Crystals of KNO3 are produced in the procedure. If a fresh feed of ten thousand kg/hr of a solution containing 20% KNO3 (by weight) is feed to the process (stream 1). The fresh feed (stream 1) is joined by a recycle stream (stream 2) containing a saturated solution of 0.6 kg of KNO3 per kg of H2O. Explain the concentrated solution (stream 5) leaving the evaporator, contains 50% KNO3 (by weight). Determine that the other stream leaving the evaporator (stream 4) is 100% H2O. Define the product out of the crystallizer (stream 6) contains 4% H2O (by weight).
Determine
1. Rate of water evaporated at the evaporator (stream 4) in [kg/hr]
2. Amount of dry crystals produced per hour from the crystallizer [kg]
3. Total saturated solution being recycle back to the process (stream 2) [kg/hr]
4. Composition of the combined feed to the evaporator (stream 3) [kg HNO3/kg H2O]