A fuel gas containing 95 mole% methane and the balance ethane is burned completely with 25% excess air. The stack gas leaves the furnace at 900°C and is cooled to 450°C in a waste heat boiler, a heat exchanger in which heat lost by cooling gases is used to produce steam from liquid water for heating, power generation, or process applications.

(a) Taking as a basis of calculation 100 mol of the fuel gas fed to the furnace calculate the amount of heat (kJ) that must be transferred from the gas in the waste heat boiler to accomplish the indicated cooling.

(b) How much saturated steam at 50bar can be produced from boiler feed water at 40°C for the same basis of calculation? (Assume all the heat transferred from the gas goes into the steam production.)

(c) At what rate (k mol/s) must fuel gas be burned to produce 1250 kg steam per hour (an amount required elsewhere in the plant) in the waste heat boiler? What is the volumetric flow rate (m3/s) of the gas leaving the boiler?

(d) Briefly explain how the waste heat boiler contributes to the plant profitability. (Think about what would be required in its absence.)