The cooled effluent passes through a carbon filter in which the soot is removed. The clean gas is then compressed and fed to an absorption column, where it is contacted with a recycled liquid solvent dimethyl form amide or DMF (MW = 73, 09). The off-gas leaving the absorber contains all of the hydrogen and nitrogen, 98.8% of the CO. and 95% of the methane in the gas fed to the column. The lean” solvent fed to the absorber is essentially pure DMF; the ‘rich” solvent leaving the column contains all of the water and CO2 and 99.4% of the acetylene in the gas feed. This solvent is analyzed and found to contain 1.55 mole% C2H2, 0.68% CO2, 0.055% CO, 0.055% CH4, 5.96% H2O, and 91.7% DMF. The rich solvent goes to a multiple-unit separation process from which three streams emerge. One—the product gas—contains 99.1 mole% C2H2, 0.059% H2O, and the balance CO2S: the second—the stripper off-gas—-contains methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and water; and the third—the regenerated solvent—is the liquid DMF fed to the absorber.

A plant is designed to produce 5 metric tons/day of product gas. Calculate the following quantities.

(a) The required flow rates (SCMH) of the methane and oxygen feed streams.

(b) The molar flow rates (k mol/h) and compositions of the gas feed to the absorber, the absorber off-gas and the stripper off-gas.

(c) The DMF circulation rate (k mol/h).

(d) The overall product yield (mol C2H2 in product gas/mol CH4 in the feed to the reactor), and the fraction that this quantity represents of its theoretical maximum value.

(e) The total heating requirements (kW) for the methane and oxygen feed pre-heaters.

(f) The temperature attained in the converter.