A liquid mixture contains 60.0 wt% ethanol (E), 5.0 wt% of a dissolved solute (S), and the balance water. A stream of this mixture is fed to a continuous distillation column operating at steady state. Product streams emerge at the top and bottom of the column. The column design calls for the product streams to have equal mass flow rates and for the top stream to contain 90.0 wt% ethanol and no solute (S).

a.) Assume a basis of calculation, draw and full label a process flowchart, do the degree-of-freedom analysis, and verify that all unknown stream flows and compositions can be calculated (Dont do any calculation yet.)

b.) Calculate (i) the mass fraction of the solute (S) in the bottom stream and (ii) the fraction of the ethanol in the feed that leaves in the bottom product stream (i.e., kg E in the bottom stream/kg E in feed) if the process operates as designed.

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