Steam reforming of natural gas is the most common method of producing commercial hydrogen. a stream with a flow rate of 1150 mol/h containing 85.0 mol% ch4 and 15.0 mol% of water is combined with additional water steam and fed to a steam reforming reactor to produce hydrogen. the stream coming out is in chemical equilibrium. the fractional conversion for both the water and methane are 0.600. balance the chemical equation and calculate how much additional water steam is fed to the steam reforming reactor and the flow rate of the outlet hydrogen. ch4 + h2o < --> co + 3h2 (balanced)

The flow rate of the outlet hydrogen is 1,759.5 mol H2/h

The additional water steam fed is 414 mol H2O/h

Explanation:

First, we calculate the flow rate for each reactant:

Therefore:

Next, we calculate how much H2 (in mol/h) would be generated according to the balanced chemical equation:

977.5 mol CH4/h * 3 mol H2 / 1 mol CH4 = 2,932.5 mol H2/h

But the conversion rate for the CH4 is 60%, therefore the actual H2 generated is:

2,932.5 mol H2/h * 0.60 = 1,759.5 mol H2/h

According to the balanced chemical equation, we can calculate the amount of H2O needed for the reaction:

977.5 mol CH4/h * 1 mol H2O / 1 mol CH4 = 977.5 mol H2O/h

The conversion rate for the H2O is also 60%, so the actual H2O used is:

977.5 mol H2O/h * 0.60 = 586.5 mol H2O/h

Therefore the additional water stream would be:

F2 H2O = F H2O used - F1 H2O = 586.5 mol H2O/h - 172.5 mol H2O/h = 414 mol H2O/h

vanderwaal's forces of attraction are the electrostatic intermolecular forces that exist in a molecule due to the temporary or permanent dipoles that are developed in a molecule. in , the major intermolecular forces are dipole-dipole interactions as the molecule is polar (bent structure). so the vanderwaal's forces of interaction in between molecules are the permanent dipole-dipole interactions that develop due to the dipole that exists in between the polar h - s bond. the positively charged hydrogen atom is attracted towards the negative end of the dipole that is sulfur of the adjacent molecule. therefore, these forces of attraction are relatively stronger than that of london dispersion forces that exist in non polar molecules.