You are on page 1of 2

Material balances on Sulphuric acid manufacture

(RCF visit project for CL152; Weightage: 5% towards total)


(Due date: 28th March, 2013)
These Instructions are common to both divisions of the course

Objective of the project: Use material balances to obtain the flow rates of
chemical species in all the streams entering and leaving the main process units
involved in the manufacture of sulphuric acid.

Follow guidelines from the case study material and also refer to the RCF
manual for any information.

The three main process units are: 1) The burner, where sulphur is converted to
sulphur dioxide; 2) The convertor, where sulphur dioxide is converted to sulphur
trioxide; and 3) The absorption towers for the absorption of sulphur trioxide to
form sulphuric acid.

Material balance calculations for the following two scenarios are to be


performed:

I:
The flow rates in streams 1 to 6 should be calculated assuming 100% conversion
in each of the three reaction steps.

II:
In reality, the reaction that happens in the convertor is reversible and 100%
conversion is difficult to achieve. To achieve maximum conversion, the reactant
gases are passed through a series of catalyst beds before entering into the
absorption towers (refer to the flow chart in the case study material). Hence in
part II, the flow rates in streams 7 to 18 should be calculated using the specified
conversions achieved in each catalyst bed (Refer to manual).

For each scenario above, do the calculations based on a requirement to produce


N tonnes per day of sulphuric acid. Pick N based on the following
instructions:

a) M.Sc. (Chemistry) students: N will be (100 + last two digits of your roll
number) tonnes/day. Example: For roll number 111030010, N will be 100 +
10 = 110 tonnes/day.

b) Regular BTech students: N will be (200 + last two digits of your roll
number) tonnes/day. Example: For roll number 120020072, N will be 200 +
72 = 272 tonnes/day.
c) Dual degree students: N will be (300 + last two digits of your roll number)
tonnes/day. Example: For roll number 12D020025, N will be 300 + 25 =
325 tonnes/day.

Report:

Your report should contain the following:

1. Clearly labelled flowsheets for all material balance loops, showing the known
and unknown variables.

2. Clear demonstration of the calculations done to arrive at the flow rates of each
stream. Provide a final summary of your material balance calculations by
preparing a stream table, with the column headers being the chemical species
and row headers being the stream number.

3. Answer the following question at the end: Why, as seen in scenario 2 above, is
the conversion of sulphur dioxide to trioxide done in several stages with
progressively decreasing temperatures?

You might also like