Material Balances

SFS5321 ELEMENTS OF FOOD ENGINEERING

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 1. Processes and systems
• A process is a series of operations that causes physical and/or chemical
changes in a substance or a mixture of substances.

Types of processes (modes of operation)

at t0
1) Batch process: no mass flows across the system
boundaries between the time of feeding (t0) and at tB
harvesting (tB).
Feed
2) Continuous process: constant feed of raw
materials and withdrawal of products. Output

3) Semi-batch or semi-continuous process: with

intermittent feed and/or output.

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1. Processes and systems
• A system can be considered for the whole or part of a process around which a
system boundary can be drawn, and all the processes and materials inside this
boundary belong to the system and those outside are surroundings of the
system.

• Types or states of systems

– Steady-state system: All system properties are kept constant with time.
– Unsteady-state or transient system: All or some system properties
vary with time.

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1. Processes and systems

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1.1. Processes involving Recycle/Bypass

• Recycle stream in a process is a flow of material that returns to an upstream

point from a downstream point in the process.

Fresh feed (F) Product (P)

Mixer Process
Separator

Recycle(R)

• Bypass stream is a flow of material that skips one or more stages of the
process and goes directly to another stage.
Bypass(B)

Fresh feed (F) Product (P)

Process Mixer
Separator

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 1.1. Processes involving Recycle/Bypass
1.1.1. Recycle and bypass in wastewater treatment plant

Mixing point

Recycle
Bypass

Q: Find out the recycle and bypass streams in other processes and tell why they are used.

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2. Material Balance Concepts
• Conservation of mass and energy is the law of nature: mass and energy can neither
be created nor destroyed. This is the basis of Material (mass) balances and Energy
balances in process engineering.

• Consider an arbitrary process system ,

1
Process 3
Inputs System Outputs
2 4

Input = mass of materials added or fed to the system (feeds);

Output = mass of materials withdrawn from the system (products);
Accumulation = change of material mass within the system.

For conservation of mass, Input  Output = Accumulation

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2. Material Balance Concepts
• For a steady-state system, all process variables/quantities in the system remain
constant with time; the total mass of material does not change with time, i.e. no
accumulation within the system. The mass balance equation for steady-state systems is
given by

Input = Output

Notes on material balance equations

1) After the system boundary is set, only the streams leaving and entering the system
(border crossing) should be considered;

2) Include (add) all input or output streams (if there are more than one);

3) In most cases, the input or output is a flow rate of moles or mass;

4) If the material is a mixture, the eq. applies to both the mixture as a whole and the
individual components. 17

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2. Material Balance Concepts
Mixture composition expressions

• Percentage:
– Mass percent: wt% or % by mass
– Mole percent: mol% or % by mole
– Volume percent, v/v, vol% or % by volume (for low pressure gases, mol% = vol%)

• Dry basis and wet basis composition

For mixtures containing water, e.g.,
– Air humidity: kg water/kg dry air (dry basis);
– Water content in solid: kg water/kg dry solid (dry basis), or
given percent of water in the solid (wet basis).

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2. Material Balance Concepts
Application of material balance equations
For example, the liquid volume in a container VL (vol) is related to the feed rate
F (vol/h) and discharge rate D (vol/h) by,

FD dVL
dt F

In steady state, the liquid volume does not Liquid

change with time, dVL/dt = 0, so that vol.=V L

F=D
(Input = output)
D

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3.1. Important steps for solving material balance problems
1. Draw a flow diagram of the process;
2. List the known terms and the terms to be determined; organize these terms
in a table if there are many;
3. Choose a convenient basis of calculation (total mass or mole);
4. Find the quantitative relationships among the terms, consider these
relationships when setting up the balance equations;
5. Check for dimensional consistency of equations (mass or mole, total or rate);
6. Write the calculations in neat form.

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3.2. Strategies for solving material balance problems
1) Understand the process composition and material flows.
2) Identify the material relationships and set up balance equations:
• Identify which stream or component remains constant or unchanged
from input to output;
• For mixing or separation processes, find out where the components
of mixture go or stay.

3) For multi-unit processes, chose a system with most stream quantities

given and with the fewest unknown variables, so as to utilize the given
conditions and to solve with one or two simple equations.

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3.3. Choose the basis of calculation
1) If a stream amount or flow rate is given in a problem statement, it is
usually most convenient to use it as a basis of calculation.

2) If no stream amounts or flow rates are given, assume one. In this case,
chose the amount of a stream with a known composition:

¾ If mass fractions or percents are known, choose 1 kg or 100 kg of the

mixture as the basis;

¾ If mole fractions or percents are given, choose 1 mole or 100 mole of

the mixture as the basis.

3) For one system, you can only specify one stream as the basis, and then
all the others will be fixed proportionally

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4. Solving Material Balance Problems
Material balance for preparation of solution
Preparation of solutions is a common lab procedure in many fields. As shown below,
solution preparation can be considered a typical case of material balance (a typical
mixing process).

Ex. 1 You are required to prepare 1 L 10 M H2SO4 solution using 500 mL 5 M H2SO4
solution and a 20 M H2SO4 solution plus water. Determine the volume of 20 M H2SO4
and water needed (MWt of H2SO4 = 98).

Solution 1 Solution 2 Water Final solution

0.5 L, 5 M V2, 20 M V3, 0 M 1 L, 10 M

H2SO4: 0.5 L u 5 M + V2 u 20 M + V3 u 0 M = 1 L u 10 M
V2 = 0.375 L = 375 ml (20 M H2SO4)

Total vol: 0.5 + V2 + V3 = 1 L, V3 = 125 ml (water)

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4. Solving Material Balance Problems
A food process situation
Ex. 2. Mixing of pork (15% protein, 20% fat and 63% water) and back fat
(15% water, 80% fat and 3% protein) to make 100 kg of a mixture containing
25% fat. Find the amounts of pork and back fat needed (Toledo, 2007).

P (20% fat)
Mixer M = 100 kg
B (80% fat) (25% fat)

Solution:
Balance on whole: P + B = M =100, so that P = 100 - B (1)
Balance on fat: P (20%) + B(80%) = 100 (25%) (2)
(100-B) (20%) + B (80%) = 25 B = (25-20)/(0.8-0.2) = 8.33 kg
P = 100-8.33 = 91.67 kg

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4. Solving Material Balance Problems
A separation process

Ex.3 Desalination of seawater to water suitable for human or agricultural uses is a vital
operation in many parts of the world.

The typical salt content of seawater and the maximum salt content of drinking water:

Type of water Water (wt%) Salt (wt%)

Seawater 96.5 3.5

Portable water > 99.5 < 0.5

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 4. Solving Material Balance Problems
Ex. 3 Desalination of Seawater
• An ideal process: separate seawater into pure water and salt

Seawater Water 96.5

Separator
100 kg/min kg/min
96.5% H2O
Brine 3.5 kg/min
3.5% salt

• A more realistic process: find out the output flow rates of water and brine waste.
Seawater Water ? kg/min
F Feed Separator W
100 kg/min 0.05% salt
96.5% H2O
3.5% salt B Brine 7.0% salt
? kg/min
Solution:

F = B + W,
Salt input = salt output: F(3.5%) = B(7%)+(F-B)(0.05%), B = 49.64 kg/min
F = 100 kg/h, then W = 50.36 kg/min
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4. Solving Material Balance Problems

Ex.4 Process with recycle. Seawater is to be desalinized by reverse osmosis

using a scheme as indicated in the following diagram. All the composition
values represent wt%.
Brine recycle (R)

Sea water 4% salt Brine waste (B)

Reverse osmosis
F=1000 kg/h 5.25% salt
3.1% salt

Desalinized water (D)

0.05% salt
With the data specified in the diagram, determine
(a) The rate of desalinized water production.
(b) The rate of brine recycle.

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4. Solving Material Balance Problems
Ex. 4 Solution
• Step 1 Balance on the whole process

Sea water 4% salt Brine waste (B)

Reverse osmosis
F=1000 kg/h 5.25% salt
3.1% salt

Total: F=D+B Desalinized water (D)

0.05% salt
Salt: F(3.1%) = D(0.05%) + B(5.25%)
Therefore: F(3.1%) = (F-B)(0.05%) + B(5.25%)
B (5.25-0.05)% = F(3.1-0.05)%, B = 586.5 kg/h
The rate of desalinized water production: D = 1000-586.5 = 413.5 kg/h

• Step 2 Balance (on brine) at the mixing point of F and R

R(5.25%) + F(3.1%) = (F+R)(4%), so that R (5.25-4) = F(4-3.1) = 1000 (0.9)

The rate of brine recycle: R = = 720 kg/h

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 5. Common separation processes in food processing
• “Unit operationsȿ is a conventional term used in chemical engineering for various
separation processes. The use of this term is partially because,

1) Each unit operation is regarded as a separate and distinct step or unit in the whole
process.

2) A given unit operation has the same principle(s) and basic operation(s) for different
applications.

• Separation processes may be aimed at concentration, fractionation or purification

of a product.

• In addition to the unit operation processes, other common operations in the process industry
include fluid transportation, heat exchanging and agitation (mixing).

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5.1. Mechanical separation processes
• Mechanical separation processes: separations based on size and/or density
differences of the mixture components, mainly for separation of solid from
liquid. Two major processes:

1) Filtration: separation of solid particles in a fluid (solid suspension or

slurry) by passing the fluid through a filtering medium, or septum, on
which the solids are deposited. (Equipment: filter)

2) Centrifugation or centrifugal separation: separating materials of

different densities (commonly solids in liquid) by centrifugal force.
Equipment: centrifuges.

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5.1. Mechanical separation processes

• Filtration versus Centrifugation:

1) Filtration, based on particle size.
Centrifugation based on density difference.

2) Filters are usually simpler and cheaper than centrifuges.

3) Centrifuges can be used for particles which are difficult to filter,
e.g. very small and compressible ones.

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5.2. Evaporation
• Evaporation is to concentrate a solution by vaporizing and
removing part of the solvent (mostly water) and to separate a
volatile solvent from a non- volatile solute.
- In most evaporation processes, the
liquid solution is heated to boiling
A vertical
by steam. evaporator
- In most evaporators, solution flows
through tubes and steam flow
outside the tubes.

• Food processing applications:

Concentrated milk, fruit juice concentrates, sugar
production, manufacture of jams, jellies.

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 5.2.1 Single-Effect Evaporation

Vapor (V)

Feed (F)
Evaporator
Steam (S) Concentrated
liquid (L)

Condensate (S)
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5.2.1 Single-Effect Evaporation

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 5.2.1 Heat Transfer in Single-Effect Evaporators

y Basic design equation:

where q = heat transfer from the steam to the feed

U = the overall heat transfer coefficient
A = constant

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1. Mass Balance in Single-Effect Evaporators

z Overall Balance:

F L V

z Solute (solids) Balance:

FxF LxL

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5.2.2. Multiple Effect Evaporation
T1>T2>T3, P1>P2>P3 67 eC
77 eC
102 eC, 0.28 bar
1.1 bar 0.42 bar

T1 P1 T2 P2 T3 P3

110eC

Fig. A Triple-effect Evaporator (1 bar = 105 N/m2 = 750 mm Hg)

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 5.2.2. Multiple Effect Evaporation

¾ Economy = mass of water evaporated / mass of steam used

¾ The number of effects used in a multiple effect system is determined by the

savings in energy consumption compared with the higher capital investment
required, and the provision of increasingly higher vacuum in successive
effects.

¾ In most applications, 3-6 effects are used.

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5.3. Crystallization

• Crystallization: the formation of solid particles within a homogenous

phase, mostly in a liquid solution. Crystallization usually occurs at
late stage of product processing, after which the crystal product is
dried and ready for packaging and sale.

• To crystallize the solute in a liquid solution, the solution is first

concentrated to supersaturation, mostly through either of the following
two ways or their combination in a crystallizer:
(1) Cooling, for solutes with a solubility increasing rapidly with T;
(2) Evaporation, for solutes with solubility independent of T.

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5.3. Crystallization

A common crystallization process:

[Mother liquor: saturated solution in which the crystals form;
Magma: two-phase mixture of crystals and mother liquor]

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5.4. Drying of solid (dehydration)
• Drying is to remove the moisture content of a material, usually water
(moisture) from a solid (for dehydration of solid).

• Common drying method/process: the solid to be dried is brought into

contact with a stream of hot air/drying air, which vaporizes the water in the
solid and carries away the water vapor.

Input air (low humidity H1) Output air (higher humidity H2)
Dryer
Wet solid (high moisture X1) Dry solid (low moisture, X2 )

Material balances: (1) water removed from solid = water gain in dry air
(2) water free-dry solid in = water free-dry solid out
(3) dry air in = dry air out

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 5.4. Drying of solid (dehydration)
Example:
A solid is dried from 80% to 5% moisture (wt%) in a dryer. The drying air enters the
dryer with a moisture content of 0.002 kg water/kg dry air and leaves at 0.2 kg water/kg
dry air. For 100 kg/h of solid fed to the dryer, calculate the mass flow rate of dry air fed
to the drier and that of air leaving the dryer.

Solution:
Input air (low humidity H1) Output air (higher humidity H2)
X kg/h, Y kg/h,
Moisture content = 0.002 kg Moisture content = 0. 2 kg
water/kg dry air water/kg dry air
Dryer
Wet solid (high moisture X1) Dry solid (low moisture, X2 )
F=100 kg/h, L kg/h
Moisture content = 80% Moisture content = 5%

Let the mass flow rate of (1) input air (dry air) be X kg/h,
(2) output air be Y kg/h and
(3) dry solid be L kg/h.

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5.4. Drying of solid (dehydration)
Solution (Continuous):

Material balance on dry solid:

Amount of water free-dry solid in = Amount of water free-dry solid out
100 kg/h ൈ (1-80%) = L kg/h ൈ (1-5%)
L = 21.053
i.e. Mass flow rate of dried solid = 21.053 kg/h
Material balance on water:
Amount of water removed from solid = Amount of water gained in dry air
100 kg/h ൈ 80% - L kg/h ൈ 5% = X kg/h ൈ (0.2-0.002) kg H2O/kg dry air
X = 398.7
i.e. Mass flow rate of input (dry) air = 398.7 kg/h
Mass flow rate of output air = Mass flow rate of input air + amount of water gained
= Y kg/h
= 398.7 kg/h + 78.947 kg/h
= 477.7 kg/h

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5.5. Distillation or fractional distillation
• Distillation is the separation of components in a liquid mixture by a process
involving partial vaporization. The separation of constituents is based on
differences in volatility (or vapor pressure, boiling point).

• Uses in Food processing: concentrate essential oils, flavors, alcoholic beverages,

and odor removal from fats and oils.

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5.6. Membrane Processes
Membrane separation is the use of a semipermeable membrane as a barrier
which only allows certain molecules to pass through.

5.6.1. Dialysis
• Dialysis is the removal of small solute molecules from a liquid with a membrane which
allows for the small solutes but not large molecules to diffuse through. On the other side of
the membrane is another liquid, the dialysing liquid, which contains lower concentrations
of the small solutes.

Q: Find out the applications in food processing:

(i) Removal of alcohol from beer

(ii) Selective deminearlization of whey and whey products
(iii) Removal of flavour compounds from lipids
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5.6. Membrane Processes
5.6.2. Reverse osmosis
• Reverse osmosis (RO) is the use of a high pressure to force the flow of
solvent (e.g., water) molecules in the reverse direction of osmotic pressure.

• Applications: water purification, dewatering and the separation of

components in a mixture. Examples: production of milk-based products,
dewatering of sugar solution, concentration of antibiotics, desalination (of sea
water) and wastewater treatment.

Process example: desalination of sea water by RO

Seawater pretreatment Reverse RO water

processes osmosis to post-treatment
HPP

m suspended
(Microorganisms, Brine disposal
Brine concentrate
solids, organic/inorganic matters)

http://www.lenntech.com/desalination/general/reverse-osmosis-desalination-process.htm

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5.6. Membrane Processes
5.6.3. Ultrafiltration
• Ultrafiltration (UF): the separation of macromolecules (polymers) such as proteins
with molecular weights 1000-50,000 or higher. High-pressure process, up to 145 psi
(10 bar).
• Separation mainly based on the size of molecules: membrane acting as a “molecular
filter” and its pore size controls the molecules to pass through.
• The solvent and small solute molecules pass through the membrane, collected as
permeate; larger solute molecules not passing thru membrane are recovered in a
concentrated solution as retentate.

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Study guide for separation processes
For each of the separation/unit operation processes:

1) Try to use one sentence to define the process

(what to separate/process and how the separation is achieved).

2) The major material(s) involved and/or being processed and their role

(e.g. solution, vapor and steam in evaporation).

3) The major types of equipment: name, mechanical structure and operation.

4) Major applications of the process in food processing

(e.g. for which food product)

5) Use a simple flow chart to show each of the separation process including the
major process unit and input and output streams.

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