DESIGN

OF A PLANT TO
PRODUCE SODIUM HYDROXIDE,
,
l '
.
WnllOGEN AND CHLORINE USING ONE TONNE PER DAY SODIUM
J~

or

CHLORIDE BY MERCURY CELL METHOD

BY

EZUTEH ALEX IFEANYI .

'.

2003/14990EH

. DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
MINNA,NIGERSTATE
A PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF 'DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF
ENGINNERING (B. ENG)

OCTOBER 2008

UESIGN OF A pLANT TO PRODUCE SODIUM HYDROXIDE,

HYDROGEN AND CHLORINE USING ONE TONNE PER DAY SODIUM

CHLORIDE BY MERCURY CELL METHOD .

BY

EZUTEH ALEX-IFEANYI
2003/14990EH .

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
MINNA, NIGER STATE

OCTOBER 2008

CERTIFICATION
This Design project was design, examined and certified under the supervision of
Dr. D. F. Aloko to be adequate in scope and quality' for the partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the Award of Bachelor of Engineering (B. ENG) in Chemical
Engineering

D~-ll- lAJl:i1-.
DR. D. F. ALOKO

DATE

Project Supervisor

DR. M. O. EDOGA

DATE

Head of Department

EXTERNAL EXAMINER

DATE

11

DEDICATION
This Design project is dedicated to Almighty God, for its mercy over us and to our
lovely Jj>arent" for making this project a reality.
I

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Our sincere thanks goes to the Almighty God who has kept us alive till this day to
see this last memory .
. We wish to express our profound gratitude to our supervisor,

pr. D. F Aloko

for his numerous advice and encouragement during the course of the design project.
Also, in this resped, my special thanks goes to my head of department, br. M.

Edoga and staffs of the chemical engineering department.

Our unique gratitude goes to our beloved parents. They stood for and supported us
with all their might financially, in prayers and love. To OUr dear parents once again we
say 'Thank y(;U very much'.
We are also indebted to professor K. O. Onifade, Professor J. O. Odigure, the
Dean of Engineering, Dr. M.a. Edoga, the Head of Department, Chemical Engineering.
And to all Lecturet's in Chemical Engineering department. We thank you for impacting
the basic engineering knowledge in us. We love you all.
To our wonderful course mates, you have been a source of inspiration and
challenge thanks for your companion.

IV

ABSTRACT
The aim of this project is to design a plant that will produce sodium hydroxide,
hydrogn and chlorine using one tonne per day sodium chloride by MERCURY CELL
METHOD. The detailed design work was done with the aid of computer aided design
(CAD) software's like HYSYS and MATHCAD. The major units in the plant are:
Reactor unit, Separation ~d Drying unit, and the Recovery unit. The design of
equipment undertaken are Brine saturator, Brine precipitator, Clarifiers, Filters, Mercury
Cells, Decomposers having a diameters ofO.024m, 0.019m, 0.02m, 0.03 1m, 0.020m, and
a height of 0.017in. Safety~ControI, environmental impact assessment, plant location and
site layout were also carried out. Standard Cost estimation was carried out using detaiied
factorial method and this gives the total capital investment cost to be 6.824 x IOIi naira
needed to generate a net profit of 9.954 x 10 10 naira per year within a pay back period of
approximately 6.856 years for a plant life of 15yeats. The rate ofretum is 15.914%.