Flow Sheet Decomposition: Vinyl Chloride Process Material Balance (Solution Provided) DeLancey XXXXXXXXXXpresented a simplified process for vinyl chloride production from ethylene, solving the...

Flow Sheet Decomposition: Vinyl Chloride Process Material Balance (Solution Provided) DeLancey (1999) presented a simplified process for vinyl chloride production from

ethylene, solving the nonlinear material balance equation set

using the software package Scientific Notebook. Ferreira

et al. (2004) solved the vinyl chloride problem within Excel

by using the material balance equations as constraints within Excel Solver. We will solve this problem in Chapter 5 using the Newton–Raphson method, but here we want to examine the solution using the sequential modular approach. Figure P3.20a (DeLancey, 1999) provides a simplified flow sheet for vinyl chloride (C2H3Cl) production from ethylene (C2H4). The reactions are the following: Chlorination reactor: C2H4 + Cl2 = C2H4Cl2 Oxyhydrochlorination reactor: C H HCl 1 2 2 4 + + = + 2 O C H Cl H O 2 2 4 2 2 Pyrolysis reactor: C2H4Cl2 = C2H4Cl + HCl Feed N1 is 90 mol % ethylene and 10% inerts; N2 is pure chlorine (Cl2); and N3 is pure oxygen (O2). All ethylene, oxygen, chlorine, and hydrochloric acid (HCl) fed to the chlorination and oxyhydrochlorination units react completely—these species should not be present in N6 or N7. In the pyrolysis reactor, 50% of the dichloroethane (C2H4Cl2) fed to the unit is converted. The unreacted dichloroethane is separated and recycled with the inerts in stream N12. The inert concentration in the recycle stream is 50 mol %. Pure hydrochloric acid is recycled in stream N13. The final product stream, N12, contains only vinyl chloride and water. We want to solve for all species flow rates when N1 = 100.