UNIVERSITY OF JAFFNA

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

END SEMESTER EXAMINATION MARCH 2017

MP 5040: PROCESS ENGINEERING

(Duration: 2 hours)
This question paper has TWO sections.
Answer section A and THREE questions from section B.
The marks for each question is given within parenthesis.
Scientific electronic calculators are permitted.

SECTION A

Question 1.

Company ABC (Pvt) Ltd has decided to setup a new Virgin coconut oil industry in Sri
Lanka. Imagine, you are the project engineer for the above project. After reading the
description of the Virgin oil processing given below, answer the questions.
Over the years, Virgin coconut oil is widely used and yet we do not know its
manufacturing process, benefits, composition, properties, and hazards. Virgin
coconut oil is the naturally processed, chemically free and additive-free product
from fresh coconut meat or its derivative (coconut milk and coconut meat residue),
which has not undergone any chemical processing after extraction.
Moreover, the production of Virgin coconut oil has a number of processes. They are
fresh-dry process wet milling process, fresh-dry process desiccated coconut
route, fresh-dry process grated coconut route, low pressure oil extraction or
intermediate moisture content method, traditional wet process or modified kitchen
method, fermentation process, centrifuge process and Bawalan-Masa process.
These processes differ on oil recovery, environmental impact and production quality.

This study concentrates on the production of Virgin coconut oil via fresh-dry process
wet milling process which includes de-shelling, splitting, slicing, washing, grinding,
drying, and extracting the oil using a screw type press.

Virgin coconut oil is the purest form of coconut oil, water white in color, contains
natural vitamin E and with very low free fatty acid content (even without refining)
and low peroxide value. It is produced at temperature below 100C. It is cholesterol
and aflatoxin free and contains high amount of lauric acid and 1% fatty acid
rendering the products to be self-stable for 2 years at normal Philippine ambient
condition and very ideal ingredient in herbal soap and aroma therapy industry.
a. What is Virgin coconut oil and what are the application of Virgin coconut oil?
(04
marks)

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 b. Draw the process flow diagram of Virgin coconut oil mill processing.
(10 marks)
c. During the processing of Virgin coconut oil, there are some un-processed
raw materials will be produced. Name THREE of un-processed raw materials
and give examples for the application for those materials.
(06 marks)
d. Select THREE Fundamental utilities required for the above process from the
following list and state why it has been chosen.
(15 marks)
Cooling Water Compressed Air Steam
Raw Water Electricity three phase Steam Turbine
Hot Water LPG gas Solar Power System

e. A PESTE analysis is a framework or tool used by engineers and decision

makers to analyse and monitor the macro-environmental (external
marketing environment) factors that have an impact on an organisation. The
result of which is used to identify threats and weaknesses of proposed
project.
I. Select the proper site/location for the Virgin coconut oil processing
factory. Please state why you have chosen above site (give
justification on raw material availability).
(20 marks)
II. Identify potential pollution sources of the process.
(10 marks)
III. As a project engineer for the above project you are requested to
carry out the PESTE analysis.
(20 marks)
IV. You are requested to draw the site layout plan for the above project.
All utilities area should be marked. Scale representation is not
required. (15 marks)
SECTION B
Question 1.
Two flash distillation chambers are joined together as shown in Figure 1. Both are at
1 atm pressure. The feed to the first drum is a binary mixture of methanol and
water and the mole % of methanol is 55. Feed flow rate is 10,000 kmol/hr. The
second flash drum operates with (V/F)2 = 0.7 and the mole% of methanol in liquid
product composition is 25. Equilibrium data is given below in Table 1.

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 F- Flowrate of Feed Figure 1
x1- Mole percentage of bottom product of
first flash
V1- Flowrate of Top Product from First Flash

a. V2- Flowrate
Draw the vapour of Top curve
equilibrium Product
forfrom second
methanol and water? ( 20 Marks)
b. Flash
Apply the overall mass balance and species balance for flash distillation
system using standard symbols. ( 10 Marks)
c. What is the fraction vapourized in the first flash drum? ( 20 Marks)
d. What are V1, V2, x1, T1, and T2? ( 40 Marks)
e. What are the changes you can propose to get high yield of x2? ( 10 Marks)

Table 1: Vapour-liquid equilibrium data for methanol water (p = 1 atm) (mole %)

Methanol Methanol Temperature
liquid vapour ()
0 0 100
2.0 13.4 96.4
4.0 23.0 93.5
6.0 30.4 91.2
8.0 36.5 89.3
10.0 41.8 87.7
15.0 51.7 84.4
20.0 57.9 81.7
30.0 66.5 78.0
40.0 72.9 75.3
50.0 77.9 73.1
60.0 82.5 71.2
70.0 87.0 69.3
80.0 91.5 67.6
90.0 95.8 66.0
95.0 97.9 65.0
100.0 100.0 64.5

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Question 2.
A process fluid is pumped from the bottom of one distillation column to another,
using centrifugal pump. The line is made of standard commercial steel pipe of
internal diameter 75 mm. From the first column to the pump inlet, the line is 25 m
long and contains six 45 standard elbow and a fully open gate valve. From the
pump outlet to the second column, the line is 250 m long and contains ten standard
elbows, four fully open gate valves and a flow-control valve. The fluid level in the
first column is 4 m above the pump inlet. The feed point of the second column is 6
m above the pump inlet. The operating pressure in the first column is 1.05 bar and
in the second column is 0.3 bar.
a. Determine the operating point, on the pump characteristic curve when the
flow is such that the pressure drop across the control valve is 35 kN/m 2. ( 60
Marks)
b. Determine the NPSH, for the above flow-rate (Q2.a), if the vapour pressure
of the fluid at the pump suction is 25 kN/m 2. ( 40 Marks)
Data:
The physical properties of the fluid,
Density - 875 kg/m3
Viscosity - 1.46 10-3 Nm-2.s

Table 2: Pump characteristics

18. 27. 36. 45. 54. 63.
Flow rate (m3/hr) 0.0
2 3 3 4 5 6
Head (m of 32. 31. 30. 29. 26. 23. 18.
liquid) 0 4 8 0 5 2 3

Useful equations:
L u2
Pf =8 f
( )
di 2
where;
Pf Pressure drop, N/m2
f Friction factor
L Pipe length, m
di Pipe inside diameter, m
Fluid density, kg/m3
u Fluid velocity, m/s

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 ( u d i )
Reynolds number, =

Absolute roughness
Relative roughness, e=
Pipe inside diameter

Table 3: Pipe roughness

Material Absolute roughness,
mm
Drawn tubing 0.0015
Commercial steel 0.046
pipe
Cast iron pipe 0.26
Concrete pipe 0.3 to 3.0

P P P
NPS H ava = + H f v

where,
NPS H ava Net positive suction head available at the pump suction, m
P The pressure above the liquid in the feed vessel, N/m 2
H The height of liquid above the pump suction, m
Pf The pressure loss in the suction piping, N/m 2
Pv - The vapour pressure of the liquid at the pump suction, N/m 2
The density of the liquid at the pump suction temperature, kg/m 3

Table 4: Pressure loss in pipe fittings and valves (for turbulent flow)

K, number of Number of
Fitting or valve velocity equivalent pipe
heads diameters
45 standard elbow 0.35 15
45 long radius elbow 0.2 10
90 standard radius
0.6 - 0.8 30 - 40
elbow
90 standard long
0.45 23
elbow
90 square elbow 1.5 75

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 Tee-entry from leg 1.2 60
Tee-entry into leg 1.8 90
Union and coupling 0.04 2
Sharp reduction (tank
0.5 25
outlet)
Sudden expansion (tank
1.0 50
inlet)
Gate valve
fully open 0.15 7.5
1/4 open 16 800
1/2 open 4 200
3/4 open 1 40
Globe valve, bevel seat
fully open 6 300
1/2 open 8.5 450
Plug valve - open 0.4 18

Question 3.
a. Briefly describe the following terms.
I. Conduction
II. Convection
III. Radiation ( 12 Marks)
b. The schematic diagram of a shell and tube heat exchanger is shown in Figure 2.

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Figure 2
 I. How many shell and tube passes are shown in Figure 2. ( 4 Marks)
II. What is the use of placing baffles in heat exchanger? ( 6 marks)
III. What are the physical changes you can suggest to increase the
overall heat transfer coefficient for above heat exchanger? ( 20
Marks)
IV. Draw a shell and tube heat exchanger with 2 shell passes and 8
tubes passes. What is the primary reason for using so many tube
passes? ( 15 Marks)
V. Classify heat exchangers according to flow type and explain
characteristics of each type? (15 Marks)
VI. During the designing of heat exchanger fouling factor should be
considered.(Equation is given below)
i. Why fouling factor has to be considered during the designing
of heat exchanger? (10 marks)
ii. How does fouling factor increases with the time? ( 15 Marks)
iii. Give suggestions to reduce the increment of fouling factor?
( 15 Marks)

For an unfinned shell and tube heat exchanger,

Do
1
=
1
=
1
=R=
1 R
+ f ,i +
ln ( )
DiR
+ f ,o +
1
U A s U i Ai U o A o h i Ai A i 2 kL A o ho Ao

Rf ,i and Rf ,o are the fouling factors at inner and outer surfaces.

Question 4.
a. Briefly explain the following topics with appropriate examples.
(20 marks)
I. Dew point & Bubble point
II. Overall heat transfer coefficient
III. The minor losses in a pipeline network
IV. Piping & instrumentation diagram

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 V. Characteristic curves of a pump
b. A fluid is pumped from an evaporator to a spray dryer using a centrifugal pump.
The pipeline is a cast iron pipe of 75 mm internal diameter. Total length of the
pipeline is 300 m and it contains 15 standard 90 0 elbows, and five fully open
gate valves. The minimum fluid level in the evaporator is 2 m above the pump
inlet and the feed point to the spray dryer is 6 m above the pump outlet. The
operating pressure of evaporator is 0.5 bar and the spray dryer is 2 bar.
(80
marks)
I. Calculate pressure head difference, elevation difference, frictional head
loss and minor losses in the piping system.
II. Calculate the total head that the pump has to work against when the flow
rate is 15 m3/hr. Density of the fluid is 850 kg/m 3 and dynamic viscosity of
the fluid is 0.00135 Nm-2s.
III. Find the total head when flow rate is 0 m3/hr, 10 m3/hr, 20 m3/hr and 30
m3/hr respectively.
IV. Determine the operating point (operating head, operating flow rate,
operating efficiency) on the pump characteristic curve by plotting the
operating curve (system curve) on it. The selected impeller diameter of
the pump is 150 mm.
V. Calculate NPSH at 15 m3/hr, if the vapour pressure of the fluid at the
pump suction is 25, 000 N/m2.

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- END -

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