The production of methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) is described in Appendix F, Problem F.3, which is available in the online material at booksite.Elsevier.com/Towler. A preliminary design has been made for a plant to produce 10,000 metric tons per year. The plant operating rate will be 8000 hours per year. Estimate the cash cost of production. (Note: The capital cost for this process is estimated in Problem 7.10. ; Q1 = 93.91 (gal))

Raw materials

1. 2-butanol, 1.045 kg per kg of MEK, price $800 per metric ton 2. Solvent (trichloroethane) make-up 7000 kg per year, price $1.0/kg

Utilities

1. Fuel oil, 3000 metric tons per year, heating value 45 GJ/metric ton 2. Cooling water, 120 metric tons per hour 3. Steam, low pressure, 1.2 metric tons per hour 4. Electrical power, 1 MW

The fuel oil is burnt to provide flue gases for heating the reactor feed and the reactor. Some of the fuel requirements could be provided by using the by-product hydrogen. Also, the exhaust flue gases could be used to generate steam. The economics of these possibilities need not be considered.