Questions from Past ChE 572 Exams

Typical exam instructions:

Open book exam: text and course notes only.
If any question seems unclear, or there appears to be insufficient information, make whatever reasonable
assumptions that are required to continue. Some questions may contain more information than is required. The
proctor is unable to answer questions about the exam.
Clearly indicate all assumptions and sources of data. State units with all numbers.
Note: for full marks, it is normally expected that your solutions will make some brief comments about the
solution, even if not explicitly required, to demonstrate that you’re aware of the practical implications of a
design. For example, does the answer fall within the expected or typical range of values for that technology; is
the pressure drop too high for normal APC systems; etc.?

The following questions are grouped according to their general topic area. Some hints/suggestions are given for a
few questions.

Dispersion Modelling
D1) Do the following:
a) Estimate the downwind, centreline ground-level concentration in g/m3 (at a distance of 5000 m) of a
non-reactive pollutant that is emitted from a 90 m tall stack at the rate of 40 g/s. The stack is located in
a rural area, the atmospheric stability is Class D, and the surface wind speed is 4.0 m/s. Assume that the
plume rise is 40 m.
b) For the same conditions, estimate the maximum ground-level concentration and indicate how far
downwind this will occur.

D2) A balloon is used to measure the atmospheric temperature profile at a certain location. The surface
temperature is 25°C and the temperature at 1000 m elevation is 13°C. Stating all assumptions, how
would you describe the atmosphere given these conditions?

D3) A manufacturing plant plans to release its ventilation air to the atmosphere at a rate of about
350 m3/min. The temperature of the released ventilation air is the same as the outside air, and it carries
about 65,000 g/s of ethyl mercaptan, a foul smelling organic vapour. The odour threshold (minimum
detectable concentration) for the mercaptan is about 3 g/m3. The top of the vent stack will be about
20 m above ground-level, and the vent inner diameter will be about 1.6 m. Using a wind speed of 3 m/s
(at any height) and Class C conditions, what is the predicted ground-level concentration of the
mercaptan at an apartment building located 1 km downwind? Would a person living on the top floor of
the apartment building (elevation 30 m) be impacted significantly differently than someone on the
ground floor? Consider all the assumptions when making your conclusions.

D4) A manufacturing plant plans to release its ventilation air to the atmosphere at a rate of about 350 m3/min.
The air is at ambient temperature, and contains about 8,000 g/m3 of ethyl mercaptan, a foul smelling
organic vapour. The top of the vent stack will be about 10 m above ground-level, and the vent inner
diameter will be about 1.6 m. Using an average wind speed of 3 m/s (at any plume height), what will be the
maximum expected ground-level concentration of the mercaptan? If the odour threshold (minimum
detectable concentration) for the mercaptan is about 3 g/m3, estimate how far downwind at ground-level
the smell may be noticeable.
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D5) Specify a stack height and diameter for a power plant, to meet the following conditions: heat emission rate
of 20 MW, total gas flowrate 20,000 m3/min at a pressure of 1000 millibar and temperature of 410 K, SO2
(mol wt. 64) concentration in the stack gas of 2000 ppm, maximum allowed ground-level concentration 500
g/m3. The maximum expected wind speed is 15 m/s. Consider only Class C conditions, and assume that
the critical wind speed is 5 m/s (irrespective of stack height).

Answer: stack diameter around 4.3 m, and height around 145 to 175 m, depending on which plume rise model
is used.

D6) A pollutant is to be emitted from a stack at a rate of 25 g/s, in 8,000 m3/min of stack gas at 1 atm and 140 C.
A stack will be designed to have a height of 15 m, but the diameter has not been determined yet.
a) Recommend a stack inner diameter for this application.

b) An office tower is located 3 km downwind from this stack, with a daycare that uses the roof of the
building for a playground (elevation 35 m). For a day when the reported surface wind speed is 3 m/s,
estimate the pollutant concentration that would be expected at the rooftop. Choose an atmospheric
stability that might be the worst-case, and explain your rationale for this choice. Do not do a screening
study and try all the stability classes; just make an “intelligent guess” and try that single class.

D7) On a cloudy summer day a storage vessel at ground level bursts, releasing a cloud of fine particles, and these
are carried downwind at an average speed of 4 m/s. An air monitoring station 3000 m directly downwind at
an elevation of 5 m detects the particles at a maximum concentration of 450 g/m3. The ground can be
assumed to be flat.
i. Estimate the total mass of particles that may have been released from the storage vessel.
ii. If the particles were initially released at a height of 2 m, and they have an aerodynamic diameter of 1 m, is it
possible that a lot of them settled out onto the ground before reaching the air monitoring station? Use calculations
to support your answer.

Particulate Control
P1) A pilot-scale baghouse is used to measure the filter drag model parameters with the results:
Ke = 0.5 (in. H2O/(ft min-1))
Ks = 0.001 in. H2O ft min/gr (note gr = grains)

a) Using this information, predict the pressure drop for a full-scale baghouse after 30 minutes of operation
on an airstream with a dust loading of 30 gr/ft3, and an air-to-cloth ratio of 3.0 ft/min.
b) If the airstream to be treated at full-scale is at 1 atm, 25 C and 100,000 ft3/min, estimate the required
total filter area and number of compartments in a shaker baghouse.
c) If a pulse-jet baghouse was used instead of the shaker baghouse, would the required filter area be
significantly less, about the same, or significantly higher? Explain your answer, but no calculations are
necessary.

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P2) An ESP is known to follow the Deutsch equation, and it operates with 98% efficiency. It is later found
that the efficiency has dropped to 94%, possibly due to a change in the volumetric gas flow rate.
Assuming that this is the case, calculate the ratio of the new gas flow rate to the old gas flow rate.

P3) A horizontal spray chamber is to be used to remove particulates from an incinerator exhaust. The gas
stream is at 400°C and 1 atm, contains 10 µm particles (which are to be removed with 80% efficiency),
and the flowrate is 3 m3/s. The selected spray nozzles will produce water droplets with 1 mm diameter.
The particulate density is about 900 kg/m3.

Estimate: a) the required contact zone length; and b) the cross-sectional area required for a knitted mesh
mist eliminator. Suggest what could be changed (if anything) to improve the scrubber design and make it
more compact or smaller.

P4) A shaker-type baghouse is to be designed to remove corn dust from the exhaust airstream of a cattle-feed
processing plant, grain feed dryer. The air flow is about 145,000 acfm, at 1 atm and 220°F. Specify (a)
the type of fabric, (b) the number of compartments to be used, (c) the number of bags if they are 5 inch
diameter and 8 feet long.

P5) A pulse-jet baghouse is proposed to filter flour dust from an air stream. This particular flour dust has a
very small particle size. The air flowrate is 10,000 ft3/min, at 25°C and 1 atm.
a) Estimate the number of bags required, if the bags are 0.5 ft diameter and 8 ft long.
b) To protect personnel and property, what other design feature(s) would you recommend for your
baghouse?

P6) An existing particulate control system uses a cyclone with 45% efficiency, followed by an ESP with 99%
efficiency. It is proposed that the volumetric flowrate of air will be increased by a factor of 1.5, although
the temperature, pressure, composition, particulate concentration and particle size distribution will remain
the same. Estimate how the system’s overall particulate removal performance will be affected, i.e. will
the overall efficiency increase, decrease or remain unchanged (and quantify the change, if any).

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P7) A venturi scrubber is to be used to remove 2 µm particulates (density 2200 kg/m3) from air flowing at 5
m3/s (at 30°C, 1 atm), with at least 80% efficiency. Water will be the scrubbing liquid (density 1000
kg/m3, viscosity 0.01 poise, surface tension 72 dyne/cm). Determine the dimensions (throat length and
diameter) and operating conditions (liquid flowrate) for this device. Next, design a cyclone that could
theoretically remove at least 50% of the water droplets exiting the venturi scrubber, and summarize the
dimensions.

P8) A venturi scrubber is used to remove 1 µm hydrophilic particles from an air stream (1 atm, 80°F), using
water (viscosity 1 cP, surface tension 65 dyne/cm, density 1000 kg/m3). The initial design is such that the
throat velocity is 65 m/s, and the scrubbing water is supplied at a rate of 1 L/m3 air. The particle density is
2000 kg/m3, and they are spherical in shape.

a) Estimate the scrubbing efficiency to be expected.

b) If the scrubbing water flowrate was increased by 50% (i.e. to 1.5 L/m3), determine the corresponding
percentage change in the scrubbing efficiency.
c) If the inlet air was at 50% relative humidity and 80°F, estimate the outlet air temperature.

P9) Particles with a size of 4 m are to be removed from an air stream using a certain force field, equivalent
to 3000 times that of gravity. The particles are spherical, with a density of 2500 kg/m3, and the air is at
a temperature of 400 K, and a pressure of 65,000 Pa (absolute). The viscosity of the air (molecular
weight 29) is about 2.398 x 10-5 kg m-1 s-1.
a) Estimate the particles' terminal velocity under these conditions, and calculate the particles' characteristic
time.
b) Some of the particles are observed to have a shape like a snowflake, with diameter 3 mm. In a normal
gravitational field, under the same gas conditions, they fall a distance of 1 m in about 3 seconds.
Calculate the characteristic time for these particles.
c) Compare the two characteristic times. What conclusion can be drawn?

P10) It is proposed to use a surplus conventional cyclone of 1 m diameter to reduce the particulate
concentrations in a dusty air stream. The existing fan can only accommodate a pressure drop of 1250 Pa.
What is the maximum volumetric flowrate that this device will be able to treat?

If the particulates have a density of 2600 kg/m3, and follow the size distribution given below, what overall
efficiency would be expected at the maximum flowrate?

Size Range ( m) 0-4 4-10 10-30 30-50 50-100

Mass % 12 38 42 7 1

P11) An air stream flowing at ambient conditions (25 C, 1 atm) and 100 m3/min contains monodisperse
polystyrene latex particles. The particle size is 5 m and the density is 1050 kg/m3. Estimate the size of
a vertical spray chamber that could remove at least 85% of the particles, using water as a scrubbing
liquid. Determine the required water flow for this application. Estimate the evaporative losses if the
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 incoming air is at 40% relative humidity.

Answer: A variety of answers are possible, depending on the operating conditions assumed, but VG
must be less than the terminal velocity of the droplets. Make sure the terminal velocity of the droplet is
calculated correctly; Stokes Law (equation 3.20) may not be accurate if the Reynolds number is >1. If
so, use equation 3.21 or Fig. 3.8 if the temperature and pressure conditions are similar to those in the
figure (STP).

P12) Air exits a venturi scrubber at a rate of 69.8 m3/min (45 C, 1 atm, 98% relative humidity), containing
250 m water droplets. Recommend a cyclone separator system that could remove these droplets with a
minimum 95% efficiency, giving all the sizing and pressure drop information.

P13) As an alternative to the cyclone separator described in the preceding question, what total cloth area
would be required for a shaker baghouse (with cotton bags) to achieve the same separation of water
droplets?

P14) An air stream at 35 C, 1 atm contains fibrous particles that need to be removed at up to 80% efficiency.
The mean particle size is approximately 3 m. The particles do tend to agglomerate to some extent, but
do not tend to stick to metal surfaces. They are fairly soluble in water, but are not hygroscopic.

Suggest which particulate control method you would recommend for initial assessment for this
application (no calculations are required). Give reasons to support your recommendation.

P15) A venturi scrubber is to be designed to treat air flowing at a rate of 550 m3/min at 75 C and 1 atm, with
a relative humidity of 20%. The air contains hydrophobic particles with a mean aerodynamic diameter
of 1.1 m and density of 2.8 g/mL. It is desired to remove them with a minimum 90% efficiency, using
water as a scrubbing liquid.

Recommend a preliminary design that gives the venturi inner diameter, throat length and water flowrate,
and estimate the pressure drop for your design. (Do not iterate if your design results in >90%
efficiency.)

Estimate the temperature of the air that will exit from the scrubber.

P16) Flue gas flowing at 500 m3/min (275 C, 1 atm) contains pulverized coal fly ash that must be removed
with 98% efficiency.
i. Determine the plate area and electrical power consumption if an ESP was used for this application.
ii. Discuss the pros and cons of using a fabric filter to pre-treat the flue gas before it goes to the ESP.

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VOC Control

V1) A small afterburner is used to oxidize VOCs in an airstream coming from a factory. The afterburner
operates at 1 atm, 1000°F, with a residence time of 0.5 seconds, and an oxygen mole fraction of 0.12. A
new process in the factory will add 100 ppm of the aromatic compound benzene to the airstream (but
without any change in airstream volume, temperature or other properties). Estimate the destruction
efficiency that might be expected for the benzene treatment in this unit. Benzene molecular formula is
C6H6.

V2) A VOC catalytic incinerator manufacturer claims that their catalytic incinerator emits less CO2 than a
thermal (non-catalytic) incinerator, while treating the same polluted air. Another claim is that less NOx is
emitted. Comment below on whether these claims are likely correct, and why or why not.
Answer:

This is true, simply because a catalytic incinerator operates at a lower temperature and therefore requires
less fuel gas (therefore less CO2 is emitted). Likewise, lower temperatures will favour lower NOx
formation.

V3) An absorption tower operates to remove a VOC (molecular weight 85) with 80% efficiency, from an air
stream flowing at 1200 lb/hr (containing 9,000 ppm of the VOC, at 25°C, 1 atm). The tower has 30 ft
of packing, and operates at 1.8 times the minimum liquid flowrate. The equilibrium relationship
between the gas and liquid phases for this VOC is y = 1.3x.
An additive is discovered that changes the equilibrium relationship to y = 0.9x. If the tower continues
to operate at the same liquid and gas flowrates (and temperature and pressure), what will the scrubbing
efficiency be with the new additive. It can also be assumed that the mass transfer characteristics of the
system remain the same.

V4) A biofilter is running at a fairly low gas volumetric flow and VOC concentration. Describe (qualitatively)
what would happen to the performance if the flowrate was slowly increased to a high rate over a period of
time. Assume that the VOC concentration remains constant.
Answer:

As flowrate increases: % removal will stay relatively constant up to a point, and will then decrease. This is
related to the concept of Elimination Capacity and Load, as indicated in Fig. 14.4 in the text. Pressure drop
will certainly increase as flow increases.

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V5) The following equilibrium adsorption data was measured for a certain VOC (molar mass 100) and
activated carbon at 1 atm, 65°C:

VOC concentration (ppmv): 6 75 550 6400

Mass adsorbed (kg VOC/100 kg carbon) 1.5 5 9.8 10.8

a) Roughly estimate the appropriate parameters in the Langmuir isotherm model.

b) A carbon-bed adsorber with diameter 1.75 m and bed-height 1.5 m is to be used to treat polluted
air containing 125 ppm of this VOC at 1 atm, 65°C. Roughly estimate the total amount of VOC (kg)
that you would allow to be adsorbed in the bed before regeneration would be required.

V6) A thermal incinerator is to be designed to treat the polluted air stream described below. Identify the
operating temperature, diameter, length and fuel gas requirement (in kg/min), if the design residence
time is to be 1 second.

The polluted air flow rate is 300 m3/min at 20°C and 1 atm. It contains 1800 ppm styrene (C8H8, MW
104), which is to be destroyed with 99.9% efficiency. Use Lee’s method to determine the appropriate
operating temperature. The available fuel gas is propane (C3H8) at 20°C, and burner air is supplied at
the same temperature at an air:gas ratio of 13. The heat loss from the incinerator will be about 10%, and
there will be energy recovery with about 25% efficiency.

Styrene structure

After completing the design, use the Cooper, Alley and Overcamp method to predict the destruction
efficiency under the design conditions.

V7) A contaminated air stream flows at 170 m3/min (at 35°C and 1 atm) and contains 0.2% pentane (C5H12)
by volume. What is the minimum amount of carbon needed for each bed of a two-bed adsorber, if they
operate for 1 hour between bed regenerations? The adsorption of pentane on this carbon at this
temperature can be described by a Langmuir isotherm with constants k1 = 850 atm-1 and k2 = 750 atm-1.

V8) An air stream flowing at 5 m3/s (25°C, 1 atm) contains 1% methane (CH4) by volume, and needs to be
incinerated to decrease the concentration by 95%. To keep the size of an afterburner small (because of
space constraints), it is desired to have only a 0.5 sec residence time, and only a 25% recuperative heat
recovery efficiency. The afterburner will lose about 15% of its heat input to the surroundings. The
molecular weight of methane is 16.
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 1. Specify the operating temperature and fuel gas flowrate required to achieve this. Assume that the burners
require air at a ratio of 12:1 (air:fuel gas).
2. Is a 1% methane concentration in the incoming air a safety concern? Explain your answer.
3. If the methane concentration in the air could be increased by some concentration process (for example), at
what concentration would the afterburner no longer need fuel gas for operation (i.e. the afterburner is self-
sustaining)?

V9) An absorption tower is used to reduce the concentration of a pollutant (molecular weight 45) in air from
the inlet concentration of 0.03 (mole fraction) to 0.0009 in the outlet. The air flow rate is 15 mol/min
(solute free basis), at 30 C and 1 atm pressure. Fresh water is used as the scrubbing liquid (i.e. inlet
conc. is 0.0), with a flow rate of 45 mol/min. Equilibrium concentrations in the liquid and gas phases
can be described by the equation y* = 1.9x*. The tower contains 3.6 m of packing.
Currently the scrubber performs much better than required by the emission limits. Therefore it is
proposed that the company save some money by reducing the flow of water by 20%. Estimate the
resulting new concentration of pollutant in the exiting gas if this change is implemented.

Answer: the new outlet concentration is around 0.00184 mole fraction. Methodology: use the current
operating data to estimate Hoy, and assume that this is constant under the new operating conditions.
Since Zt is constant, Nt must be constant too. Use the definition of Nt together with a new operating line
(incorporating the new liquid flowrate) to find the new yt (by trial and error calculation) .

V10) An air stream (150 F, 1 atm) flows at 10 m3/min, and contains 25,000 mg/m3 of vinyl chloride, a
carcinogenic organic compound. It is proposed that this air be treated by catalytic incineration at 750 F,
including a heat recovery system operating at 40% efficiency. The incinerator should be designed to
destroy at least 95% of the vinyl chloride. The catalyst honeycomb will have channels with a diameter
of 1 mm. Other potentially useful data includes: vinyl chloride (C2H3Cl) mol. wt. 62.5, heat of
combustion 1178 kJ/mol, diffusion coefficient at 0 C is 0.06 cm2/sec.
Estimate the incinerator dimensions and fuel gas requirements for operation.

Answer: catalyst length around 2.8 inches minimum (doubled to 5.6 inches for design). Fuel gas
required is negative, indicating that the incineration is self-sustaining with this heat recovery. The
possibility that dilution air is required should definitely be checked.

V11) A biofilter is operating at an overall 96% removal efficiency for a mixture of easily biodegraded VOCs.
The current mass volume loading is about 10 g/m3-hr, and the pressure drop is low. The plant personnel
are thinking of increasing the flowrate through the biofilter by 20% (with constant VOC concentrations),
and they want to know what is likely to happen to the removal efficiency. Briefly give your response,
with any technical considerations that support your argument.

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V12) A company wishes to use an existing unused thermal oxidizer to treat 69.8 m3/min of air containing
1 mg/m3 of benzene (a carcinogenic aromatic compound with formula C6H6 and molar mass 78.1, heat
of combustion 40,580 kJ/kg). The air will be entering the oxidizer at 93 C, 101 kPa, and the oxidizer
has no heat recovery system.

The device is currently pre-set by the manufacturer to burn fuel gas at a rate of 1.15 kg/min, with burner
air supplied at a mass ratio of 5.8. The fuel gas (primarily methane, CH4) has a lower heating value
(LHV) of 50,150 kJ/kg. The burner air and fuel gas are both supplied at about 27 C.

If this thermal oxidizer was started-up and operated under these conditions, what would be the residence
time required to achieve a 99.99% destruction efficiency for the carcinogenic VOC? Be sure to
comment on whether this residence time is likely feasible or not in a typical thermal oxidizer.

V13) Activated carbon is to be used to capture a VOC (molar mass 59) at a concentration of 8000 ppm in air.
The air pressure will be 150 kPa. At the operating temperature of 35°C, it has been found that the VOC
adsorbs onto a certain activated carbon according to the Langmuir isotherm, with parameters k1=25 g kg-
1
kPa-1 and k2 = 14 kPa-1 . (note that the units of k1 refer to the mass of VOC (g) adsorbed per mass of
carbon (kg) per unit of partial pressure (kPa)).

a) If the air flowrate is 120 m3/min, and it is desired to operate an activated carbon bed for 2 hours before
regeneration, estimate the total mass and volume of carbon required for this purpose.

b) In the majority of designs, low pressure steam is used to regenerate the carbon by heating it to reverse
the adsorption process. In theory, it is also possible to regenerate the carbon by a process called
pressure swing adsorption (PSA). In this process, the air pressure is lowered (perhaps using a vacuum
pump) so that the VOC desorbs from the carbon back into the air, creating a higher VOC concentration
that can be more economically condensed or incinerated.

In the system specified in part (a), if the incoming air pressure could be lowered to 25 kPa (still containing
8000 ppm VOC), would it be possible to achieve a significant amount of desorption during the regeneration
cycle? Comment on whether the amount of carbon specified in part (a) will be satisfactory for operating a
PSA process for two hours before regeneration, describing necessary changes (if any).

V14) Polluted air flows at 500 m3/min (77 C, 1 atm) and is treated in a thermal oxidizer at 750 C. Methane
(20 C) is used as a fuel gas, and burner air (20 ) is supplied at a ratio of 14 kg air/kg methane. Heat
losses in this device are about 8% of the heat input. The contaminant is 1,2-dichloroethane (C2H4Cl2
molecular weight 99 g/mole), and it is present at very low concentrations such that it’s heat of
combustion is negligible.
i. Calculate the fuel gas flow rate required to operate the device, if the lower heating value of methane is 50,150
kJ/kg.
ii. If it is desired to achieve 98% destruction efficiency for the 1,2-dichloroethane, what residence time would be
required for this afterburner?
iii. After the afterburner is built with the residence time you specified above, it is decided to try and achieve
99.99% destruction. What new operating temperature do you recommend? Why might we discover that the
afterburner doesn’t actually achieve 99.99% destruction at your recommended temperature?