Question

A Composition of carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen with mole ratio 1:2:5 with 4 moles of oxygen, enters a reactor with a flow rate of 100 kg/s, the ratio of rates of leaving the reactor of the three is 5:2:1, and 5 moles of nitrogen leaves the reactor, what is the total number of moles leaving the reactor?

(a) 6.1

(b) 6.2

(c) 6.3

(d) 6.4

The question was posed to me in an interview.

Enquiry is from Flow Rate topic in chapter Moles, Density & Concentration of Basic Chemical Engineering

Answer 1

Correct answer is (b) 6.2

The explanation: number of moles of carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen are 2, 4 and 10 respectively, let the leaving flow rates of carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen are 5y, 2y and y respectively, => for nitrogen, 10*100 = y*5 => y = 200 kg/s, => for oxygen, 4*100 = 400*n => n = 1, for carbon dioxide, 2*100 = 1000*n => n = 0.2, => total number of moles leaving the reactor = 5 + 1 + 0.2 = 6.2.