Introduction to Basic

Mass Balance Calculations in

Environmental Engineering
In your bank account:

Balance = Deposit – Withdrawal

Similarly, in an environmental system or

subsystem:

Accumulation = Input – Output

 Question 1
In an average week, Mr and Mrs Konzzumer
purchase and bring into their house approximately
50kg of consumer goods (food, magazines,
newspapers, appliances, furniture and associated
packaging). Of this amount, 50% is consumed as
food. Half the food is used for biological
maintenance and ultimately released as CO2; the
remainder is discharged to the sewer system.
Approximately 1kg accumulates in the house. The
Konzzumers recycle approximately 25% of the
solid waste that is generated. Estimate the amount
of solid waste that they place at the curb each
week.
• For many environmental problems, time is an
important factor in establishing the degree of
severity of the problem or in designing a solution
• In these instances, the equations are modified to
the following term:

Rate of accumulation = Rate of input – Rate

of output

dM d ( In ) d ( Out )
= −
dt dt dt
 Question 2

Ms Crystal Clearwater is filling her bathtub, but

she forgot to put the plug in. If the volume of
water for a bath is 0.35 cubic meters and the tap
is flowing at 1.32 L/min and the drain is running at
0.32 L/min, how long will it take to fill the tub to
bath level? How much water will be wasted?
Assume the density of water is 1000 kg/m3.
Mixed systems

Completely mixed systems - those in which every

drop of fluid is homogenous with every other
drop of fluid; every drop contains the same
material or physical property (concentration,
temperature, etc) within its boundary

Steady state – when the rate of accumulation is

zero; Where, Rate in = Rate out
Conservative and Non-conservative substances

• Conservative substances – no reaction; only

mixing. Eg the mixing of sugar or salt in water

C A Q A + C B Q B
C mix =
Q A + Q B

• Non-conservative substances – there is reaction.

Eg the reaction of an acid and a base, the
degradation of organic matter
 Question 3
A storm sewer is carrying snow melt containing
1.2 g/L NaCl into a small stream. The stream has
a naturally occurring NaCl concentration of 20
mg/L. If the storm sewer flow rate is 2000 L/min
and the stream flow rate is 2.0 m3/s, what is the
concentration of salt in the stream? Assume that
the sewer flow and stream flow are completely
mixed, and that salt is a conservative substance,
and that the system is at steady state.
• In most environmental systems – reactions or
transformations occur within the system Eg. by-
products are formed, compounds destroyed, etc.
Therefore, it is important to study its reaction
kinetics

Rate of accumulation = Rate of input – Rate of

output ± Rate of transformation

dM d ( In ) d ( Out )
= − ±r
dt dt dt

• The reaction rate (r) is often a complex function of

temperature, pressure, the reacting components,
and/or the products of reaction
• For the decay of non-conservative substances,
a convenient model that can be used is the first-
order reaction. In this model, it is assumed that
the rate of loss of the substance is proportional
to the amount of substance present at any given
time, t
dC
= − kC
dt

Where, k = reaction rate constant, s-1 or d-1

C = concentration of substance
 Question 4
A well mixed sewage lagoon is receiving 430 m3/d
of sewage. The lagoon has a surface area of 105 m2
and a depth of 1 m. The pollution concentration in
the raw sewage is 180 mg/L. The organic matter in
the sewage degrades biologically (decays) in the
lagoon according to first-order kinetics. The reaction
rate constant (decay coefficient) is 0.70 d-1.
Assuming no other water losses or gains
(evaporation, seepage, rainfall) and that the lagoon
is completely mixed, find the steady state
concentration of the pollutant in the effluent.