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The industrial production of styrene from vinylacetylene is essentially an irrev

ID: 530607 • Letter: T

Question

The industrial production of styrene from vinylacetylene is essentially an irreversible reaction that follows an elementary rate law : 2 vinylacetylene styrene As a newly assigned engineer, you were asked by the plant manager to provide all of these information within two working weeks : a. Calculate the conversion that can be achieved if the reaction if it is carried out in a readily available PFR reactor having a volume of 10dm3 . The entering temperature is fixed at 400 oC. Feed flow is being heated using a heat exchanger. b. Analyse the performance of the reactor by plotting graphs of temperature and conversion along the length of the reactor. c. Vary the entering temperature and plot the conversion as a function of entering temperature. d. Vary the ambient temperature of the heat exchanger and find the maximum ambient temperature for the reaction to take place in the reactor. e. Please provide (a) to (d) information with the case when the reaction is carried out adiabatically. Compare and discuss on the differences between these information. f. Repeat part (b) assuming that the reaction is reversible, having Kc = 100,000 at 400oC. In addition, a stream of inerts (CA = 100 J/mol.oC) with FI = 3FA0 enters the reactor. Plot the conversion as a function of the entering temperature. Additional information : CA0 = 1 mol/dm3 Ua = 5.0 kJ/s.dm3 /K FA0 = 5 mol/s Ta = 700 K HRX = -231- 0.012(T-298) kJ/mol T0 = 673 K CPA = 0.1222 kJ/mol.K k = 1.48 x 1011 exp (-19,124/T) dm3 /mol.s

Explanation / Answer

The formation of styrene from vinylacetylene is essentially irreversible and follows an elementary rate law:
2 vinylacetylene styrene
Vary the entering temperature and plot the conversion as a function of entering temperature
Vary the ambient temperature in the heat exchanger and find the maximum ambient temperature at which runaway will not occur in the reactor.
Repeat part B assuming that the reaction is reversible, KC = 100,000 at 675 K. In addition, a stream of inerts (CP1 = 100 J/(mol °C)), with FI = 3 FA0, enters the reactor. Plot the conversion as a function of the entering temperature. Is there a maximum? If so, why? If not, why not?
Ask another question or suggest another calculation that can be made for this problem.
Additional Information
CA0 = 1 mol/dm3
Ua = 5 kJ/(s dm3)/K
FAo = 5 mol/s
Ta = 700 K
HRX = -231 - 0.012(T - 298) kJ/mol
CPA = 0.12222 kJ/(mol K)
k = 1.48 * 1011 exp(-19124/T) dm3/(mol s) T0 = 675 K