.5
Mole frac Water 0 1 0.5 0
Mole frac Nitric oxide 0 0 0 0

NH3

Mixer_2
O2 NH3-O2

NO + H20

CSTR_4

Unit "Mixer_2": calculate failed for unit Mixer_2: CalcEquilibrium failed: CalcEquilibrium failed: CalcEquilibrium
failed: CalcEquilibrium failed: PH flash failed: failed to calculate enthalpy using a calculation material for the
Liquid phase: Property evaluation using equation of state failed: zero or negative temperature

Conclusion:

In the simulation, pressure is set to 500 Pa with temperature at 500K as the initial conditions. In the first
trial the pressure was increased to 1000 Pa then decreased to 50 Pa in the second trial. During the third trial,
the pressure of ammonia is set to 10 Pa while the pressure of oxygen is 60 Pa. Maintaining the conditions in the
third trial, the temperature was changed to 600 K. During the fifth trial the temperature was lowered to 300K.
During the last trial, the temperature was decreased to 10K causing a prompt indicating “Unit "Mixer_2":
calculate failed for unit Mixer_2: CalcEquilibrium failed: CalcEquilibrium failed: CalcEquilibrium failed:
CalcEquilibrium failed: PH flash failed: failed to calculate enthalpy using a calculation material for the Liquid
phase: Property evaluation using equation of state failed: zero or negative temperature.” Simulation using
temperature around 10K will not let the reaction proceed.

The effect of changing the pressure on a gas-phase reaction depends on the stoichiometry of the reaction.
Similarly, a change in the pressure on a gas-phase reaction shifts the position of the equilibrium without changing
the magnitude of the equilibrium constant.

Recommendations:

For a more expounded study, the relationship between the conversion of reactants to products and other
parameters such as size of the reactor, flow rates of the reactants, and type of reactor used. Other
simulation softwares such as Polymath and Aspen Hysys might be utilized as well.
REFERENCES

Alcohol and Drug Foundation. ( December 10, 2018). Nitrous Oxide. Retrieved from https://adf.org.au/drug-
facts/nitrous-oxide/
David, R. (2019). How Nitrous Oxide Works. Retrieved https://science.howstuffworks.com/nitrous-oxide2.htm

Oglesbee, S. (April 1, 2014). Using Nitrous Oxide to Manage Pain. Journal of Emergency Medical
Services. Retrieved from https://www.jems.com/articles/print/volume-39/issue-4/patient-care/using-
nitrous-oxide-manage-pain.html

Randhawa, G. and Bodenham. A. (August 30, 2015). The increasing recreational use of nitrous oxide: history
revisited. BJA: British Journal of Anaesthesia, Volume 116, Issue 3, March 2016, Pages 321–324. Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.1093/bja/aev297
Wagner SA , Clark MA, Wesche DL, Doedens DJ, LloydAW. Asphyxial deaths from the recreational use of
nitrous oxide. J Forensic Sci 1992; 37: 1008– 15