ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY 123

Tutorial 6

QUESTION 1
A 55 L cylinder contains 173 g of the following gases in mass%: 27% He, 11% H2 and the remaining
is N2. Calculate the partial pressure exerted by each gas at a temperature of 35°C. Assume ideal gas
behaviour.

QUESTION 2
Two containers are filled with gas. In each container the pressure is measured with a mercury
manometer. The first container’s manometer has a sealed end under vacuum. The reading gives the
height difference as 885 mmHg. The second container’s manometer has an end open to the
atmosphere. The reading gives a height difference of 225 mmHg and the mercury is higher on the
atmosphere’s side. Assume an atmospheric pressure of 101 kPa and that the gas behaves like an
ideal gas.
a) What is the absolute pressure in kPa in the first container?
b) What is the absolute pressure in kPa in the second container?
c) Is the pressure the same in the two containers and if not, in which container is the pressure higher
and what is the pressure difference in kPa?

QUESTION 3
A 50.0 L container contains 451 g of a gas mixture. The gas mixture contains 92.00 mass% argon
(Ar) with the remainder being water vapour. 1.0 L Silica gel is placed in the container and used to
absorb some of the water (water vapour absorbs on the silica gel and is thus removed from the gas).
After a while the silica is saturated with water and the pressure has decreased by 94.6 kPa. The
temperature was constant at 218°C. Assume the ideal gas law is applicable.
a) Calculate the number of moles of argon and water vapour and the total number of moles of gas
in the container before the water is absorbed.
b) What is the initial mole fraction argon and water?
c) What is the initial (when the silica was placed in the container) and final (at saturation) pressure.
d) Use Dalton’s law and calculate the partial pressure of argon and water vapour before the water is
absorbed.
e) Calculate the partial pressure of the argon and the water vapour after the water is absorbed.
f) What is the mole fraction water vapour at the end?
g) What is the mass fraction water vapour at the end?

QUESTION 4
A container is filled with 50.0 g of two gases: N2 and CO2. The volume of the container is 5.0 L and at
15.0°C the pressure in the container is 584 kPa(abs). What is the composition of the gas in the
container in mass %?
QUESTION 5
A 3.0 litre cylinder contains 10.0 g of a gaseous mixture of helium, oxygen and hydrogen sulphide
(H2S). You know that the mass of oxygen and hydrogen sulphide gas in the mixture is equal. Assume
ideal gas behaviour and calculate the mole fraction of helium if the cylinder is at 298.15 K and
3.0398 x 105 Pa (abs).

QUESTION 6
A squash ball consists of a rubber exterior and a hollow interior which is filled with nitrogen gas. In a
game of squash, the ball is initially cold and heats up as the players hit it. On a particular day, the
initial temperature of the interior gas is 62.6°F. At the end of the game, the nitrogen temperature is
110.3°F, the volume of the interior has increased by 5.00% and the absolute pressure of the nitrogen
is 785 mmHg. Assume ideal gas behaviour and:
a) Calculate the nitrogen pressure in the squash ball before the game starts. Give your answer in
gauge pressure and in standard SI units. Patm = 101 325 Pa.
b) Starting from the ideal gas equation, derive an expression for the gas density and calculate the
value thereof at the end of the game.
c) Determine the density of the gas at standard temperature and pressure (STP).

QUESTION 7
Calculate the universal gas constant, Ro, using standard conditions. Explain why this constant is
universal and independent of the type of gas, provided the gas behaves ideally.

QUESTION 8
A 20.0 L cylinder contains a 25 g argon and carbon dioxide gas mixture. The argon is recovered by
completely removing the carbon dioxide by absorption, after which the pressure in the cylinder is
halved. Calculate the initial pressure in the cylinder and the mass of argon recovered.
Additional information:
• The temperature remains constant at 40.0°C during the process.
• The gases behave ideally.

QUESTION 9
A tank contains 10.0 dm3 of a gas mixture comprising 95.0 mole% nitrogen and 5.00 mole% oxygen
at 350.0 K. A cylinder containing 40.0 dm3 air at 6.00 x 102 kPa (gauge) and 20.0°C is connected to
the tank via a valve and the gas in the tank and the cylinder are allowed to mix freely. After complete
mixing has been effected, the new gas mixture has 15 moles oxygen per 100 moles of mixture.
a) Express the number of moles of oxygen in the tank initially (before connection to the cylinder) in
terms of the initial pressure in the tank, Ptank.
b) Calculate Ptank.
Additional information:
• 100 moles of air contains 21 moles oxygen and 79 moles nitrogen
• The gases behave ideally
• The volume in the valve and connecting piping is negligible
QUESTION 10
You have a 50.0 L gas cylinder filled with 875 g He gas at 35°C. How much (expressed as %) does
the van der Waals pressure differ from the ideal pressure in the cylinder?

Additional Data
2
𝑛𝑛 𝑎𝑎 𝑎𝑎 3.445 x 10-3 Pa.m6/mol2
�𝑃𝑃 + � [𝑉𝑉 − 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛] = 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛
𝑉𝑉 2
𝑏𝑏 23.7 x 10-6 m3/mol

QUESTION 11
A cylinder contains helium that has a volume of 67.0 L at standard temperature and pressure. This
gas is placed into a 10.0 L container and is subjected to a temperature of 700.0°C.
a) Determine the gauge pressure of the container (in bar). (Remember that the ideal gas law will not
hold for pressures higher than 20 bar.)
b) Determine the error that would have been made if you used the ideal gas law in your calculation.
c) Explain how and why the ideal gas law has been adjusted to apply to non-ideal gas behaviour.

QUESTION 12
A large gas cylinder is filled with nitrogen that will be used to produce laughing gas. The cylinder,
which contains 94.8 lbm nitrogen, has a pressure of 259 bar (gauge) and a temperature of 27.0°C.
Calculate the volume of the cylinder.
Nitrogen does not behave ideally above a pressure of 1 MPa.
[Hint: do not carry out more than 3 iterations]

ANSWERS

1) pHe = 0.54 MPa ; pH2 = 0.44 MPa ; pN2 = 0.18 MPa

2) a) P1 = 118 kPa (abs) b) P2 = 131 kPa (abs) c) No, P2 > P1 ; ΔP = 13 kPa
3) a) nAr = 10.4 mol ; nH2O = 2.00 mol ; nT = 12.4 mol b) xAr = 0.838 ; xH2O = 0.162
c) Pi = 1030 kPa (abs) ; Pf = 937.8 kPa (abs) d) pAr = 866 kPa ; pH2O = 167 kPa
e) pAr = 866 kPa ; pH2O = 72 kPa f) xH2O = 0.077 g) wH2O = 0.04
4) w%N2 = 13%; w%CO2 = 87%
5) xHe = 20.%
6) a) Pi = -631 Pa (gauge) b) ρf = 1110 g/m3 c) ρf (STP) = 1250 g/m3
7) See class notes / text book
8) a) Pi = 77.5 kPa (abs) b) mAr = 11.9 g
9) a) nO2,tank = 1.72 x 10-7 Ptank b) Ptank = 2.01 MPa
10) ΔP = 11%
11) a) P = 23.3 bar (gauge) b) error = 0.726% c) See class notes / text book
12) V = 0.157 m3