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Using "Solver" To Solve Equilibrium Calculations: Excelet

This document provides instructions for using the Excel Solver tool to solve equilibrium calculations. It discusses that there is only one correct solution for equilibrium problems and recommends guessing initial values close to the solution. It then presents examples of Haber Process, sulfur oxide, decomposition of PCl5, and water gas equilibrium calculations set up with the Solver tool. The user is instructed to select the cell containing the equilibrium constant as the "left side" and the cell with the equilibrium expression as the "right side", and designate the "guess" cell for the Solver to vary to make the sides equal.

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Ayman Al Kafrawy
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38 views8 pages

Using "Solver" To Solve Equilibrium Calculations: Excelet

This document provides instructions for using the Excel Solver tool to solve equilibrium calculations. It discusses that there is only one correct solution for equilibrium problems and recommends guessing initial values close to the solution. It then presents examples of Haber Process, sulfur oxide, decomposition of PCl5, and water gas equilibrium calculations set up with the Solver tool. The user is instructed to select the cell containing the equilibrium constant as the "left side" and the cell with the equilibrium expression as the "right side", and designate the "guess" cell for the Solver to vary to make the sides equal.

Uploaded by

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

Using "Solver" to Solve Equilibrium Calculations


Objective: To be able to easily solve higher-order polynomials
Beware of the behavior of polynomials and the number of roots or solutions!
In chemistry, there is only one correct root for an equilibrium problem!!!
So before using the Solver, get the solution via guessing close to the value.
If you play long enough you will get the value of x by guessing!!!

To use this Excelet, Solver must be loaded in Excel.

Click on the tabs to navigate!!!

Haber Process Equilibrium


guess

(N2)eq

x=

K = 4.34E-03

This is a quartic equation!


initial concentrations

left-side
0.00434
equilibrium concentrations:

(N2)eq =

(N2)o =

(H2)o =

N 2 + 3H 2

2NH 3
2
(NH
)
K = (NH
K =) /(N )(H ) 3 3
(N 2 )(H 2 )
3

K=

right-side

(2x)2
(N 2 )o - x

(H 2 )o - 3x

ICE chart

(H2)eq =
(NH3)eq =
calculated
K=
from equilbrium concentrations

The formulas on this wooksheet only have named variables!

Sinex 2008

Sulfur Oxides Equilibrium

2SO2 + O2

2SO3

guess

(SO3)eq

x=

K=

This is a cubic equation!


initial concentrations

left-side
5
equilibrium concentrations:
(SO2)eq =

(SO2)o =

(O2)o =

2
(SO
)
K = (NH
K )=/(N )(H ) 23
(SO2 ) (O2 )
3

K=

right-side

(x)2
2

(SO2 )o - x (O2 )o - 0.5x

ICE chart

(O2)eq =
(SO3)eq =
calculated
K=
from equilbrium concentrations

Sinex 2008

Decomposition of PCl5
guess

(PCl3)eq = (Cl2)eq

x=

This is a quadratic equation!

left-side
0.004
equilibrium concentrations:
(PCl5)eq =

K=
initial concentration

(PCl5)o =

4.0E-03
0.5

PCl 5

PCl 3 + Cl 2
K=
K=

right-side

(PCl 3 )(Cl 2 )
(PCl 5 )
(x)(x)
(PCl 5 )o -x

ICE chart

(PCl3)eq =
(Cl2)eq =
calculated
K=
from equilbrium concentrations

Sinex 2008

Water Gas Equilibrium

Let's consider this reaction from either the reactant side or product side or both!

guess
x = -0.306624
You may want to guess x < 0
C' (to the left)
x = 3066239
initial concentrations
This can be a messy quadratic!
C (to the right)

left-side
1.2
equilibrium concentrations:

right-side
1.2

K=

1.2

(CO)o =

(H2O)o =

(H2)o =

(CO2)o =

CO + H 2O

H 2 + CO2
K=

(H 2 )(CO2 )
(CO)(H 2O)

How is this reaction going to shift?

(CO)eq = 1.3066239

(H2O)eq = 0.3066239
(H2)eq = 0.6933761
(CO2)eq = 0.6933761
calculated
K=
from equilbrium concentrations

1.2

ICE Chart
This is an interesting reaction because K ~ 1.
We will try playing with it from just adding reactants
or just adding products and adding both. Hence, the shift
of the reaction could be to the right or to the left.
When the x value goes negative, it is like multiplying
the C line in the ICE chart by -1, so you get
the C' line for a shift to the left,

Sinex 2008

side or both!

To use Solver:

The Solver must be loaded as an add-in in Excel to function!!!

right-side

left-side
or K =

guess cell

Click on Solver
Solver Parameters are pre-set
except for the value of K.

Excel 2007 - Solver is on the Data tab.

Sinex 2008

How to set this up to solve the equation


1. The blue arrows show which cells or values feed into the right-side formula:

The left-side is
the value of K
and is just reading
that value in here.

The right-side is the


expression equal to K

2. Here are the cell references that go into the Solver Parameters:

right-side

K or left-side
select value of

place the guess cell here

Solver is going to vary the value of the guess cell (x),


which feeds into the right-side equation, until it gets
the right-side to equal the left-side.
Sinex 2008

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