Jul 2025 Dr.
Nahid Sanzida
Home Work 1
Handwritten Submission by 1 pm on 17 December 2025.
1. Figure shown illustrates a steady-state process for the production of methanol. All of the
compositions are in mole fractions or percent. The stream flows are in moles.
Note in Figure that some CH4 enters the process, but does not participate in the reaction. A purge
stream is used to maintain the CH4 concentration in the exit from the separator at no more than 3.2
mol%, and prevent hydrogen buildup as well. The once-through conversion of the CO in the
reactor is 18%.
Compute the moles of recycle, CH3OH, and purge per mole of feed, and also compute the purge
gas composition.
Ans:
2. Methanol is synthesized from carbon monoxide and hydrogen in a catalytic reactor. The fresh feed to
the process contains 32.0 mole% CO, 64.0% H2, and 4.0% N2. This stream is mixed with a recycle
stream in a ratio 5 mol recycle/1 mol fresh feed to produce the feed to the reactor, which contains
13.0 mole% N2. A low single-pass conversion is attained in the reactor. The reactor effluent goes to
a condenser from which two streams emerge: a liquid product stream containing essentially all the
methanol formed in the reactor, and a gas stream containing all the CO, H2, and N2 leaving the reactor.
The gas stream is split into two fractions: one is removed from the process as a purge stream, and the
other is the recycle stream that combines with the fresh feed to the reactor.
(a) Assume a methanol production rate of 100 kmol/h. Perform the DOF for the overall system and
all subsystems to prove that there is insufficient information to solve for all unknowns.
(b) Briefly explain in your own words the reasons for including (i) the recycle stream and (ii) the
purge stream in the process design.
3. The fresh feed to an ammonia production process contains nitrogen and hydrogen in stoichiometric
proportion, along with an inert gas (I). The feed is combined with a recycle stream containing the
same three species, and the combined stream is fed to a reactor in which a low single-pass conversion
of nitrogen is achieved. The reactor effluent flows to a condenser. A liquid stream containing
essentially all of the ammonia formed in the reactor and a gas stream containing all the inerts and the
unreacted nitrogen and hydrogen leave the condenser. The gas stream is split into two fractions with
the same composition: one is removed from the process as a purge stream, and the other is the recycle
stream combined with the fresh feed. In every stream containing nitrogen and hydrogen, the two
species are in stoichiometric proportion.
Jul 2025 Dr. Nahid Sanzida
Let, the mole fraction of inerts in the fresh feed is 1%, the single-pass conversion of nitrogen (and of
hydrogen) in the reactor is 20%, and the fraction of the gas leaving the condenser that is purged (mol
purged/mol total) is 0.1. Taking a basis of 1 mol fresh feed, draw and fully label a process flowchart,
determine,
i) the total moles fed to the reactor (nr)
ii) moles of ammonia produced (np), and
iii) overall nitrogen conversion (fov).
4. In the famous Haber process to manufacture ammonia, the reaction is carried out at pressures of
800 to 1000 atm and at 500 to 600°C using a suitable catalyst. Only a small fraction of the material
entering the reactor reacts on one pass, so recycle is needed. Also, because the nitrogen is obtained
from the air, it contains almost 1% rare gases (chiefly argon) that do not react. The rare gases
would continue to build up in the recycle until their effect on the reaction equilibrium would
become adverse. Therefore, a small purge stream is used.
The fresh feed of gas composed of 75.16% H2, 24.57% N2, and 0.27% Ar is mixed with the
recycled gas and enters the reactor with a composition of 79.52% H2. The gas stream leaving the
ammonia separator contains 80.01% H2 and no ammonia. The product ammonia contains no
dissolved gases. Per 100 moles of fresh feed:
a. How many moles are recycled and purged?
b. What is the percent conversion of hydrogen per pass?
Ans: (a) 890 recycled and 3.2 purged; (b) 9.2% conversion (errors can be caused by loss of
significant figures)
5. The following figure shows a simplified process to make ethylene dichloride (C2H4C12). The feed
data have been placed on the figure. Ninety percent conversion of the C2H4 occurs on each pass
through the reactor. The overhead stream from the separator contains 98% of the Cl2 entering the
separator, 92% of the entering C2H4, and 0.1% of the entering C2H4C12. Five percent of the
overhead from the separator is purged. Calculate (a) the flow rate and (b) the composition of the
purge stream.
Ans. (a) 1.49 mol/hr; (b) Cl2: 0.658; C2H4: 0.338; C2H4C12: 0.0033
Jul 2025 Dr. Nahid Sanzida
6. A process for methanol synthesis is shown in the figure below. The pertinent chemical
reactions involved are
Ten percent excess steam, based on Reaction (a), is fed to the reformer, and conversion of
methane is 100%, with a 90% yield of CO2. Conversion in the methanol reactor is 55% on one
pass through the reactor.
A stoichiometric quantity of oxygen is fed to the CO converter, and the CO is completely
converted to CO2. Additional makeup CO2 is then introduced to establish a 3-to-1 ratio of H2
to CO2 in the feed stream to the methanol reactor.
The methanol reactor effluent is cooled to condense all of the methanol and water, with the
noncondensable gases recycled to the methanol reactor feed. The H2/CO2 ratio in the recycle
stream is also 3 to 1.
Because the methane feed contains 1% nitrogen as an impurity, a portion of the recycle stream
must be purged as shown in figure to prevent the accumulation of nitrogen in the system. The
purge stream analyzes 5% nitrogen.
On the basis of 100 mol of methane feed (including the N2):
a. How many moles of H2 are lost in the purge?
b. How many moles of makeup CO2 are required?
c. What is the recycle-to-purge ratio in moles per mole?
d. How much methanol solution (in kilograms) of what strength (weight percent) is
produced?