Your company produces glycerol, an important precursor of explosives and antifreeze. a chemical reactor in your process produces a saturated liquid stream containing 83 kmol/hr of a mixture of 80% glycerol and 20% of a less volatile impurity. the price that you can sell the glycerol-containing product depends on both the quantity and the purity (mole fraction glycerol) of the product;
$12500*(purity-0.8)2/kmol produced
so, you propose to design a single-stage flash drum that will improve the purity of your glycerol product.
a) what is the maximum amount of money you could make per hour by selling glycerol product?
b) what fraction of the liquid feed should you vaporize in the single-stage flash drum in order to make the
most money?