A steady state process for converting ethylene to ethanol by reaction with water is to be designed.
Fresh feed of pure ethylene is mixed with a stream of water and then combined with a recycle stream. This combined stream is fed to a reactor. The ethylene reacts with water to produce ethanol. The combined stream to the reactor is such that water is present in 40% excess. As a result the single pass conversion in the reactor is 10%.
To separate the ethanol product, the exit stream from the reactor is sent to a distillation column. The bottoms stream from the column is a liquid solution of only water and ethanol with a mole fraction of ethanol of 0.95. 85% of ethanol fed to the column leaves in the bottoms stream. A second stream, the gaseous overhead from the column, forms the recycle that mixes with the fresh feed.
Draw a schematic of the process and solve the material balance for a process wherein the mass flow rate of ethanol in the liquid product from the column is 3.62 MTPD.
Determine the following:
Molar flow rate of fresh ethylene (mol/hr) Molar flow rate of fresh water (mol/hr) Molar flow rate of recycle (mol/hr) Extent of reaction per unit time in the reactor (mol/hr) Molar flow rate of water in the combined stream input to the reactor (mol/hr) Molar flow rate of ethylene in the combined stream input to the reactor (mol/hr) Overall conversion of water in the process
A steady state process for converting ethylene to ethanol by reaction with water is to be designed.
Fresh feed of pure ethylene is mixed with a stream of water and then combined with a recycle stream. This combined stream is fed to a reactor. The ethylene reacts with water to produce ethanol. The combined stream to the reactor is such that water is present in 40% excess. As a result the single pass conversion in the reactor is 10%.
To separate the ethanol product, the exit stream from the reactor is sent to a distillation column. The bottoms stream from the column is a liquid solution of only water and ethanol with a mole fraction of ethanol of 0.95. 85% of ethanol fed to the column leaves in the bottoms stream. A second stream, the gaseous overhead from the column, forms the recycle that mixes with the fresh feed.
Draw a schematic of the process and solve the material balance for a process wherein the mass flow rate of ethanol in the liquid product from the column is 3.62 MTPD.
Determine the following:
| Molar flow rate of fresh ethylene (mol/hr) | |
| Molar flow rate of fresh water (mol/hr) | |
| Molar flow rate of recycle (mol/hr) | |
| Extent of reaction per unit time in the reactor (mol/hr) | |
| Molar flow rate of water in the combined stream input to the reactor (mol/hr) | |
| Molar flow rate of ethylene in the combined stream input to the reactor (mol/hr) | |
| Overall conversion of water in the process |
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