The following is an excetpt from The Morning News, Wilmington, Delaware (August 3, 1977):“Investigators sift through the debris from blast in quest for the cause [that destroyed the new nitrous oxide plant], A company spokesman said it appears more likely that the [fatal] blast was caused by another gas- ammonium nitrate—used to produce nitrous oxide. An 83% (wt) ammonium nitrate and 17% water solution is fed at 200 °F to the CSTR operated at a temperature of about 520 °F. Molten ammonium nitrate decomposes directly to produce gaseous nitrous oxide and steam. It is believed that pressure fluctuations were observed in the system and as a result the molten ammonium nitrate feed to the reactor may have been shut off approximately 4 min prior to the explosion. Can you explain the cause of the blast? If the feed rate to the reactor just before shutoff was 310 lbm of solution per hour, what was the exact temperature in the reactor just prior to shutdown? Using the following data, calculate the time it took to explode after the feed was shut off for the reactor. How would you start up or shut down and control such a reaction?
Assume that at the time the feed to the CSTR stopped, there were 500 lbm of ammonium nitrate in the reactor at a temperature of 520 °F. The conversion in the reactor is virtually complete at about 99.99%. Additional data for this problem are given in problem P8-4C. How would your answer change if 100 lb of solution were in the reactor? 310 lbm? 800 lbm? What if T0 = 100 °F? 500 °F?
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