Question

In a production plant of sulphuric acid a catalytic converter is used to perform the oxidation reaction of SO2 to SO3. Given the exothermic nature of the process, the converter is made of 4 beds in series (each bed works as an independent reactor). In the first bed, a stream containing 5% of SO2, 12% of O2, 2% of water (vapor) and the balance of nitrogen (N2) is fed. The first bed has a conversion of 71% with respect to the SO2 fed to the bed. The resulting gases leave Bed 1 and go through a cooling device before they are fed to Bed 2. Bed 2 has a 77.3% conversion of the SO2 fed to this bed. Similarly, the product gases of Bed 2 go through a heat exchanger to decrease their temperature and then are introduced to the third catalytic bed where there is a 45.6% conversion of the incoming SO2 fed to this bed. Finally, the cooled gases are fed to the last bed where there is a 20.8% conversion.

a) Draw the flow diagram and the reaction that takes place

b) Find the flow and composition of every stream considering that 10,000 mol/h of gases are fed to Bed 1

c) Find the overall conversion of SO2

Answer 1