Intro to Chemical and Biological Engr0.

5
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Energy Balances
If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.
—Nikola Tesla

Rationale
When we learned material balances, we were able to track the movement of chemical species throughout a
system or process.
Another important aspect of process analysis is the determination of the energy
requirements and temperatures around systems. For instance, how can we maintain a consistent
temperature in a reactor if the reaction inside is exothermic? How much energy do we need to add to a
process stream to move it to some new temperature?

Important nomenclature
A closed system is one in which there is a fixed volume or space and no streams entering or leaving the
system.
An open system is one in which there are streams entering and leaving. These streams can add or remove
material and energy from a system.
An adiabatic process is one in which there is no heat added or removed from the system.
An isothermal process is one in which the system stays at a constant temperature. Heat may need to be
added or removed to maintain this condition.

First law of thermodynamics for closed systems

Δ�=�+�
where

� = total energy of the system (units of energy)

heat transferred from the environment to the
system through the boundaries of the volume
� =
(units of energy) over the interval of time during
which E changes
� = work done on the system by the environment
 (units of energy) over the interval of time during
which E changes
Typical units for these energy terms are
 erg and calorie (cal) in the cgs system
 Joule (J) in the SI system
 British thermal unit (Btu) in the American system
‘Direction’ of heat and work
If work is done on a system, energy is utilized to provide that work, and the result is an increased energy
within the system.
Similarly, if heat passes across a system boundary into a system, it likewise shows up as increased energy
within the system.
Consistent with this idea is the convention in this course that � and � have a positive sign if they add
energy to the system.

More symbols we need to know

Recall that a ‘dot’ over a symbol means a rate (quantity per unit time).
For example, �˙ means a mass per unit time in units such as g/s.
We now introduce a ‘hat’ over symbols. This represents a quantity per unit mass. This is often called
a specific quantity.
For instance �^ is the specific energy (or energy per unit mass). Units in this case are something like J/g.
First law of thermodynamics for open systems
For a steady-state open system, our conservation law becomes
∑outputstreams(�˙�^)���−∑inputstreams(�˙�^)��=�˙+�˙
where

mass flow rate of a stream (units of mass per

�˙ =
time)
�
^
= energy per mass of a stream of flowing material
rate of transfer of energy across the boundaries
�˙ = of a system into that system (units of energy
per time)
rate that work is done on a system (units of
�˙ =
energy per time)
Typical units for these rate of energy transfer terms are
 erg per second (erg/s) and calorie per second (cal/s) in the cgs system
 Joule per second (i.e., Watts) (J/s=W) in the SI system
 British thermal unit per hour (Btu/hr) in the American system
There are three forms of energy that we will consider (expressed per mass of material):
 internal energy
 kinetic energy
 potential energy