Methane and oxygen react in presence of a catalyst to form formaldehyde (desired product). In a parallel reaction, methane is oxidized to form carbon dioxide and water:
CH4+ O2---->HCHO+H2O
CH4+ 2O2-----> CO2+ 2H2O
The feed to the reactor contains equimolar amounts of methane and oxygen. Assume a basis of 100 mol feed/s.
(a) Use a degree-of-freedom analysis based on extents of reaction to determine how many process variables must be specified for the remaining variable values to be calculated.
(b) Derive expressions for the product stream component flow rates in terms of the extents of reaction.
(c) 90% of the methane stream fed to the reactor is consumed and 85.5% of the methane fed to the reactor is converted to the desired formaldehyde product. Calculate the molar composition of the reactor output stream.