PROBLEMS STATEMENT

FOR
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY II

INSTITUT TEKNOLOGI 10 NOPEMBER SURABAYA

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
2011

Page 1 of 12
1. GAS-LIQUID ABSORPTION
Problem statement:
• Gas stream of 1 m3 (stp) per hour contains an excessive amount of
CO2. It has to be reduced by absorption into liquid. A waste stream
containing 2% NaOH is planned to be used for the absorbent and is
available at large amount.
• The initial content of CO2 in the gas is 8% and the required final
content is 0.5%.
• A gas liquid absorption column with packing apparatus is available in
the lab with the following specification:
o Column internal diameter:
o Column packing height:
o Packing type and dimension: Raschig ring ..

Task:
• Evaluate whether the apparatus can do the job at the needed capacity.
If so, what is the operating condition used.
• What is the maximum capacity of the apparatus and what factor is
constraining?
• If the apparatus can not do the job, scale-up the design. Describe your
work in details
 basic used
 data or parameter used
 adjusted dimension
 etc.

Course related:

Page 2 of 12
2. LIQUID STRIPPING BY DESORPTION
Problem statement:
• The liquid waste stream contains 3% ammoniac (NH3). The local
government regulation prohibits discharging the waste into
environment as long as the NH3 content greater than 500 ppm. The
rate of the waste is 5 m3 per hour.
• It is proposed to strip NH3 in the aqueous solution by desorption with
ambient air stream which is currently available at free of charge.
• A gas liquid absorption column with packing apparatus is available in
the lab with the following specification:
o Column internal diameter:
o Column packing height:
o Packing type and dimension: Raschig ring ..

Task:
• Evaluate whether the apparatus can do the job at the needed capacity.
If so, what is the operating condition used.
• What is the maximum capacity of the apparatus and what factor is
constraining?
• If the apparatus can not do the job, scale-up the design. Describe your
work in details
 basic used
 data or parameter used
 adjusted dimension
 etc.

Page 3 of 12
3. LIQUID-LIQUID EXTRACTION
Problem statement:
• The presence of acid in liquid fuel is disliked because it can promote
corrosion. Usually the predominant type is organic acid.
• A small refinery produces 5 ton per day kerosene. It contains 50 ppm
acidity as oxalic acid. The accepted level for fuel grade quality is 5
ppm maximum.
• It is proposed to extract the acid by water which is available at
practically unlimited amount.
• A liquid-liquid extraction column with packing apparatus is available
in the lab with the following specification:
o Column internal diameter:
o Column packing height:
o Packing type and dimension: Raschig ring ..

Task:
• Evaluate whether the apparatus can do the job at the needed capacity.
If so, what is the operating condition used.
• What is the maximum capacity of the apparatus and what factor is
constraining?
• If the apparatus can not do the job, scale-up the design. Describe your
work in details
 basic used
 data or parameter used
 adjusted dimension
 etc.

Page 4 of 12
4. WETTED-WALL COLUMN
Problem statement:
• A plant at urban location has to pay attention on water cost. The
process in a plant is producing heat which has to be removed by
water cooling. Presently a once-through system is used.
• Raw cold water is taken from local source at cost of Rp.3000 per m3.
• Changing into a closed-system is considered. The used cooling water,
the hot water, at 60°C is cooled in a wetted wall column. The hot
water enters the column from the top and flowing down at the inner
surface of the column. The ambient air is flowing through the column
inside and in contact with the opposing flow of the hot water.
• It is required to cool a 10l per minute of hot water at 60°C to 40°C.
• A wetted-wall column apparatus is available in the lab with the
following specification:
o Column internal diameter:

Task:
• Evaluate whether the apparatus can do the job at the needed capacity.
If so, what is the operating condition used.
• What is the maximum capacity of the apparatus and what factor is
constraining?
• If the apparatus can not do the job, scale-up the design. Describe your
work in details
 basic used
 data or parameter used
 adjusted dimension
 etc.

Page 5 of 12
5. CONTINUOUS TRAYED COLUMN DISTILLATION
Problem statement:
• Small scale ethanol producers have problem of finding an economical
path of distilling ethanol from fermentation broth. An 80 weight% of
ethanol product is the minimum target.
• The daily production of the fermentor is 500l at 12 weight% ethanol
concentration. The fermentor operates in batch and harvested every
day at 6.00 am in the morning.
• A continuous tray column apparatus is available in the lab with the
following specification:

Apparatus diagram:

Operation of Column

• The plant owns a 50 mm inside diameter, 8-plate sieve column

consisting of four at the enriching sections and four-plate at
the stripping section.
• The power drawn by the bottoms heating mantle gives a crude
estimate of the boiler duty.
o How can the reboiler duty be determined as a function
of voltage?
• You will test your reflux strategy by recovering the
components at their required purity.
• The reflux ratio is set by the speed of the condensate pump
returning condensate to the column.

Page 6 of 12
 • All compositions are determined using the refractometer.
o You will have to calibrate the refractometer.

Task:
• By using the available apparatus in the lab, look for a continuous
operation procedure or arrangement to reach the product quality target.
It might be consisted of several sequential distillation procedures.
• Evaluate whether the apparatus can do the job at the needed capacity.
If so, what are the distillation path you used and the respective
operating condition used?
• What is the maximum capacity of the apparatus and what factor is
constraining?
• Calculate the cost of distillation operation (cost of power and water) per
kg of product.
• If the apparatus can not do the job, scale-up the design. Describe your
work in details
 basic used
 data or parameter used
 adjusted dimension
 etc.

Design of Experiment
A simulation should be done using Hysys Software to obtain the ideal
condition of the pilot plant distillation. The pilot plant should be used to
determine scale-up values for the column efficiency, and to test at least
one reflux-time strategy for this distillation project.

Page 7 of 12
6. BATCH PACKED COLUMN DISTILLATION
Problem statement:
• Small scale ethanol producers have problem of finding an economical
path of distilling ethanol from fermentation broth. An 80 weight% of
ethanol product is the minimum target.
• The daily production of the fermentor is 500l at 12 weight% ethanol
concentration. The fermentor operates in batch and harvested every
day at 6.00 am in the morning.
• A batch packed column apparatus is available in the lab with the
following specification:
o Column internal diameter:
o Column packed height:
o Packing type: Raschig ring
o Packing dimension:.

Task:
• By using the available apparatus in the lab, look for an operation
procedure or arrangement to reach the product quality target. It might
be consisted of several sequential distillation procedures.
• Evaluate whether the apparatus can do the job at the needed capacity.
If so, what are the distillation path you used and the respective
operating condition used?
• What is the maximum capacity of the apparatus and what factor is
constraining?
• Calculate the cost of distillation operation (cost of power and water) per
kg of product.
• If the apparatus can not do the job, scale-up the design. Describe your
work in details
 basic used
 data or parameter used
 adjusted dimension
 etc.

Page 8 of 12
7. ROTARY DRYER
Problem statement:
• A farmer plans to produce animal feed in house of his farming
facility. But, he has problem of the moisture content variability of
the raw materials of the feed. Farmer thinks that drying will solve
the problem.
• The corn supplied from the supplier “X” has the as received moisture
content of 22% based on bone-dry solid. This number is too high and
could easily promote the growth of fungi. The farmer sets the safe
level as 14% based on bone-dry solid.
• Farmer looks for a help whether it is economical to use a rotary dryer
for drying 10 tons per day of such corn supplied by “X”. He thinks
that a small rotary dryer will be sufficient.
• A pilot rotary dryer is available at the lab with the following
specification:
o Column internal diameter:
o Column length:

Task:
• By using the available apparatus in the lab, look for an operation
procedure or arrangement to reach the product quality target. It might
be consisted of several sequential drying procedures.
• Evaluate whether the apparatus can do the job at the needed capacity.
If so, what are the drying path you used and the respective operating
condition used?
• What is the maximum capacity of the apparatus and what factor is
constraining?
• Calculate the cost of drying operation (cost of power and fuel) per kg of
product.
• If the apparatus can not do the job, scale-up the design. Describe your
work in details
 basic used
 data or parameter used
 adjusted dimension
 etc.

Page 9 of 12
8. TRAY DRYER
Problem statement:
• Our engineering team has been assigned a task of designing cassava
chip dryer with the capacity of 500kg dry chip per day.
• The chip is made from wet cassava which is cut into circular chip of
around 3 mm thick and dried to 10% moisture content.
• A tray dryer type is considered to be a suitable choice. But, there is
no available design parameter data required for the design. An
experiment is needed to get the required data.
• A pilot tray dryer is available at the lab with the following
specification:
o Drying chamber size:
o Number of tray:
o Hot drying air with controllable temperature up to 120°C and
air speed.

Task:
• By using the available apparatus in the lab, look for an operation
procedure to reach the product quality target.
• Evaluate whether the apparatus can produce the required design data?
• What is the maximum capacity of the apparatus and what factor is the
controlling step? Can the tray dryer apparatus accomplish the required
drying capacity?
• Calculate the cost of drying operation (cost of power) per kg of product.
• If the apparatus can not do the job, scale-up the design. Describe your
work in details
 basic used
 data or parameter used
 adjusted dimension
 etc.

Page 10 of 12
9. STIRRED REACTOR
Problem statement:
1. Ethyl Acetate Kinetics.
In our design study for the new reactor for the Ethyl-Acetate/
Sodium Hydroxide Plant, we need to determine the kinetic
parameters (rate constant, reaction order, and activation energy)
for the reaction.
2. We already have a stirred-tank reactor (volume = 80 cubic meters) on
hand which was salvaged from the old polymers plant.

Task
3. Would you please determine if the tank would be an adequate reactor to
achieve a 96 percent conversion of our ethyl-acetate under the following
conditions:
Reaction temperature = 28 degrees centigrade
Et Ac feed-stream flowrate = 5300 moles Et Ac per day
Et Ac feed-stream concentration = 0.023 molar Et Ac
NaOH feed-stream flowrate = 7950 moles NaOH per day
NaOH feed-stream concentration = 0.046 M NaOH

Page 11 of 12
10. AERATOR
Problem statement:
• Our engineering team has been assigned a task of designing a
continuous aeration unit with the capacity of 100 m3 sewage water
per day.
• No available design parameter data required for the design. An
experiment is needed to get the required data.
• A pilot aeration (batch type) is available at the lab with the following
specification:
o Vessel size: 15 l
o Accessories: stirrer, baffles, sparger

Task:
• By using the available apparatus in the lab, look for an operation
procedure to reach the target.
• Evaluate whether the apparatus can produce the required design data?
• What is the maximum capacity of the apparatus and what factor is the
controlling step? Can the pilot aerator accomplish the required data?
• Calculate the cost of aeration operation (cost of power) per m3 of
sewage.
• Design the required aeration system. Describe your work in details
 basic used
 data or parameter used
 adjusted dimension
 etc.

Page 12 of 12