To manufacture acrylamide industrially

CHEMISTRY · Multi-part · A Level · Chemistry · Thermodynamics · Thermodynamics

Problem

To manufacture acrylamide industrially, engineers consider a two-step process: 1. Hydrolyze nitrile groups of acrylonitrile using water to form acrylamide. This hydrolysis is slow and has

\Delta G^{\circ}=+15\,\text{kJ mol}^{-1}

. 2. Couple the step above to one or more highly exergonic reactions carried out in the same reactor. Plant safety regulations impose two constraints on the choice of driving reaction(s): • No reaction may involve elemental hydrogen or oxygen (to avoid explosion hazards). • Total energy release per mole of acrylamide produced must not exceed

40\,\text{kJ}

in magnitude (to limit cooling requirements). Table 4 lists three candidate reactions available at scale. Table 4 Industrial Driving Reactions (all liquid phase)

Label	Reaction	$\Delta G^{\circ}\,(\text{kJ mol}^{-1})$
X	hydrolysis of phosphoric anhydride linkage in polyphosphate waste	−31
Y	isomerization of glucose-6-phosphate to fructose-6-phosphate	−1.7
Z	neutralization of sulfuric acid with aqueous ammonia	−46

(a) Evaluation of single-reaction coupling (b) Design of dual-reaction coupling and

\Delta G^{\circ}

calculation (c) Energy-waste justification

Related theory

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