Ethane is chlorinated in a continuous reactor: C₂H₆÷C1₂—C₂H₅Cl + HCI some of the product monochloroethane is further chlorinated in an undesired side reaction: C₂H₅Cl + Cl₂ → C₂H₄C1₂ + HCI

(a) Suppose your principal objective is to maximize the selectivity of monochloroethane production relative to dichloromethane production. Would you design the reactor for a high or low conversion of ethane’ Explain your answer. What additional processing steps would almost certainly be carried out to make the process economically sound?

(b) Take a basis of 100 mol C₂H₅Cl produced assume that the feed contains only ethane and chlorine and that all of the chlorine is consumed and carry out a degree-of-freedom analysis based on atomic species balances.

(c) The reactor is designed to yield a 15% conversion of ethane and a selectivity of 14 mol C₂H₄CI/mol C₂H₄C1₂, with a negligible amount of chlorine in the product gas. Calculate the feed ratio (mol C1₂/mol C₂ H₆) and the fractional yield of monochloroethane.

(d) Suppose the reactor is built and started up and the conversion is only 14%. Chromatographic analysis shows that there is no Cl₂ in the product but another species with a molecular weight higher than that of dichloromethane is present. Offer a likely explanation for these results.