N-pentane is burned with excess air in a continuous combustion chamber. (a) A technician runs an analysis and reports that the product gas contains .270 mole% pentane, 5.3% oxygen, 9.1% CO2, and the balance nitrogen on a dry basis. Assume 100 mol of dry product gas as a basis of calculation, draw a flowchart, perform a degree-of-freedom analysis based on atomic species balances, and show that the system has -1 degrees of freedom. Interpret this result.
(b) Use balances to prove that the reported percentages could not possibly be correct.
(c) The technician reruns the analysis and reports new values of .304% pentane, 5.9% oxygen, 10.2% CO2, and the balance nitrogen. Verify that this result could be correct and, assuming that it is, calculate the percent excess air fed to the reactor and the fractional conversion of pentane.