The Cookenwythe Gas Company pumps propane gas to the

Chapter 5, Problem 5.24

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The Cookenwythe Gas Company pumps propane gas to the nearby Noxious Chemicals, Inc., polypropylene production plant. The gas is metered at the Noxious plant at 400 m3/h at 4.7 atm gauge and 30C. The pressure at the Cookenwythe plant is 8.5 atm gauge, and the temperature is also 30C. Noxious pays Cookenwythe at the rate of $0.60/kg C3Hg One dark night Sebastian Goniff, a Noxious engineer who is really a spy for the Rancid Plastics Corporation-Noxious's principal competitor and a bunch of really rotten guys-puts into effect his plan to divert propane from the Cookenwythe-Noxious line into an underground pipe that leads to a secret Rancid tank-truck loading station in the middle of a nearby abandoned garbage dump. To cover the operation, Goniff obtains a broken pressure gauge that is stuck at 4.7 atm and substitutes it for the gauge at the Noxious plant. He adjusts the gas pressure regulator so that the real gauge pressure is 1.8 atm, instructs his associate in the field via walkie-talkie to open the Rancid line gradually, and tells him to hold it when the flowmeter at Noxious reads 400 m3 /h. To the unsuspecting Noxious meter reader, the flow rate and pressure would therefore appear to be normal. The plan goes according to schedule until the associate smells gas, suspects a leak near the valve, and lights a match to see if he can pinpoint the location. (a) What should the flowmeter read at the Cookenwythe end of the pipeline? (b) How much does Noxious pay Cookenwythe each month? (c) What flow rate of propane (kg/h) should the Rancid trucks be prepared to handle? (d) What happened?