You have been hired by an insurance company to investigate claims filed by Reage

Question

You have been hired by an insurance company to investigate claims filed by Reagents Unlimited, Inc. (a chemical company that claims there was a fire in their company offices and storehouse recently). The insurance company has received unconfirmed reports that the company was incurring heavy losses. It is your responsibility to find if this is true. Urea is the main product on the market that the chemical company is producing. Urea is used in fertilizers as a convenient source of nitrogen. In fact it is widely regarded as the most used fertilizer worldwide. Urea is also an important raw material for the chemical industry (plastics, adhesives, etc.). So it is very much in demand and its production is very lucrative. This company mixes aqueous ammonia (NH3) and aqueous carbon dioxide (CO2) to create the aqueous urea (CH4N2O) and water Considering the recent file at the company offices and the manufacturing plant, all records have been lost. This makes your job harder. However, the good news is that because their actual plant was not harmed in the fire, their final batch of product is safe and available. This final batch of urea weighed 168.4 kg. The company claims they usually have a percentage yield of 70.0 %. They have also determied 38.26 kg of carbon dioxide is left over after the reaction was completed. Determine if the company is making a profit or taking a loss given the following information. Chemical Price ($/metric ton) (1 metric ton= 1000 kg) Ammonia $325 Carbon dioxide $50 Urea $425 Show all your calculations and write out your outcome to this problem

Explanation / Answer

Solution :-

Balanced reaction equation

2 NH3 + CO2 ------- > CH4N2O + H2O

Lets calculate the theoretical amount of the reactants needed for the reaction

percent yield is 70.0 % therefore theoretical yield is 100 %

168.4 kg urea * 100 % / 70.0 % = 240.6 kg urea

so the mass of the NH3 needed for the 1 mol Urea formation

0.0600553 kg urea = (2*17.03/1000) = 0.03406 kg NH3 = 0.04401 kg CO2

now using the mole ratio lets calculate the mass of the each reactant needed

240.6 kg urea * 0.03406 kg NH3 / 0.0600553 kg urea = 136.5 kg NH3

now lets calculate the mass of the CO2

240.6 kg urea * 0.04401 kg CO2 / 0.0600553 kg urea = 176.3 kg CO2

but 38.26 kg CO2 is left over means total amount of the CO2 used = 176.3 kg + 38.26 kg =214.56 kg CO2

now lets calculate the cost of the each reactant used

cost of NH3 = 136.5 kg NH3 * $325 / 1000 kg = 44.36 $

cost of CO2 = 176.3 kg * $50/1000 kg = 8.82 $

total cost = 44.36 $ + 8.82 $ = 53.18 $

now lets calculate the price of the 168.4 kg urea

price of urea = 168.4 kg * $425 / 1000 kg = 71.57 $

So the cost of the production is less than the price of the urea therefore the company is not made any loss

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