An industrial spill resulted in the city waste water being contaminated with ethanol. The city decided to use a distillation column to recover the ethanol in the overhead product stream and sell it as sanitizer. In order to sell the ethanol product it must be 70.00% ethanol by weight. The bottom stream discharged to the water treatment pond is 5.70% ethanol by weight. Assume the waste water is composed only of ethanol in water and it flows to the treatment plant at a rate of 272,500 kg/h and contains 12.4 wt% ethanol. The distillation column operates at steady state. The molecular weight of ethanol is 46.07. a. Draw and label the flow chart for this process. b. Calculate the DOF for this process. c. Solve for the unknown flowrates. d. What is the mole fraction of ethanol in the feed stream? e. Suppose the can sell 70% ethanol for $2.60 per kg. How much can the city make per year selling the recovered ethanol?
An industrial spill resulted in the city waste water being contaminated with ethanol. The city
decided to use a distillation column to recover the ethanol in the overhead product stream and
sell it as sanitizer. In order to sell the ethanol product it must be 70.00% ethanol by weight. The
bottom stream discharged to the water treatment pond is 5.70% ethanol by weight. Assume the
waste water is composed only of ethanol in water and it flows to the treatment plant at a rate of
272,500 kg/h and contains 12.4 wt% ethanol. The distillation column operates at steady state.
The molecular weight of ethanol is 46.07.
a. Draw and label the flow chart for this process.
b. Calculate the DOF for this process.
c. Solve for the unknown flowrates.
d. What is the mole fraction of ethanol in the feed stream?
e. Suppose the can sell 70% ethanol for $2.60 per kg. How much can the city make per year
selling the recovered ethanol?
Given
Water+ethanol→ Distillate it to get sanitizer
- Overhead product,D=70% ethanol
- Bottom,W=5.7% ethanol
- F=272500 kg/h
- In feed ethanol=12.4wt% ethanol
- MW of ethanol=46.07
Find
- Flow chart of this process
- DOF
- D and W flow rates
- Mole fraction of ethanol in feed
- If we sell 70% ethanol for $2.60 per kg, amount per year on selling recovered ethanol.
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