1.

Oilseed protein sources include soybean, cottonseed, peanut, sunflower,

copra, rapeseed, sesame, safflower, caster, and flax. Commonly, the
separation of the oil from the protein meal is performed by solvent
extraction. The analysis of cottonseed is 4% hull, 10% linter, 37% meal,
and 49% oil. During the extraction step, about 2 kg solvent, hexane, must
be used per 1 kg clean seeds processed (see figure below). For each 1000
kg of raw seeds to be processed, determine the amount of oil and oil-free
meal produced and the amount of hexane that must be recycled through
the solvent extraction unit.

Raw seeds

Seed
cleaning

Clean
seeds

Oil-rich
solvent
Dirt, hulls,
linter

Oil-free meal
containing
% solvent

Solvent
extraction
Solvent makeup

Clean
solvent

Solvent
recovery
Pure oil

Solution:
From 1000 kg raw seeds, we need first to remove the dirty stuff, which
represents 4% hull + 10% linter = 14%, that is 0.14*1000 = 140 kg.
The remaining is pure oil plus meal, that is 49% + 37% = 86%*1000 = 860
kg clean seeds.
Since for each kg of clean seeds we need 2 kg of solvent, in total we need
2*860 = 1720 kg solvent
But part of this amount of solvent is recycled, so that in fact, we need to feed
with the quantity of solvent which is lost together with the oil-free meal.
In order to find this quantity, we will do the following judgement:
meal)
-

the quantity of pure oil is 49% of raw seeds mass, that is 0.49*1000
= 490 kg
the remaining is the meal:
860 kg (clean seeds) 490 kg (pure oil) = 370 kg (dry
the meal stuff contains 0.5% residual solvent, that means
370 kg (dry meal) + x*M (residual solvent) = M (total meal+solvent)

where
x = 0.5% = 0.005 (percentage of total quantity)
370 = (1-x)*M M = 370/(1-x) = 370/(1-0.005) = 371.9 kg (meal +
solvent)
As a result, the lost quantity of solvent is
371.9 370 = 1.9 kg

By subtracting from the total quantity needed for extracting pure oil, we will
get the amount of solvent to be recycled:
1720 kg (total solvent) 1.9 kg (lost) = 1718.1 kg (recycled)
2.
Methane and oxygen are fed into a furnace where all of the oxygen is
consumed. The composition of the exhaust gas is determined using a gas
chromatograph. The gas chromatograph separates the components of a
sample and provides a measure of the amount of each component in the
sample. The output from a chromatographic analysis typically takes the form
of a series of peaks on a strip-chart recorder as shown below. For each of the
species represented, the area under the peak is approximately proportional to
the number of moles of the indicated substance.
a. Determine the molar and mass composition of the exhaust gas.
b. What is the molar feed rate of the methane if 200 mol/hr of CO are
produced?
c. If oxygen is fed at 20 C and 1 atm, what is the volume flow rate of
oxygen to the furnace?

CH4

Furnace

CH4
CO
CO2

CO
area = 40

CH4
area = 25

CO2
area = 80

O2
Solution:
a)

First, we need to write the chemical equation of burning process:

CH 4 O2 CO CO2 H2O CH 4 (excess )
The chemical balance will be done taking into account that, according to
chromatograph results, the molar quantity of CO2 is double as CO and the ratio
of (CH4) excess / CO = 25 / 40 = 5/8. Therefore, we can write:
5
11
5
CH 4 3CH4 O2 CO 2CO2 6H2O CH4 (excess )
8
2
8

or
29
11
5
CH 4 O2 CO 2CO2 6H2O CH 4 (excess )
8
2
8

The total number of mols of exhaust gas will be:

Ng = 1 + 2 + 6 + 5/8 = 77/8 mols (exhaust)
The molar composition will be:

1
8

0.1039
77 / 8 77
2
16

0.2078
77 / 8 77
6
48

0.6234
77 / 8 77
5/8
5

0.0649
77 / 8 77

xCO

10.39% CO

xCO2

20.78% CO2

62.34% H2O

6.49% CH4 (excess)

x H 2O
xCH 4

The molar mass of exhaust gas will be:

Mg = 28 (CO) + 2*44 (CO2) + 6*18 (H2O) + (5/8)*16 (CH4) = 234
Hence, the mass composition will be:
28
0.1197
234
88

0.3761
234
108

0.4615
234
10

0.0427
234

mCO

mCO 2

37.61% CO2

46.15% H2O

4.27% CH4 (excess)

mH 2O
mCH 4

11.97% CO

b)
Since from (29/8) mols of CH4 one obtains 1 mol of CO, in order to obtain
200 mol/h of CO we need:
29
N CH 4
200 725 mol/h (CH4 )
8

c)

We need to apply the ideal gas law:

pV N T

where
N = number of mols
= universal gas constant, = 8.314 J/mol.K
p = pressure, 1 atm = 1.013 bar = 1.013*10 5 Pa
T = absolute temperature (K), 20C = 20 + 273 = 293 K

N T
725 8.314 293
V

17.43 m3 / h
p
1.013 105

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