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Engineering chemistry problem.
In industry, an ethylene oxide is produced with air. Under operating conditions, much of the ethylene is converted to ethylene oxide, another part is fully oxidized to CO2 and water, and the rest is unreacted. The gases leave the reactor and go to an absorption column where the water will absorb all the ethylene oxide. The exhaust gases from the absorption column have 9.6% CO2, 6.4% C2H4, 3% O2, and 81% N2. % of ethylene entering the reactor is converted to ethylene oxide and what% remains unreacted? What is the ethylene / air ratio?
The reactions involved are :
C2H4 + 0.5 O2 ---> C2H4O
C2H4 + 3 O2 ---> 2 CO2 + 2 H2O
The required solution is provided below.