Introduction to Chemical Engineering

Dr. Krishna Chauhan, Faculty of Technology, Dharmsinh Desai University

Material balance

• Material balance is the application of conservation law:

“Matter is neither created not destroyed.”
• Application of material balance:
Mass input = Mass output + Mass accumulation

M1
M3 M4
M2

M1 + M2 = M3 + M4
Total mass input (M) = M1 + M2
When fraction of streams (z) are specified then
M1 = z × M and M2 = z × M
Type of systems

• System: It is arbitrary portion of or a whole process that one want to consider for analysis. System
could be anything like pipe, reactor, pump, a storage tank etc...

• Closed system: A system from where material neither enters nor leave the boundary.

• Open system: A system from where the material is flowing across the boundary.

100 kg/h
Open system
1000 kg 1000 kg
water water
Closed system

80 kg/h
Steady and unsteady state system

Steady state system unsteady state system

100 kg/h 100 kg/h

1000 kg 1000 kg
water water

100 kg/h 80 kg/h

 Batch, Continuous and Semi-batch Process

Continuous process Batch process Semi-batch process

M1 kg M2 kg/h
M1 kg/h M1 kg
Systematic approach for material balance

1. Draw a simple schematic diagram of the process showing all the physical and chemical
changes

2. List all variables and relevant data like flowrate, temperature, pressure composition etc.

3. Study the flow diagram and develop necessary relationships.

4. Solve the relationships to obtain missing data.

Their will four major aspects:

• Input
• Output
• Process
• System boundaries
Basis

• Basis is the fixed value with respect to which all further relations are resolved.

• All other variables, parameter will be relative to the basis

• Always basis is to be specified before solving the material balance problem

• For batch process: input quantity or output quantity will be selected as basis

• For continuous process: total mass flowrate would be considered as basis.

 Material balance on distillation column

M2
• A
• B
• C
Distillation
column

M1
• A
• B
M3
• C
• B
• C
 A feed stream is flowing at a mass flowrate of 100 kg/min. The stream contain 20 kg/min
NaOH and 80 kg/min of water. The distillate flows at 40 kg/min and contain 5 kg/min
NaOH. Determine bottom stream mass flowrate and mass fraction.

D = 40 kg/min
• MND = 5 kg/min
• MWD = ?
• xED = ?
• xWD = ?
Distillation
column

F = 100 kg/min
• MNF = 20 kg/min
• MWF = 80 kg/min
B=?
• xEF = ?
• MNB = ?
• xWF = ?
• MWB = ?
• xEB = ?
• xWB = ?
A mixture containing 10% ethanol and 90% water by weight is to fed into a distillation column at a
rate of 100 kg/h. The distillate contain 60% ethanol and the distillate is produced at a rate of 1/10th
of feed. Draw a well labelled process and calculate the flowrate of all unknown streams, mass
flowrate of each component in all streams and composition.

D = 1/10th F = ?
• MED = 60 % D
• MWD = ?
• xED = ?
• xWD = ?

Distillation
column
F = 100 kg/h
• MEF = 10 % F
• MWF = 90 % F
B=?
• xEF = ?
• MEB = ?
• xWF = ?
• MWB = ?
• xEB = ?
• xWB = ?
Task

A 100 kg/h mixture of benzene and toluene containing 50 % benzene by mass is

separated by distillation in two fractions. The mass flowrate of benzene in top
stream is 45 kg/h and toluene in bottom is 47.5 kg/h. The operation is steady state.
Calculate the unknown quantity.
 Two methanol-water mixture are mixed in a stirred tank. The first mixture contains 40
% methanol and second stream contain 70 % methanol. If 200 g/s is combined with 150
g/s of stream what will be the mass and composition of product?

S1 = 200 g/s S2 = 150 g/s

• Mm1 = 40% • Mm2 = 70%
• Mw1 = ? • Mw2 = ?
• xm1 = ? • xm2 = ?
• xw1 = ? • xw2 = ?

S3 = ?
• Mm3 = ?
• Mw3 = ?
• xm3 = ?
• xw3 = ?
 Strawberry contain 15 % (w/w) solids and 85 % (w/w) water. The crushed strawberry and sugar
are mixed in 4/5 mass ratio and mixture is heated to evaporate water. The jam contain 1/3rd water
by mass. Calculate the amount of strawberry required to make 100 g of jam and amount of water
evaporated.

Ssu = ? Sw = ?
• xsu = 1 • xw = 1

Sst = ?
• Msst = 15 %
• Mwst = 85 %

Sj = 100 g
• Mjw = 1/3rd (w/w)