Question

Question 2 (30%). The mono-pressure nitric acid process is given its name because it maintains a high pressure from the reactor (where it is 1 MPa) through the whole process

(less equipment pressure drops) until it reaches the expander where it is expanded to 1.2 bar. This expander is very important as it produces most of the power used to drive the air compressor. If this turbine was not used the power consumption of the plant would be about 3 times higher! Obviously this would make a massive difference to the economics and carbon footprint of the process. If the is returned to the inlet of the turbine at 600 °C and 0.9 MPa at a flow of 630 mol/sgas(assumed to be only nitrogen), what is the maximum work possible from this turbine? Please use the heat capacity data attached and be very clear about calculations done numerically.

Fig: 1

Fig: 2