Question: A simplified process for making acetaldehyde ( C H 3 CHO ) from ethylene ( C 2 H 4 ) is as follows: 1 0

A simplified process for making acetaldehyde (CH3CHO) from ethylene (C2H4) is as
follows: 1000kmols of a fresh feed stream containing 65%C2H4,34.5% oxygen (O2) and
0.5% nitrogen (N2)(composition on a mol basis) enters the process at 125C and 3bar. This
feed enters a reactor maintained at 125C and 3 bar in which acetaldehyde is produced
according to the following overall reaction.
C2H4+0.5O2CH3CHO
Ethylene must be present in excess to avoid forming explosive mixtures so the single pass
molar conversion of ethylene is 30%. The stream leaving the reactor enters a scrubber where
it is mixed with 2000kmols of water. All of the water and the acetaldehyde leave the
scrubber in the bottoms stream, and all the remaining components leave as an overhead
stream. 20%(mol basis) of the overhead stream is purged to prevent accumulation of
nitrogen in the system and the remainder is recycled to the reactor. The bottoms stream
leaving the scrubber is sent to a distillation column where a pure acetaldehyde product stream
is recovered. Acetaldehyde has a boiling point of 20.2C.
Calculate the:
a) Flowrate of Ethylene just after exiting the reactor. ( kmolsec)
b) Flowrate of Oxygen(O2) just after exiting the reactor. ( kmolsec)
c) Flowrate of Ethylene in recycle stream. (kmol/sec)
d) Flowrate of Oxygen(O2) in recycle stream. (kmol/sec)
 A simplified process for making acetaldehyde (CH3CHO) from ethylene (C2H4) is

Step by Step Solution

There are 3 Steps involved in it

1 Expert Approved Answer
Step: 1 Unlock blur-text-image
Question Has Been Solved by an Expert!

Get step-by-step solutions from verified subject matter experts

Step: 2 Unlock
Step: 3 Unlock

Students Have Also Explored These Related Chemical Engineering Questions!