ChE 321 – Design Project 1

Pick A Rate Law, Any Rate Law

The Scenario:

Professor Z. O. Lite and his fabulously talented group of undergraduate chemical engineers at UND have developed a new catalyst.  In preliminary studies it has dramatically increased the rate at which  p-xylene is formed from the reaction of toluene and methanol.

Several different reaction mechanisms have been postulated that suggest the following possible rate laws:

(1)                            (2)

(3)                          (4)

(5)                        (6)

(7)            (8)

(9)          (10)

 

Your Assignment:

Use experimental rate-pressure data from a differential reactor to find a suitable rate law and determine all relevant rate constants in Arrhenius form (k1=A1e-E1/RT)

You have $10,000 available for lab work.  Kinetic rate data for the Toluene + Methanol reaction can be purchased from XYZ Consulting for $200 / run (one run = one data point, not one set of 8 data points).  Pick your data carefully so that you don’t run out of money!  Fill out a Rate Data Request Form (available on Blackboard) with the experimental conditions you want to run and submit it through Blackboard (Project Groups > XYZ Consulting > File Exchange.  Results will be posted (to your group file exchange on Blackboard) daily Monday-Friday, beginning Feb 23.

Write a short (1-2 pages of text, plus supporting tables and figures) project report for the engineers at ABC Chemicals documenting your findings.  It should include the following information:

  • Proposed rate law with numerical values, units, and estimated uncertainty for all constants
  • Discussion and analysis of experimental data that supports proposed rate law and rules out other rate laws
  • Table of all experimental data
  • Figures, regression results, and any other information used in your analysis