CHAPTER 4

MASS BALANCE

4.1 Conservation of Mass

Conservation of mass is one of the most fundamental principles in nature. We are all familiar with this
principle, and it is not difficult to understand. As the saying goes, you cannot have your cake and eat it
too! A person does not have to be a scientist to figure out how much vinegar-and-oil dressing is
obtained by mixing 100 g of oil with 25 g of vinegar. Even chemical equations are balanced on the
basis of the conservation of mass principle. When 16 kg of oxygen reacts with 2 kg of hydrogen, 18 kg
of water is formed (Figure 1). In an electrolysis process, the water separates back to 2 kg of hydrogen
and 16 kg of oxygen.

Figure 1. Mass is conserved even during chemical reactions

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For closed systems, the conservation of mass principle is implicitly used by requiring that the mass of
the system remain constant during a process. For control volumes, however, mass can cross the
boundaries, and so we must keep track of the amount of mass entering and leaving the control
volume.

4.2 Mass and Volume Flow Rates

The amount of mass flowing through a cross section per unit time is called the mass flow rate and is
denoted by . For incompressible flow or even for compressible flow where ρ is uniform across Ac,
is defined as;

Here ρ is the fluid density, Ac is the cross-sectional area of flow, and Vavg is the average flow velocity
normal to Ac.

The volume of the fluid flowing through a cross section per unit time is called the volume flow rate
(Figure 1) and is given by,

Figure 1. The volume flow rate is the volume of fluid flowing through a cross section per unit time.

The mass and volume flow rates are related by;

where v is the specific volume.

4.3 Mass Balance Principle

The mass balance is the conservation of mass principle. For a control volume, it can be expressed as:
The net mass transfer to or from a control volume during a time interval ∆t is equal to the net change
(increase or decrease) in the total mass within the control volume during ∆t. That is,

or,

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where is the change in the mass of the control volume during the process
(Figure 2). It can also be expressed in rate form as;

where and are the total rates of mass flow into and out of the control volume, and dmCV/dt is
the time rate of change of mass within the control volume boundaries. Above equations are often
referred to as the mass balance and are applicable to any control volume undergoing any kind of
process.

Figure 2. Conservation of mass principle for an ordinary tank

4.4 Mass Balance for Steady-Flow Processes

During a steady-flow process, the total amount of mass contained within a control volume does not
change with time (mCV = constant). Then the conservation of mass principle requires that the total
amount of mass entering a control volume equal the total amount of mass leaving it.

When dealing with steady-flow processes, we are not interested in the amount of mass that flows in or
out of a device over time; instead, we are interested in the amount of mass flowing per unit time, that
is, the mass flow rate . The conservation of mass principle for a general steady-flow system with
multiple inlets and outlets can be expressed in rate form as (Figure 3),

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 Figure 3. Conservation of mass principle for a two-inlet–one-outlet steady-flow system

It states that the total rate of mass entering a control volume is equal to the total rate of mass leaving
it. For single-stream steady-flow systems, the conservation of mass principle can be expressed in rate
form as;

4.5 Special Case: Incompressible Flow

The conservation of mass relations can be simplified even further when the fluid is incompressible,
which is usually the case for liquids. Canceling the density from both sides of the general steady-flow
relation gives,

For single-stream steady-flow systems it becomes,

It should always be kept in mind that there is no such thing as a “conservation of volume” principle.
Therefore, the volume flow rates into and out of a steady-flow device may be different.

Example 1: A garden hose attached with a nozzle is used to fill a bucket. The inner diameter of the
hose is 2 cm, and it reduces to 0.8 cm at the nozzle exit (Figure 4). If it takes 50 s to fill the bucket with
water, determine (a) the volume and mass flow rates of water through the hose, and (b) the average
velocity of water at the nozzle exit.

Figure 4. Schematic for Example 1

Solution: A garden hose is used to fill a water bucket. The volume and mass flow rates of water and
the exit velocity are to be determined.
Assumptions: 1) Water is an incompressible substance. 2) Flow through the hose is steady. 3 There is
no waste of water by splashing.
Properties: We take the density of water to be 1000 kg/m3 = 1 kg/L.

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Analysis: (a) Noting that water are discharged in 50 s, the volume and mass flow rates of water are,

(b) The cross-sectional area of the nozzle exit is

The volume flow rate through the hose and the nozzle is constant. Then the average velocity of water
at the nozzle exit becomes

Discussion: It can be shown that the average velocity in the hose is 2.4 m/s. Therefore, the nozzle
increases the water velocity by over six times.

Example 2: Define mass and volume flow rates. How are they related to each other?

Solution: Mass flow rate is the amount of mass flowing through a cross-section per unit time whereas
the volume flow rate is the amount of volume flowing through a cross-section per unit time.

Example 3: Does the amount of mass entering a control volume have to be equal to the amount of
mass leaving during an unsteady-flow process?

Solution: The amount of mass or energy entering a control volume does not have to be equal to the
amount of mass or energy leaving during an unsteady-flow process.

Example 4: When is the flow through a control volume steady?

Solution: Flow through a control volume is steady when it involves no changes with time at any
specified position.

Example 5: Consider a device with one inlet and one outlet. If the volume flow rates at the inlet and at
the outlet are the same, is the flow through this device necessarily steady? Why?

Solution: No, a flow with the same volume flow rate at the inlet and the exit is not necessarily steady
(unless the density is constant). To be steady, the mass flow rate through the device must remain
constant.

4.6 Basic Principles in Food-Processing Operations

Mass balance is statement on the conservation of mass. If the unit operation, whatever its nature is
seen as a whole it may be represented diagrammatically as a box, as shown in Figure 5. The mass
going into the box must balance with the mass coming out.

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 Figure 5. Mass Balance

The law of conservation of mass leads to what is called a mass or a material balance.

Mass In = Mass Out + Mass Stored

Raw Materials = Products + Wastes + Stored Materials.

(where Σ (sigma) denotes the sum of all terms).

If there are no chemical changes occurring in the plant, the law of conservation of mass will apply also
to each component, so that for component A:

For example, in a plant that is producing sugar, if the total quantity of sugar going into the plant is not
equalled by the total of the purified sugar and the sugar in the waste liquors, then there is something
wrong. Sugar is either being burned (chemically changed) or accumulating in the plant or else it is
going unnoticed down the drain somewhere. In this case:

where mAU is the unknown loss and needs to be identified. So the material balance is now;

where Losses are the unidentified materials.

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The first step is to look at the three basic categories: materials in, materials out and materials stored.
Then the materials in each category have to be considered whether they are to be treated as a whole,
a gross mass balance, or whether various constituents should be treated separately and if so what
constituents. To take a simple example, it might be to take dry solids as opposed to total material; this
really means separating the two groups of constituents, non-water and water. More complete
dissection can separate out chemical types such as minerals, or chemical elements such as carbon.
The choice and the detail depend on the reasons for making the balance and on the information that is
required. A major factor in industry is, of course, the value of the materials and so expensive raw
materials are more likely to be considered than cheaper ones, and products than waste materials.

4.7 Basis and Units

Having decided which constituents need consideration, the basis for the calculations has to be
decided. This might be some mass of raw material entering the process in a batch system, or some
mass per hour in a continuous process. It could be: some mass of a particular predominant
constituent, for example mass balances in a bakery might be all related to 100 kg of flour entering; or
some unchanging constituent, such as in combustion calculations with air where it is helpful to relate
everything to the inert nitrogen component; or carbon added in the nutrients in a fermentation system
because the essential energy relationships of the growing micro-organisms are related to the
combined carbon in the feed; or the essentially inert non-oil constituents of the oilseeds in an oil-
extraction process. Sometimes it is unimportant what basis is chosen and in such cases a convenient
quantity such as the total raw materials into one batch or passed in per hour to a continuous process
are often selected. Having selected the basis, then the units may be chosen such as mass, or
concentrations which can be by weight or can be molar if reactions are important.

Mass and energy balances are needed in the planning and designing of food processes, and
engineering analysis. Many complex food processing operations can be simplified by using the
principles of mass and energy balances. Many questions can be answered such as how much raw
materials are required, how much finished products and waste are generated, and how much energy
is needed or to be removed. Process analysis consists of mass and energy balances and the solution
of these balances. In the designing of food manufacturing facilities, cooling and heating requirements,
size of equipment, raw material requirement, based on the production rate of various products to be
manufactured, are needed. These are calculated by mass and energy balances of various processes
needed in the manufacturing of a product. Before mass and energy balances, various unit operations
required to manufacture a product should be worked out. Mass and energy balances can be
performed for a unit operation, for a process section, for any equipment or for entire manufacturing
process. To solve complex problems, many mass and energy balances equations are needed.

4.8 Mass Balances with various Streams

Generally food and bioprocesses involve recycle, bypass and purge streams (Figure 6). In such
problems, several mass balances are needed to calculate all the unknowns. Separate total mass
balances can be performed on each unit operation, as well as component mass balances can also be
undertaken to generate many mass balance equations. In recycle processes a flow stream is returned
to an earlier stage in the processing sequence. To solve such problems, the equations are set up with
the recycle flows as unknowns. Recycled stream is used [3] in some processes to (i) increase the yield
from the process by recycling untreated materials, (ii) reduce the inlet concentration of a component
by diluting the component, and (iii) reduce energy consumption by recycling high temperature exit
streams. The recycle ratio is generally defined as the mass ratio of recycle to fresh feed. Purge is
bleeding off a portion of a recycle stream to prevent built up of unwanted material. Bypass is used to
control stream composition or temperature. In bypass, part of the flow stream is diverted around some
unit operation.

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Figure 6. Various streams of material flow encountered in food processing (a) recycle, (b) bypass, and
(c) purge streams.

Various physical processes are;

 Distillation
 Evaporation
 Humidification
 Drying
 Dilution
 Crystallization
 Filtration

Example 6: This example is provided for steady state mass balances:

Total mass balance: I = W + C

Example 7: 100 kg of skim milk is prepared by the removal of some of the fat from whole milk. This
skim milk is found to contain 90.5% water, 3.5% protein, 5.1% carbohydrate, 0.1% fat and 0.8% ash. If
the original milk contained 4.5% fat, calculate its composition of original milk. Assuming that fat only
was removed to make the skim milk and that there are no losses in processing.

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Solution: 100 kg of skim milk. This contains, therefore, 0.1 kg of fat. Let the fat which was removed
from it to make skim milk be x kg.

and as it is known that the original fat content was 4.5% so,

So the composition of the whole milk is then fat=4.5 %, water=90.5/104.6=86.5 %,

protein=3.5/104.6=3.3 %, carbohydrate=5.1/104.6=4.9 % and ash=0.8 %.

Example 8: If 35,000kg of whole milk containing 4% fat is to be separated in a 6 hour period into skim
milk with 0.45% fat and cream with 45% fat, what are the flow rates of the two output streams from a
continuous centrifuge which accomplishes this separation?

Solution: 1 hour's flow of whole milk

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Mass in:

Mass out: Let the mass of cream be x kg then its total fat content is 0.45x. The mass of skim milk is
(5833 - x) and its total fat content is 0.0045 (5833 – x).

Mass balance on fat:

So that the flow of cream is 465 kg / hr and skim milk (5833 – 465) = 5368 kg/hr

Example 8: A solution of common salt in water is prepared by adding 20 kg of salt to 100 kg of water,
to make a liquid of density 1323 kg/m3. Calculate the concentration of salt in this solution as a (a)
weight fraction, (b) weight/volume fraction, (c) mole fraction, (d) molar concentration.

(a) Weight fraction:

20 / (100 + 20) = 0.167: % weight / weight = 16.7%

(b) Weight/volume:
A density of 1323kg/m3 means that l m3 of solution weighs 1323kg, but 1323kg of salt solution
contains

(20 x 1323 kg of salt) / (100 + 20) = 220.5 kg salt / m3

1 m3 solution contains 220.5 kg salt.

Weight/volume fraction = 220.5 / 1000 = 0.2205

And so weight / volume = 22.1%

c) Moles of water = 100 / 18 = 5.56

Moles of salt = 20 / 58.5 = 0.34

Mole fraction of salt = 0.34 / (5.56 + 0.34) = 0.058

d) The molar concentration (M) is 220.5/58.5 = 3.77 moles in m3

Note that the mole fraction can be approximated by the (moles of salt/moles of water) as the number
of moles of water are dominant, that is the mole fraction is close to 0.34 / 5.56 = 0.061. As the solution
becomes more dilute, this approximation improves and generally for dilute solutions the mole fraction
of solute is a close approximation to the moles of solute / moles of solvent.

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In solid / liquid mixtures of all these methods can be used but in solid mixtures the concentrations are
normally expressed as simple weight fractions.

Example 9: This problem illustrates how a mass balance calculation can be used to check the results
of an air pollution monitoring study. A fabric filter (bag filter) is used to remove the dust from the inlet
gas stream so that outlet gas stream meets the required emission standards in cement, fertilizer and
other chemical industries.

During an air pollution monitoring study, the inlet gas stream to a bag filter is 169920 m 3/h and the dust
loading is 4577 mg/m3. The outlet gas stream from the bag filter is 185040 m3/h and the dust loading is
57 mg/m3.

What is the maximum quantity of ash that will have to be removed per hour from the bag filter hopper
based on these test results?

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Example 10: Air enters a nozzle steadily at 2.21 kg/m3 and 30 m/s and leaves at 0.762 kg/m3 and
180 m/s. If the inlet area of the nozzle is 80 cm2, determine (a) the mass flow rate through the nozzle,
and (b) the exit area of the nozzle.

Solution: Air is accelerated in a nozzle. The mass flow rate and the exit area of the nozzle are to be
determined.

Assumptions: Flow through the nozzle is steady.

Properties: The density of air is given to be 2.21 kg/m3 at the inlet, and 0.762 kg/m3 at the exit.
Analysis (a) The mass flow rate of air is determined from the inlet conditions to be

(b) There is only one inlet and one exit, and thus m1=m2=m. Then the exit area of the nozzle is
determined to be

Example 11: A hair dryer is basically a duct of constant diameter in which a few layers of electric
resistors are placed. A small fan pulls the air in and forces it through the resistors where it is heated. If
the density of air is 1.20 kg/m3 at the inlet and 1.05 kg/m3 at the exit, determine the percent increase
in the velocity of air as it flows through the dryer.

Solution:

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Example 12: Air enters a 28-cm diameter pipe steadily at 200 kPa and 20°C with a velocity of 5 m/s.
Air is heated as it flows, and leaves the pipe at 180 kPa and 40°C. Determine (a) the volume flow rate
of air at the inlet, (b) the mass flow rate of air, and (c) the velocity and volume flow rate at the exit.

Solution: Air flows through a pipe. Heat is supplied to the air. The volume flow rates of air at the inlet
and exit, the velocity at the exit, and the mass flow rate are to be determined.

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Example 13: Air enters a nozzle steadily at 2.21 kg/m3 and 30 m/s and leaves at 0.762 kg/m 3 and 180
m/s. If the inlet area of the nozzle is 80 cm2, determine (a) the mass flow rate through the nozzle, and
(b) the exit area of the nozzle.

Solution: Air is accelerated in a nozzle. The mass flow rate and the exit area of the nozzle are to be
determined.

Assumptions: Flow through the nozzle is steady.

Properties: The density of air is given to be 2.21 kg/m3 at the inlet, and 0.762 kg/m3 at the exit.

Analysis (a) The mass flow rate of air is determined from the inlet conditions to be

b) There is only one inlet and one exit, and thus

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Then the exit area of the nozzle is determined to be

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