Ethanol is produced commercially by the hydration of ethylene:
C2H4+H2O–>C2H5OH
Some of the product is converted to diethyl ether in side reaction
2C2H5OH–>(C2H5)2O+H2O
The feed to the reactor contains ethylene,steam,and an inert gas. A sample of the reactor effluent gas is analyzed and found to contain 43.3 mole% ethylene, 2.5% ethanol, 0.14% ether, 9.3% inerts, and the balance water.
a. Take as a basis 100 mol of effluent gas, draw and label a flowchart, and do a degree-of-freedom analysis based on atomic species to prove that the system has zero degrees of freedom?
b. Calculate the molar composition of the reactor feed, the percentage conversion of ethylene, the fractional yield of ethanol, and the selectivity of ethnaol production relative to ether production?
