A 20,000-liter storage tank was taken out of service to repair and reattach a fe

Question

A 20,000-liter storage tank was taken out of service to repair and reattach a feed line damaged in a collision with a tanker. The tank was drained and then opened several days later for a welder to enter and perform the required work. No one realized, however, that 15 liters of liquid nonane (C9H20) remained in a collection sump at the bottom of the tank after the draining had been completed.

Nonane has a lower explosion limit of 0.80 mole% and an upper explosion limit of 2.9 mole% (i.e., nonane-air mixtures at 1 atm can explode when exposed to a spark or flame if the nonane mole percentage is between the two given values). Assume any liquid nonane that evaporates spreads uniformly throughout the tank. Is it possible for the average gas-phase composition in the tank to be within the explosion limits at any time?

Explanation / Answer

Here we need to find the no. Of moles of nonane present in the tank using PV=nRT for the left over nonane.

PV=nRT

10^5Pa×0.015m^3=n× 8.314×298K

n=0.6moles

Then we need to find the total no.of moles that can be present in the tank in order to find the mole %

PV=nRT

10^5Pa×20m^3=n× 8.314×298K

n=807 moles

Therefore mole%=(0.6÷807)×100

0.074 mole%

Therefore it is not in the explosion limit.

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