Air from a pipe assembly building at a Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic manufacture

Question

Air from a pipe assembly building at a Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic manufacturer contains styrene. The air handling system has been designed to maintain ambient styrene concentrations below OSHA limits within the building, but result in atmospheric release of styrene. The outlet flow rate from the building is 10,000 ft^3/min with a styrene concentration of 0.125 g/m^3. Size a plug flow biofilter (i.e., a column packed with compost) to reduce outlet styrene concentrations to 0.0125 g/m^3. Previous bench scale studies have determined that compost based biofilters have a rate constant of k = 70 g/m^3 of reactor volume per hour. Determine the reactor size if the rate constant, k, was 30 hr^-1.

Explanation / Answer

(a)

Initial concentration od styrene = 0.125 g/m3

Final concentrtaion of styrene = 0.0125 g/m3

Volumetric flow rate is 1000 ft3/min = 16990.1 m3 /hr

from the units of K , the order is 2.

For the second order reaction,

(1/C exit - 1/C in ) = k V/Q

(1/0.0125 - 1/0.125 ) = 70 x V / 16990.1

V = 17475.53 m3

----------------------------------------------

(2) Here the order is 1 according to units of K

ln(C initial / C out ) = kV/Q

ln(0.125/0.0125) = (30) x V/16990.1

V = 1304.04 m3

Thus, the volume of plug flow is 1304.04 m3

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse A
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.