Methanol is produced by reacting carbon monoxide and hydrogen. A fresh feed stream containing and

Описание: Methanol is produced by reacting carbon monoxide and hydrogen. A fresh feed stream containing and joins a recycle stream and the combined stream is fed to a reactor. The reactor outlet stream flows at a rate of and contains and (Notice that those are percentages by mass, not mole percents.) This stream enters a cooler in which most of the methanol is condensed. The liquid methanol condensate is withdrawn as a product, and the gas stream leaving the condenser- -which contains and uncondensed vapor the recycle stream that combines with the fresh feed. (a) Without doing any calculations, prove that you have enough information to determine (i) the molar flow rates of CO and in the fresh feed, (ii) the production rate of liquid methanol, and (iii) the single-pass and overall conversions of carbon monoxide. Then perform the calculations. (b) After several months of operation, the flow rate of liquid methanol leaving the condenser begins to decrease. List at least three possible explanations of this behavior and state how you might check the validity of each one. (What would you measure and what would you expect to find if the explanation is valid