Fundamentals of Material Balance

Chapter 4
Chemical Engineering
• The synthesis of chemistry and engineering
• The application of the physical sciences
together with the principles of economics
and human relations to field that pertain
directly to process and process equipment in
which matter is treated to effect a change in
state, energy content or composition.
Unit Operations
• Operations that involve physical changes in
the industrial handling of chemicals and
allied materials.
Unit Processes
• Commercialization of chemical changes to
make them economically feasible.
Process Classification
1. Batch Process
2. Continuous Process
3. Semi-Batch Process
4. Steady State Process
5. Unsteady or Transient State Process
Batch Process
• The feed is charged into the system at the
beginning of the process and products are all
at once removed sometime later.
• No mass crosses the system boundaries
between the time the feed is charged and
the time the product is removed.
Continuous Process
• The input and the output flow continuously
throughout the duration of the process.
• Is one in which material enters and/or leaves
the system without interruption.
Semi-batch Process
• Any process that is neither batch nor
continuous.
Open and Closed Systems
• System-means any arbitrary portion of or a
whole process that you want to consider for
analysis.
– System Boundary-define the limits of the
system
• Closed system-changes can take place
inside the system ;no mass exchange occurs
with the surroundings
• Open System-materials crosses the system
boundary
Steady State Process
• Process variable do not change with time,
except possibly for minor fluctuations.
• The conditions inside the process remains
unchanged with time.
• The conditions of the flowing streams
constant with time.
• All of the conditions in the process (e.g.
temperature, pressure, mass of material,
flow rate, etc) remains constant with time.
Unsteady State or Transient State Process
• Process variables changes with time.
• Not all of the conditions in the process (e.g.
temperature, pressure, mass of material,
etc.) remains constant with time, and/or the
flows in and out of the system can vary with
time.
The Concept of Material Balance
• A material balance is nothing more than the
application of the law of conservation of
mass. “Matter is neither created nor
destroyed”.
Material Balance
• An exact accounting of all materials entering,
generating, consumed, accumulated and
leaving a system.

The General Balance Equation

INPUT+GENERATION=OUTPUT+CONSUMPTION +ACCUMULATION
 The General Balance Equation
• Input=enters through system boundaries
• Generation=produced within the system
• Output=leaves through system boundaries
• Accumulation=build up within the system
Types of Material Balance
• Differential Balances
• Integral Balances
Differential Balances
• Indicate what is happening in a system at an
instant of time; each term of the balance is
then a rate and has units of the balanced
quantity per unit time; these are usually
applied to a continuous process.
Integral Balances
• Describe what is happening between two
instant of time; each term in the equation is
then an amount of the balanced quantity;
usually applied to a batch process
The Strategy For Solving Problems
1) Read and understand the problem
statement
2) Draw a sketch of the process and specify
the system boundary
3) Place labels (symbols, numbers and units)
on the diagram for all of known flows,
materials, and compositions. For unknown
flows, materials, and compositions insert
symbols and units. Add any other useful
relations or informations.
The Strategy for Solving Problems
4) Obtain any data you need to solve the
problem, but are missing
5) Choose a basis
6) Determine the number of variables whose
values are unknown (the unknowns)
7) Determine the number of independent
equations and carry out a degrees of
freedom analysis
The Strategy For Solving Problems
8) Write down the equation to be solved in
terms of knowns and unknowns.
9) Solve the equations and calculate the
quantities asked for in the problem.
10) Check your answer(s)
General Procedure for Single – Unit Process
Material Balance Calculations
 Material Balances on Steady State and Non
reactive Processes
Feed 1, (F1)

Product,
Feed 2, (F2) MIXER (P)

MIXING
Mixing
Feed 1 (F1) + Feed 2 (F2) = Product (P)
Example Problem No. 1(Mixing)
• An aqueous solution of NaOH contains 20%
NaOH by mass. It is desired to produce an
8% NaOH solution by diluting a stream of the
20% solution with a stream of pure water.
– Calculate the ratios (g H2O/gfeed solution)
– Determine the feed rates of 20% solution and
dilution water needed to produce 2310
lbm/min of the 8% solution
Example Problem 2 (Mixing)
• It is desired to make a nitrating acid
containing 47.5% HNO3 and 48% H2SO4 by
mixing concentrated H2SO4 and HNO3
solutions. If 91.5% HNO3 solution is used.
– Find the % H2SO4 to be used
– Kg of each solution that will be required to
make 15 metric tons of the nitrating acid.
 Drying

Water, (W)

Feed, (F) Product, (P)

DRYER
Drying
• The feed/product is expressed in % moisture
(dry or wet basis).
% moisture (dry)=wt. moisture x 100%
wt. bdm
% moisture (wet)= wt. moisture x 100%
wt. bdm + wt.moisture
• Bone dry material=absolute dry substance or
material without water content.
Drying
• Feed (F) = Water (W) + Product (P)
Sample Problem No.3 (Drying)
• Water pulp containing 85% water is dried
until it contains 8% water. Water is removed
at Php 400.00 per ton of product. Calculate
the drying cost per 100 lbs of water
removed.
Sample Problem No. 4 (Drying)
• Wet sugar that contains 20% water is sent
through a dryer in which 75% of the water is
removed.
– Taking a basis of 100 kg feed, calculate the
mass fraction of dry sugar in the wet sugar
that leaves the dryer.
– Calculate the ratio (kg H2O removed/kg wet
sugar leaving the dryer).
 Evaporation
Evaporate, (E)

Concentrate,
Feed, EVAPORATOR (C)
(F)
Evaporation
• Feed (F)=Evaporate (E) + Concentrate (C )
Sample Problem No. 5 (Evaporation)
• A triple effect evaporator is fed with 1000 lbs
of a 5% salt solution to be concentrated to
40% solution. If the amount of water
evaporated from the first effect is 375 lbs
and from the second effect is 1.5 times that
from the third effect, calculate the weight of
water evaporated in the 2nd and 3rd effects.
Distillation Distillate, (D)

Distilling Column
Feed, (F)

Bottom, (B)
Distillation
• Feed (F)= Distillate (D) + Bottoms (B)
Example Problem No. 6 (Distillation)
• Alcohol-water solution is fed into a distilling
still at the rate of 1000 kg per hour. The
solution analyzes 30% ethyl alcohol by
weight. The distillate contains 90% alcohol
and the bottom 8% alcohol, calculate
– Kg of distillate per hour
– Kg of bottom per hour
– % recovery of alcohol
Example Problem No. 7 (Distillation)
• Dilute alcohol from fermenting vats contains
11.15% ethanol. The distillate contains 95%
alcohol while the bottom contains 0.5%
alcohol. As distillation proceeds, a side
stream containing 40% alcohol is removed.
The total recovery of alcohol in the distillate
and in the side stream is 96.5%. On the
basis of 1000 kg of feed, calculate the
amounts of the bottom, distillate and side
stream.
 Filtration

Feed, Filter Cake

(F) FILTER PRESS (Fc)

Filtrate, (Fl)
Filtration
• Feed (F)=Filtrate (Fl) + Filter Cake (Fc)
Example Problem No. 8 (Filtration)
• Saturated solution of a salt is made by
agitating 600 kg of salt in 1200 kg of water.
The salt is soluble to the extent of 0.25 kg
per kg of water. On filtration, 0.4 kg of
solution adheres to every kilogram of
undissolved salt. Calculate:
– Weight of the filtrate
– Kg of dry salt recovered on the drying the wet
filter cake.
Example Problem No. 9 (Filtration)
• A saturated solution of salt is made by
agitating an excess of the salt in water and
then filtering off the solution. If 1 kg of water
will dissolve 0.2 kg of the salt, and if 0.5 kg
of the solution will adhere to every kilogram
of undissolved salt:
– How much solution can be filtered off when
500 kg of water is mixed with 250 kg of salt?
– If the remaining wet salt were thoroughly
dried, how much salt can be removed?
 Crystallization

Feed, Crystal,
CRYSTALLIZER (C)
(F)

Mother Liquor,
(ML)
Crystallization
• Feed (F) = Mother Liquor (ML) + Crystal (C )
Example Problem No. 10 (Crystallization)
• The solubility of sodium bicarbonate in water
is 9.6 g/100 g water at 20ºC, and 16.4 g/100
g water at 60ºC. If a saturated solution of
NaHCO3 at 60ºC is cooled to 20ºC, what
percentage of the dissolved salt crystallizes
out?
Example Problem No. 11 (Crystallization)
• 1000 kg of a 40% MgSO4 solution is sent to a
crystallizer where it is cooled to 20ºC. The
wet crop (MgSO4.7H2O) plus adhering
solution is later sent to a drier producing
anhydrous MgSO4. If 1/10 of the mother liquor
adheres to the crop, calculate:
– Kg of anhydrous MgSO4 produced
– Kg of water removed from the dryer
(solubility of MgSO4 at 20ºC is 5 kg MgSO4/100 kg
solution)
End of discussion