Chemical Engineering Calculations

Problem Set 7 – Material Balances for Multiple Units and Special Flow Arrangement
1. Tungsten is commonly produced from wolframite ores consisting of 6% FeW04, 4.7% MnW04, 1.01 % CaW04 and
inert impurities. The following steps are employed:

FLOTATION: This separates the ore into a concentrate containing the entire tungsten compound with a purity of
90% on a. dry basis. 97% of the water in the flotation cell goes with the tailings and the rest with the concentrate.
The concentrate carries 3% of its dry weight as water.

DIGESTION: Treatment with aqueous (40% NaOH) boiling caustic forms the soluble sodium tungstate, Na2W04,
ferrous, manganous and calcium hydroxide and 3 wt% dissolved impurities.

PURIFICATION: Contact with 20% excess NH40H yields 99.97% Ammonium paratungstate, 5(NH4)2O.12W03.5H20.
Reaction with the nitric gives tungstic acid, H2W04, which is converted to the oxide W03 by roasting at 1000°C.

REDUCTION: Countercurrent reduction with H2 at 800°C yields impure tungsten powder.

On a basis of 2000 kg of ore, make a complete material balance for the system.

2. Ethylene chlorohydrin and glycol are produced from chlorine, water and sodium bicarbonate
a. Chlorine and ethylene are absorbed in a water tower and react to yield the chlorohydrin:
C2H4 + CI2 + H2O CIC2H4OH + HCl
b. The exit-tower solution contains 5% by wt chlorohydrin, along with traces of ethylene dichloride as a by-
product. The dichloride is separated by decantation. This solution is now fed into a still and the chlorohydrin-
water azeotrope, which contains 42% chlorohydrin and no HCI is taken as the overhead distillate product. The
still bottoms contain 1 % chlorohydrin and all the HCl.
c. The distillate is then taken into an autoclave where the hydrolysis takes place at 150°C. A
stoichiometric amount of bicarbonate is used:
CIC2H4OH + NaHCO3 NaCI + CO2 + HOC2H4OH
The hydrochlorination reaction proceeds with a yield of 95% based on ethylene. The 5% by-product may be
taken to be the dichloride. The hydrolysis yield is 90%; the other 10% of the chlorohydrin is converted to
the ethylene oxide via:
CIC2H4OH + NaHCO3 NaCI + H2O + CO2 + C2H4O
4 kg of ethylene glycol is to be produced in bench-scale equipment. Make a complete material balance for the
system.

Flow Arrangement
1. Propane is dehydrogenated to form propylene in a catalyst reactor:
C3H8 → C3H6 + H2
The process is to be designed for a 95% overall conversion of propane. The reaction products are separated into
two streams: the first, which contains H2, C3H6, and 0.555% of the propane that leaves the reactor, is taken off as
product; the second stream, which contains the balance of the unreacted propane and 5% of the propylene in the
first stream, is recycled to the reactor. Calculate the composition of the product, the ratio (moles recycled)/(mole
fresh feed), and the single-pass conversion.(Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes by Felder and Rousseau)

2. Methanol is produced in the reaction of carbon dioxide and hydrogen:

CO2 + 3 H2 → CH3OH + H2O
The fresh feed to the process contains H2, CO2, and 0.400 mol% inerts (I). The reactor effluent passes to a
condenser that removes essentially all of the CH3OH and H2O formed and none of the reactants or inerts. The
latter substances are recycled to the reactor. To avoid buildup of the inerts in the system, a purge stream is
withdrawn from the recycle.
The fresh feed to the reactor (not the fresh feed to the process) contains 28.0 mole% CO 2, 70.0 mole% H2 and 2.00
mole% inerts. The single-pass conversion of hydrogen is 60.0%. Calculate the molar flow rates and molar
compositions of the fresh feed, the total feed to the reactor, the recycle stream, and the purge stream for a
methanol production rate of 155 kg-mol CH3OH/h. (Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes by Felder and
Rousseau)