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Exercise

The document outlines an exercise for a course in Industrial Chemistry I at the University of Malawi, focusing on modeling the decay of a pollutant in a river system as a plug flow reactor. It includes tasks to derive concentration relationships for pollutants A, B, and C, and requires students to plot concentration distributions and determine the maximum concentration of B. The exercise is due on April 25, 2025, and students must submit a hard copy report in lab report format.

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14 views2 pages

Exercise

The document outlines an exercise for a course in Industrial Chemistry I at the University of Malawi, focusing on modeling the decay of a pollutant in a river system as a plug flow reactor. It includes tasks to derive concentration relationships for pollutants A, B, and C, and requires students to plot concentration distributions and determine the maximum concentration of B. The exercise is due on April 25, 2025, and students must submit a hard copy report in lab report format.

Uploaded by

tamandoedward55
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

UNIVERSITY OF MALAWI

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

CHE 324: INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY I

Exercise 1

Due date: 25 April 2025

1. Background

An aqueous effluent wastewater stream from a chemical plant, which discharges to a receiving
nearby river, contains a pollutant, A. It is known from laboratory experiments that A decays
through a consecutive reaction sequence
K0 K1
A B C

The conversion of A to B is zero order and the second reaction is first order in B. The feed
contains no B or C.

2. Exercise

The aim of the exercise is to model the river system as a plug flow reactor and determine the
variation of the concentrations of A, B and C down the river.

Task

(a) Show that for the river, modelled as plug flow reactor of constant cross-sectional area S,
the relationship between the concentration of A and distance z, measured from the receiving
point, is given by

𝐶𝐴 𝑘 𝑆𝑧 𝑄𝐶𝐴0
= 1 − 𝐶 0 (𝑄) 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑧<
𝐶𝐴0 𝐴0 𝑆𝑘0

𝐶𝐴 𝑄𝐶𝐴0
And =0 when 𝑧>
𝐶𝐴0 𝑆𝑘0

Where Q is the volumetric flow rate

(b) Also show that for B


𝐶𝐵 1 𝑄𝐶𝐴0
= 𝐾 (1 − 𝑒 −𝐿 ) when 𝑧 <
𝐶𝐴0 𝑆𝑘0

𝐶𝐵 𝑒 −𝐿 𝑄𝐶𝐴0
= (𝑒 𝐾 − 1) when 𝑧 >
𝐶𝐴0 𝐾 𝑆𝑘0

1
𝑘1 𝐶𝐴0 𝑘1 𝑆𝑧
Where 𝐾= 𝐿=
𝑘0 𝑄

(c) Plot (using Excel) the concentration distributions of compound A, B, and C along the
reactor.
(d) Determine the maximum concentration of B. at what position will this occur?

Report

You should submit your hard copy report written in the format of a lab report.

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