Introduction To Chemical

Engineering

Che 211
Reference Material:
David M. Himmelblau. “Basic Principles and
Calculations in Chemical Engineering”. Prentice Hall
 MATERIAL BALANCE
•Material balance are simply the application of
the conservation law for mass
•Material balance calculations are almost
invariably a prerequisite to all other
calculations in the solution of both simple and
complex chemical engineering problems
•Material balance analysis is simply an
accounting of all materials flowing, generated,
or consumed in a chemical process
 System and Control Volume
• A system is any arbitrary portion set out
specifically for analysis.
• A control volume is any imaginary or tangible
boundary which encloses the system.

Types of System
• Closed System:
A system is closed if there is no mass passing
through the control volume during the period of
analysis

• Open System:
A system is open if mass can pass through the
control volume during the period of analysis
 The steady-state process
• In a steady-state process, the values of all
variables in the process (such as chemical
composition, temperature, pressure, etc.) do not
change with time. Otherwise, it is an unsteady-
state process.

• For a steady-state process:

where is any process variable(T, P,…) and t=time

Worked Example 1: Evaporation of water from salt
 The Mass Balance Equation
• Consider a control volume:

Balancing B within the control volume;

∆MB = Input of B + B generated – B consumed –B output
 Possible Scenarios for B
• If (input + generation)B > (output + consumption)B
then the amount B with the control volume increases
(accumulation)

• If (input + generation)B < (output + consumption)B

then the amount B within the control volume decreases
(depletion/ negative accumulation)

• If (input + generation)B =(output + consumption)B

then the amount B within the control volume will not
change (steady-state)
• The general mass balance equation can be written as:

Acc/Dep = Input + Generation – Output – Consumption

• For a steady-state process, there is no accumulation or

depletion of materials:
Input + Generation – Output – Consumption = 0
Input + Generation = Output + Consumption

• If there is no chemical reaction, there is no means for a

material to be generated or consumed, then
Acc/Dep = Input – Output

• If there is no chemical reaction and steady-state condition

exists, then
0 = Input – Output
or
Input = Output
 Degrees of Freedom (DF) Analysis
• The procedure of determining whether enough
information is given to solve the problem.
• To determine the degrees of freedom (DF):
DF = U – V
where, U = number of unknown variables to be solved.
V = number of independent equations relating the
unknown variables.

Independent equations
An equation is independent if it cannot be derived
algebraically from the other equations
Possible outcomes of DF analysis:
• DF = 0: there are equal number of unknowns and
independent equations and in principle, the problem
can be solved.

• DF > 0: there are more unknowns than independent

equations and the problem is underspecified and has
infinitely many solution.

• DF < 0: there are more independent equations than

unknowns and the problem is over-specified and has
no exact solution.
• Consider the following set of equations used
for solving x, y and z

3x – 4y + 5z = 6
– 2x +7y – 13z= – 20
x + 3y – 8z = –14
Determine whether enough equations are
available to solve for the values of x, y, and z
Possible Sources of Equations in Material Balance
Analysis
1. Material balance equations

2. Stoichiometric relationships based on chemical

reactions (particularly useful when solving
reactive processes)

3. Energy balance equations

4. Physical constraints on some variables

5. Process specifications
 Material Balance on Non-Reactive Process
Consider a steady-state distillation process,

Since the process is at steady-state

condition and no chemical reaction is
involved, the material balance equation
becomes:

Input = Output

This balance equation can be applied to:

1. The total mass entering and leaving the
process.

2. Mass of individual component entering

and leaving the process.
Total Mass (Overall Material Balance)
m1 = m2 + m3

Component A Balance
mA1 = mA2 + mA3
m1xA1 = m2xA2 + m3xA3

Component B Balance
mB1 = mB2 + mB3
m1xB1 = m2xB2 + m3xB3
• For the given process, 3 material
balance equations can be written:

Total Balance m1 = m2 + m3 (1)

A-Balance mA1 = mA2 + mA3 (2)
B-Balance mB1 = mB2 + mB3 (3)

• Are these material balances

independent equations?

• If (2) and (3) are added, what does the

resulting equation represents?
• Consider the unsteady-state
extraction process:

• Extraction is a physical process in

which a component of a mixture is
extracted using an immiscible solvent.

• Writing the material balance equations:

Total Balance: (Acc)T = m1 + m2 – m3 – m4

A-Balance: (Acc)A = mA1 – mA3

B-Balance: (Acc)B = mB1 – mB3 – mB4

C-Balance: (Acc)C = mC2 –mC4

The total balance can also be obtained by adding the last 3

equations and is no longer independent.
• For processes with no chemical reaction, the number
of independent material balance equations is:

Nm = Ni

Where,
Nm = number of independent material balance
equations.

Ni = total number of chemical species (or components)

involved in the process.
 Worked Example 2
A chemical plant produces aqueous solution of NaOH
that is 20% NaOH by mass. The company desires to
produce a stream of 8% NaOH solution by diluting a
stream of the 20% solution with a stream of pure
water. What flowrates of the pure water and 20%
streams will produce 2310 lbm/min of the 8% solution.

0.2 𝑁𝑎𝑂𝐻
0.8 𝐻2 𝑂
𝑚1

𝑚3
0.08 𝑁𝑎𝑂𝐻
𝑚2
0.92 𝐻2 𝑂
1.0 𝐻2 𝑂
 0.2 𝑁𝑎𝑂𝐻
𝑚1 0.8 𝐻2 𝑂

𝑚3
0.08 𝑁𝑎𝑂𝐻
𝑚2
0.92 𝐻2 𝑂
1.0 𝐻2 𝑂

Total material balance: 𝑚1 + 𝑚2 = 𝑚3

NaOH balance: 0.2𝑚1 + 0 𝑚2 = 0.08𝑚3
Water balance: 0.8𝑚1 + 1 𝑚2 = 0.92𝑚3
From Eqn (2) 𝑚1 = 0.08Τ0.2 𝑚3
𝑚1 = 0.4 2310
= 924 𝑙𝑏ൗ𝑚𝑖𝑛 𝑜𝑓 20% 𝑁𝑎𝑂𝐻 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚

𝑚2 = 𝑚3 − 𝑚1
= 2310 − 924
= 1386 𝑙𝑏ൗ𝑚𝑖𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟
 Quiz
• The figure describes a mixing tank problem.
Find the unknown flow and compositions
 Recycle
Recycle is fed back from a downstream unit to an
upstream unit. The stream containing the recycled
material is known as a recycle stream.

Figure a shows a single unit with serial flows. Figure b

shows multiple units but still with serial flows. Figure c
 Bypass
A bypass stream—a stream that skips one or more stages
of the process and goes directly to another downstream
stage.
A bypass stream can be used to control the composition
of a final exit stream from a unit by mixing the bypass
stream and the unit exit stream in suitable proportions to
obtain the desired final composition.

A process with a bypass stream

 Purge
• A purge stream—a stream bled off from the
process to remove an accumulation of inert or
unwanted material that might otherwise build
up in the recycle stream.

A process with a recycle stream with purge

 WORKED EXAMPLE 3
The fresh feed into a process is 10,000 lb/hr of a
40% aqueous NaOH solution. The fresh feed is
combined with the recycled filtrate from the
crystallizer and fed to the evaporator where water
is removed to produce a 50% NaOH solution,
which in turn is fed to the crystallizer in which it is
cooled. The cooling causes solid crystals of NaOH
to precipitate. The crystals are then filtered out of
the solution. The filter cake consists of 95% NaOH
crystals and 5% solution that itself consists of 45%
NaOH. The filtrate contains 45% NaOH.
a. Determine the flow rate of water removed by the
evaporator, and the recycle rate for this process.
b. Assume that the same production rate of NaOH
cake occurs, but the filtrate is not recycled. What
would the total feed rate of 40% NaOH have to be
then? Assume that the product solution from the
evaporator still contains 50% NaOH.
Total material balance: 𝐹 = 𝑊 + 𝑃
Overall NaOH balance:
0.4 𝐹 = 0 𝑊 + 0.95𝑃 + 0.45(0.05𝑃)
Overall water balance: 0.6𝐹 = 𝑊 + 0.55(0.05𝑃)
From Eqn (2) 0.4𝐹 = 0.95𝑃 + 0.0225𝑃
0.4 10000
𝑃= = 4113.11 𝑙𝑏ൗℎ𝑟
0.9725
𝑊 = 10000 − 4113.11 = 5886.89 𝑙𝑏ൗℎ𝑟
The flow rate of water removed is 5886.89 𝑙𝑏Τℎ𝑟
Material balance over the crystallizer/filter:
𝐺 =𝑃+𝑅
NaOH balance over the crystallizer/filter:
0.5𝐺 = 0.45 0.05𝑃 + 0.95𝑃 + 0.45𝑅
Water balance over the crystallizer/filter:
0.5𝐺 = 0.55(0.05𝑃) + 0.55𝑅
From Eqn (1): 𝐺 − 𝑅 = 𝑃
From Eqn (2): 0.5𝐺 − 0.45𝑅 = 0.9725𝑃
𝐺 = 42,298.01 𝑙𝑏/ℎ𝑟
𝑅 = 38,868.9 𝑙𝑏/ℎ𝑟
The recycle rate for this process is 38,868.9 𝑙𝑏/
ℎ𝑟
Observe that without recycle, the feed rate must be 5.37 times
larger than with recycle to produce the same amount of
product.
 Assignment
1. Two methanol-water mixtures are contained
in separate tanks. The first mixture contains 40.0
wt% methanol and the second contains 70.0
wt% methanol. If 200 kg of the first mixture is
combined with 150 kg of the second, what are
the mass and composition of the product?
2. A labeled flowchart of a continuous steady-state two-
unit distillation process is shown below. Each stream
contains two components, A and B, in different
proportions. Three streams whose flow rates and/or
compositions are not known are labeled 1, 2 and 3.

Calculate the unknown flow rates and compositions of

streams 1, 2, and 3.
3. A liquid mixture containing 30.0 mole% benzene (B),
25.0% toluene (T), and the balance xylene (X) is fed to a
distillation column. The bottom product contains 98.0 mole%
X and no B, and 96.0% of the X in the feed is recovered in this
stream. The overhead product is fed to a second distillation
column. The overhead product from the second column
contains 97.0% of the B in the feed to this column. The
composition of this stream is 94.0 mole% B and the balance
T.
Calculate
a. the percentage of the benzene in the process feed (i.e. the
feed to the first column) that emerges in the overhead
product from the second column.
b. the percentage of toluene in the process feed that
emerges in the bottom product from the second column.