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Problem 5: Andy Weir's Science Fiction novel Artemis describes a human habitat on the moon, which is using an interesting concept to generate the oxygen
Problem 5: Andy Weir's Science Fiction novel Artemis describes a human habitat on the moon, which is using an interesting concept to generate the oxygen needed for the 2000 humans living in this habitat. Oxygen is a by-product of the Aluminum production, which is the major industry of the habitat: Ore is mined from the surface of the moon by robots. For simplicity we assume that this ore consists of equimolar amounts of Aluminumoxide (Al2O3) and siliconoxide (SiO2), which is an inert. The ore is fed to a so-called smelting reactor, where the following reaction (not balanced) is used to generate Aluminum and Oxygen: Al2O3(solid)->Al(liquid)+O2(gas)(reactionisnotbalanced)(i) We assume that the ore (Al2O3+SiO2) enters the smelting reactor at 80C. The product stream contains solids, liquid aluminum and oxgen gas. Products leave the reactor at 1atm and a Temperature, which is 50C above the melting point of Aluminum. The conversion of the smelting reactor is 90 . \%. a. How much kg of Al can this reactor produce assuming a feed, which contains 1mol Al2O3/sec ? List all relevant assumptions and the accounting equations for all components. b. The electrical energy required for the smelting process is provided by a nuclear reactor. The electrical work delivered to the smelting reactor is 21.6MW (value is given in the novel). How much kg of Aluminum can be produced in a day if you assume that 10.% of the electrical work is lost as heat. List all relevant assumptions
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