Methanol is synthesized from carbon monoxide and hydrogen in a catalytic reactor.
The fresh feed to the process contains 32.0 mol% CO, 64.0 mol% H2 and 4.00 mol% N2. This stream is mixed with a recycle stream in a ratio of 10.00 mol recycle / 1 mol fresh feed to produce the feed to the reactor, which contains 10.0 mol% N2.
The reactor effluent goes to a condenser from which two streams emerge: a liquid product stream containing essentially all of the methanol formed in the reactor, and a gas stream containing all of the CO, H2, and N2 leaving the reactor.
The gas stream is split into two fractions; one is removed from the process as a purge stream, and the other is the recycle stream that combines with the fresh feed to the reactor.
For a methanol production rate of 100.0 mol/h, calculate the fresh feed rate (mol/h), the molar flow rate and composition of the purge gas, and the overall and single-pass conversions.