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Ethanol can be produced commercially by the hydration of ethylene: C2H4+H2OC2H5OHReaction1 Some of the product is converted to diethyl ether in the side reaction: 2C2H5OH(C2H5)2O+H2OReaction2
Ethanol can be produced commercially by the hydration of ethylene: C2H4+H2OC2H5OHReaction1 Some of the product is converted to diethyl ether in the side reaction: 2C2H5OH(C2H5)2O+H2OReaction2 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 is water. Basis: Assume 100 moles of effluent gas leave the process every minute. a. Draw and label a flow diagram. b. Calculate: 1. the molar composition of the reactor feed; 2. the percentage conversion of ethylene; 3. the yield of ethanol; 4. the selectivity of ethanol relative to other products. Note: For the selectivity, only consider the moles of ethanol and diethyl ether produced. c. The conversion of ethylene you calculated should be very low. Why do you think the reactor would be designed to consume so little of the reactant? Hint: If the reaction mixture remained in the reactor long enough to convert most of the ethylene to ethanol, what would the main product probably be? d. What additional processing step(s) are likely to take place downstream from the reactor
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