CHEMICAL ENGINEERING CALCULATION PROBLEMS
1. Simply because he was crazy doing research, Engr. Lim conducted a study dealing with the
heterogeneous activation of persulfate using engineering nanocomposite for the degradation of a
certain organosubstrate. In order to model the degradation kinetics of the contaminant, he subjected
the contaminant in inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) – a method
that would give the percent elemental composition of the unknown organosubstrate.
The following data was obtained from ICP-AES:
The substrate was also subjected to aerobic biochemical degradation using a mixed culture of bacteria
(represented by CH1.666N0.20O0.27) which converted carbon, hydrogen and sulfur to oxidized forms.
The main nutrient source for the medium was 0.01 M potassium nitrate. The general reaction is
predicted to be:
In order to balance the reaction, you may use atomic balances as a technique.
(a) Determine the correct and balanced biochemical reaction.
(b) Determine the biomass yield per substrate consumed (g CH1.66N0.20O0.27 / g organosubstrate)
(c) Determine the oxygen yield coefficient (g CH1.66N0.20O0.27 / g O2)
(d) Determine the total amount of nutrient source (as potassium nitrate) in kg needed per 100 kg
of organosubstrate.
,
1. Simply because he was crazy doing research, Engr. Lim conducted a study dealing with the
heterogeneous activation of persulfate using engineering nanocomposite for the degradation of a
certain organosubstrate. In order to model the degradation kinetics of the contaminant, he subjected
the contaminant in inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) – a method
that would give the percent elemental composition of the unknown organosubstrate.
The following data was obtained from ICP-AES:
The substrate was also subjected to aerobic biochemical degradation using a mixed culture of bacteria
(represented by CH1.666N0.20O0.27) which converted carbon, hydrogen and sulfur to oxidized forms.
The main nutrient source for the medium was 0.01 M potassium nitrate. The general reaction is
predicted to be:
In order to balance the reaction, you may use atomic balances as a technique.
(a) Determine the correct and balanced biochemical reaction.
(b) Determine the biomass yield per substrate consumed (g CH1.66N0.20O0.27 / g organosubstrate)
(c) Determine the oxygen yield coefficient (g CH1.66N0.20O0.27 / g O2)
(d) Determine the total amount of nutrient source (as potassium nitrate) in kg needed per 100 kg
of organosubstrate.
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