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