MASS TRANSPORT

In this section, we will discuss the transport of different species in a

multicomponent system. Later, we will take the axiom that mass of every
species is conserved to obtain the convective diffusion equation.
Definitions
For multicomponent mass transport, we define the following terms for a
diffusing mixture which has 1,2,3,4........Ncomponents.
1. The mass concentration
Mass concentration of a component "i" in the mixture is defined as the mass
of component "i" per unit volume of the mixture.

where, mi is the mass of component i , VT is the total volume of the

mixture, and
is the mass concentration. It may be noted that mass
concentration of the component i is not the density of the same component
but has the same unit as density, i.e., mass per unit volume. The mass
concentration of the mixture
and given by

, may also be calculated in similar manner

or

which is also happened to be the density of the mixture. The mass fraction
of component "i" , wi, may be defined as

2. The molar concentration

Molar concentration of the component "i" is defined as the moles of
component i per unit volume of the mixture, i.e.,

where Mi is the moles of component "i" , VT is the total volume of the

mixture, and ci is the molar concentration. Thus, the molar concentration of
the mixture, c, is given by

or

or

The mole fraction of component i, xi, may be defined as

We may also relate the molar concentration to mass concentration, as

follows

where Mwi is the molecular weight of component "i".

3. Average velocities
In a diffusing mixture, the components are moving at different velocities
due to the mass transfer of components from higher concentrations to
lower concentrations. We may define the average velocities of the mixture
in two different ways.
1. The mass average velocity
Mass average velocity is the actual velocity of a fluid which may be
measured by experimental methods. The mass average velocity of a
mixture is defined as

or

where

is

and
respectively.

the

mass

average

velocity

of

the

mixture

are the velocity of components 1,2,3,------N

2. The molar average velocity

the molar average velocity is based on the molar concentration of species.
It is a hypothetical velocity which can not be determined from experiments.
It is defined as,

or

where

represents the molar average velocity of the mixture

4. The diffusion velocities

The diffusion velocities are the relative velocities of components with
respect to mass or molar average velocity of the mixture. These may be
calculated as

or

5. Fluxes
Fluxes are defined as the mass or molar flow of any species per unit area,
per unit time. The fluxes are differentiated as mass and molar fluxes, and
based on the relative movement of the observer. Details of various types of
fluxes are given in the following table.
Table. 34.1 Type of fluxes

Six mass or molar fluxes in the above table are related to each other.
However, two such relationships are very important for the solution of the
mass transfer problems and are derived below
(1) The absolute mass flux in terms of the convective and diffusive
mass fluxes
If
is the velocity of component i and
the mixture. We may write,

Multiplying Equation (34.9) with

is the mass average velocity of

, we have

Or

Or

In Equation (34.10) term

represents the convective mass flux of

component i due to bulk transport and the term

represents the
diffusive mass flux of component i. The above equation may also be
rewritten as shown below

Since

is the mass fraction of component i, wi, we have

Or

(2) The absolute molar flux in terms of the convective and diffusive
molar fluxes

If

is the molar velocity of component i and

is the molar average

velocity of the mixture, we may write,

Multiplying Equation (34.13) by

In Equation (34.14) The term

component i and the term
component i. Thus,

, we have

represents the convective molar flux of

represents the diffusive molar flux of

Or

where xi is the mole fraction of component i in the mixture. Equation

(34.12) and Equation (34.16) are commonly used for solving many simple
mass transfer problems.

Ficks law of diffusion

The Ficks law of diffusion is widely used for describing the diffusive fluxes in
terms of gradient of concentration. To understand the Ficks law of diffusion,
consider a thin silica porous plate of area A and thickness H as shown in Fig.
35.1. Initially at t<0 , the both surfaces of the plate are kept in contact with
the air. After at time t=0 , the lower plate is suddenly brought in the
environment of Helium of mass fraction
out-side the upper plate is

, such as

. If the concentration of Helium

then Helium will start to diffuse across the plate with mass flux

Fig 35.1 Mass transfer in a thin porous silica plate at t =0

After the system has reached a steady state, for a particular value
of

, mass flux of Helium

repeated for different values of

If
is plotted against
passing through a origin, i.e.,

or

is measured. The experiment may be

and each time

is measured.

, we find that we have a straight line

where
is the density of mixture and DAB is the diffusion of A (Helium)
in B (silica). The Equation (35.3) is known as the Ficks law of diffusion. It
may be written in vector and tensor form that may be applied to any
coordinate system, i.e.,

The detail form of Fick's law in all coordinate systems are given in Appendix
-7
Since diffusive fluxes are the relative fluxes, it implies that

or for a binary system

where relative flux for species B may be defined as

Thus, from Equations (35.4), (35.5) and (34.6), we obtain

It may be shown that if Equations (35.4) and (35.6) is the Fick's law of
diffusion in terms of mass fluxes then The following expressions are
mathematically equivalent in terms of molar fluxes, i.e.,

and

where c is the total concentration of the mixture and

and
are the
mole fractions of components A and B respectively. If c is constant, then we
can further modify Equation (35.8) as

Limitations of Ficks law

Ficks law of diffusion as defined above is applicable for a binary system and
It may not be valid for a multicomponent system. To understand this,
consider a system where a component A has to diffuse in the mixture of
components A ,Band C. Thus, Ficks law of diffusion, if applicable, may be
written for species A as follows

or

where DAM represents the diffusivity of species A in the mixture of B and C.

Since, the concentrations of B and C may have different values, the diffusion
coefficient DAM may not be a constant. In this case, the diffusivity may be a
function of concentrations of A, B and C. However, if the concentrations in
the mixture are nearly constant, then DAMmay be a constant. In this case,
the Ficks law may be applied. For example, if methane is diffusing through
air, which is a mixture of Oxygen and Nitrogen, then we may use Ficks law
of diffusion, as the composition of air is constant.

Second limitation of Ficks law is that it considers only the concentration

gradients as the driving force for mass transport. Since, the real driving
force in mass transport is the chemical potential (which may also include
pressure differences, temperature and electrical gradients), the form of
Ficks law as given in Equation (35.8) may not be valid. In such cases, the
Ficks law may be in the extended in terms of gradients of chemical potential
but again only for binary systems. To get better solution for a multicomponent system, the Stefan Maxwell equations may be preferred. (Please
refer to any mass transfer book for Stefan Maxwell equation and extended
form of Ficks law of diffusion)
Equation of continuity for a multicomponent mixture
Now, we apply the Axiom 5, "The mass of each species in a mixture is
conserved" to obtain the equation of continuity for a multicomponent
mixture. The system considered is a volume element xyz, fixed in space
through which the fluid mixture is flowing as shown in Fig. (35.3). The
mixture contains the species i where i=1,2,3,4.......n

Fig 35.3 fixed control volume with mass transfer

Following the axiom, we may write mass balance for a species i in the
control volume as given below

If
represents the mass concentration of component i and
the velocity then Equation (35.13) may be rewritten as

Dividing Equation (35.14) by

as x, y, and z 0, we obtain

the

volume xyz and

represents

taking

limits

The Equation (35.15) may be written in the vector and tensor form which
may be used for any coordinate system, i.e.,

or

Equation (35.16) is the equation

multicomponent mixture. Now, we
all i=1,2,3.4.....n, i.e.,

of continuity for species i in a

write the Equation (35.16) for

for
1:

species

for
2:

species

for species
n:

Adding all these equation, we obtain

Since, the mass is conversed in the chemical reactions, The write hand side
in above equation is zero and we obtain

which is the same equation of continuity as we had derived earlier in the

fluid mechanics. We may also write the equation of continuity for species i in
the molar concentration units by dividing Equation (35.19) by the molecular
weight of component i, Mwi , i.e.,

or

where ci is the mole concentration of species i.

is the molar flux of
species i and Ri is the rate of generation of component i due to chemical
reactions in molar units. We may again write the equation of continuity for
all components as shown below

By adding all these equation, we obtain

The right hand side of the above equation, some terms may be negative and
others are positive. Since, the moles are conserved in a chemical reaction,
we have

Thus, we do not see an equation of continuity in terms of molar

concentration, c.
Convective-diffusion equation for a binary system
The equation of continuity, Equation (35.16) may be further modified for
binary systems by substituting the following equation for mass flux .
If A and B are the two components of a binary mixture,

or

where

, is the absolute flux of component A,

component A and
difussive flux,
given below.

is

the

convective

flux

is the diffusive flux of

ofA.

Furthermore,

the

, may be calculated by using the Fick's law of diffusion as

The equation of continuity for component A in the binary mixture is given

by

Thus,

or

If density of the mixture

is a constant,which may be a reasonable
assumption in the mass transfer for dilute liquids solutions, the value
of

is zero and we may modify the Equation (36.5) as shown below

Further, if DAB is a constant, then

or

The Equation (36.8) is called the convective diffusion equation. The

corresponding equation for species B has a similar form. This equation may
be used for describing the mass transfer in a binary system with constant
mixture density
and diffusivity DAB. The Equation (36.8) for all coordinate
systems is given in Appendix-8. This Equation may be further extended in
terms of molar units by dividing Equation (36.8) by the molecular weight of
component i,Mwi, or

The Equation (36.9) is also valid for the same cases where density p and
diffusivity DAB are constants. The detail form of Equation (36.9) in all
coordinate systems are given in Appendix - 8.

If we compare Equation (36.8) to the equations of motion and the thermal

energy, we note the following
Equation of motion:

Equation of thermal energy:

Equation of continuity for binary systems:

All three equations written above are similar in form. These equations show
the similarities among momentum, heat, and mass transport and one
should not be surprised to find that many times the friction factor may be
used for calculating the heat and mass transfer coefficients. It may be
noted that the term (/ ) present in the Navior Strok equation is called the
momentum diffusivity and the term (k/ cp) present in the equation of
thermal energy is called the thermal diffusivity. These terms also show the
analogy with mass diffusivity DAB as they all have the same units as c.m.2/
sec.
Solution of mass transport problems
It is clear from Equations (36.8) and (36.9) that first we need to determine
the velocity profile from the equation of motion and then substitute it in
these equations to determine the concentration profiles. This may be
avoided for some special cases where the following three classical
assumptions are applicable.
(1)Equimolar counter diffusion

For a binary mixture of A and B, number of moles of species A moving in

one direction is equal to the number of moles of species B moving in the
opposite direction, we have

also

or

Thus,

The value of
is known from Fick's law of diffusion and therefore
Equation (36.15) may be used for determining concentration profiles
(2) A diffusing through stagnant B
The species A diffuses through a stagnant species B. In this case, the flux of
species B is zero, i.e.,

Thus, the total flux of species A may be written as

or

By substituting Equation (36.17) in the equation of continuity, we get

Which again may be solved for determining the concentration profile

(3) The ratio NA/NB is constant
Here, the ratio fluxes of both species is known to be a constant, i.e.,

or

where c1 is the number of moles of species B which are moving with every
mole of the species A. Thus, total flux of species A may be written as

or

Thus, the equation of continuity for species A may be modified as

Once again, the Fick's law of diffusion may be substituted for

to finally
obtain a differential equation in terms of concentration and there is no need
to first determine the velocity profile

Boundary Conditions in mass transport

To solve simple mass transport problems, we need to solve the equation of
continuity for each component of the mixture. The resulting differential
equations may be further simplified by using the classical assumptions.
When these differential equations are integrated, the constants of
integration appear which will have to be determine by using suitable
boundary conditions. Depending on the problem, the following boundary
conditions may be applicable.
1. The concentration or flux may be specified at a boundary, for example

or
2. The fluxes are equal at interfaces.

For example,

In addition to this, a second boundary condition is required. It may be

noted that at an interface, the concentrations may not be equal as was the
case for velocities in the momentum transport and temperatures in the heat
transports. The region for the this is that the driving forces in mass
transport are the chemical potential . Thus,

It may be used as second boundary condition at the interface.

3. The mass transfer coefficient at a system boundary may be specified. For

example,

where NA0 is the molar flux of species A, CA0 is the concentration of

species A at the system boundary and CAb is the known concentration in the
surrounding fluid. Here, Kc, is the mass transfer coefficient and must be
known a priori. This boundary condition is similar to the convective
boundary condition used earlier in heat transfer.
Now, we solve some simple mass transport problems for a binary system.
Diffusion of A through a stagnant gas B
Consider a system shown in Fig. 37.1 where liquid A is evaporating into a
non-diffusing gas B. At steady state, the partial pressure of species A at
gas-liquid interface is given as PA1 while the partial pressure of species A at
the top of vessel is given as PA2. The liquid level in the vessel is maintained
at z=0. Here, the mole fraction of speciesA at liquid gas interface may be
evaluated by using Raoults law or

where
system.

, is the saturation pressure and P is the total pressure in the

Fig 37.1 Diffusion through a stagnant gas

Assumption
1. Steady state
2. Mass transport in x and y directions are negligible. Thus, NAz, is the only
non-zero component of the flux
3. Density
and diffusivity DAB are constants.

4. No chemical reaction-taking place in the system

We start with the equation of continuity for component A , i.e.,

By applying assumptions (1) to (4), Equation (37.2) may be simplified as,

After integration, we get

where c1 is an integral constant.

The NAz, may be calculated as

where yA is the mole fraction of A in the gas column in the vessel.

Because B is stagnant, the flux of species B ,NBz , is zero. Thus, Equation
(37.5) may be simplified as

or

By substituting the Ficks law of diffusion in Equation (37.6), we get

where I is assumed the total concentration of the mixture, c, is constant.

Thus, by integrating Equation (37.7), we obtain

where c2 is another integration constant.

Equation (37.8) may be written in the terms of partial pressures as

The Boundary conditions are

at
,

and at
,

By using above boundary condition from Equation (37.9), we obtain

and

or

Finally, we get the concentration profile for component A as

Tapered tube problem

Now, we consider a slightly different problem where the vessel wall in
above
problem
are
tapered
as
shown
in
Fig.
37.2.
Therefore, NAx and NAy may not be equal to zero as was assumed earlier.
Here, we use the concept of averaged concentration across the cross
section of the vessel and assume that it is a function of z only. Note, the
cross sectional area of the vessel is changing. Similar types of arguments
were used earlier to simply the problem of heat transfer in a rectangular
fin. Once again, we start with the shell mass balance instead of the
equation of continuity to solve the problem.

Fig 37.2 Diffusion through a taper tube

We write shell balance
thickness z , i.e.,

on

component A over

where s is the cross sectional area of the vessel.

By taking the limit z going to zero, we have

control

volume

of

and after integration, we obtain

or

Here, NAz is the average mass flux of component A over the cross section of
the tube. The cross section area smay be calculated as a function of z. After
substituting this function in Equation (37.15), remaining part may be solved
in a similar way as before.

Separation of Helium from natural gas

Diffusivity of Helium in Pyrex glass is very high in comparison to the other
gases. Because of this, Pyrex glass tubes can be used for separation of
Helium from natural gas. Suppose a natural gas mixture is flowing in the
Pyrex tube with dimension as shown in Fig . 38.1. Obtain an expression for
the rate at which Helium will separate out in terms of diffusivity of Helium
through the wall of Pyrex tube, the interfacial concentration of Helium in the
Pyrex tube wall and dimensions of the tube.

Fig 38.1 Separation of He from natural gas by Pyrex tube

Assumption
1. Steady state.

2.
3.
4.
5.

Transportation of helium takes place by diffusion only.

Diffusion in z and directions are negligible.
Diffusivity of Helium in Pyrex DHe-pyrex is a constant.
No reaction takes place in the system.

Starting with the equation of continuity, we have

Here, A represents the Helium and B represents the Pyrex wall. By using
assumption (1), (3) and (5), the above equation in cylindrical co-ordinate
system simplifies to

After integration of Equation (38.2), we obtain

where C1 is a integration constant. Also NAr may be calculated as,

Since the transport of Helium takes place only by diffusion, we may neglect
the convective term in Equation (38.4), or

By substituting the Ficks law of diffusion in Equation (38.5), we get

or

Integrating of Equation (38.7) once again, we obtain

where C2 is another integration constant. The boundary conditions for this

problem are
at
,

and at
,

using these boundary conditions, we obtain

or

Similarly, C2 may be found. Thus, from Equation (38.3) and Equation (38.4),
we get

The flow rate of Helium diffusing through Pyrex tube may be calculated as

x surface area of Pyrex tube

or

Solution of mass transport 3 nahi kiye

Part -2 Solution of external mass transfer using film theory model

Here, we take the external mass transfer problem, disused earlier in the
previous lecture. The problem is the coupling of the internal and external
mass transfer problems due to the common boundary conditions at the
surface of the catalyst particle. Here, we take a simple external mass
transfer problem where it is decoupled from internal mass transfer by
assuming instantaneous reaction at the surface of the non porous catalytic
particle. Assume an instantaneous reaction 2A A2 is taking place on the
catalyst surface. Further, we assume that a stagnant fluid film surrounds
each catalyst particle. Component A must diffuse through this film to reach
the catalyst surface, where the above reaction occurs. It may be noted that
the assumption of a stagnant film is a reasonably accurate assumption for
turbulent flows, where the concentrations are uniform outside the film due to
good mixing provided by the turbulence. The film thickness () decreases as
the flow becomes more and more turbulent. For /R<<1, we may further
neglect the curvature effects and assume a flat surface, where the condition
are as shown in Fig. (40.1).

Fig 40.1 External mass transfer through fluid film up to catalyst

surface
Assumption
1. Both components diffuse only in the z direction. Thus, component of
fluxes Nx and Ny are zero.
2. System is at steady state.
3. Diffusivity of A in A2, DAA2, is constant.
The equation of continuity for component A may be written as follows

Applying assumptions (1) to (3), we obtain the following simplified form of

equation of continuity

which may be further simplified as

where C1 is an integration constant. Further, NAz may be obtained as

and after substituting the Ficks law of diffusion, we get

At steady state, we have

By substituting the value of Equations (40.4) and (40.5) in the Equation

(40.3), we obtain

or

Equations (40.3) and (40.6) may be combined to give

Integrating above equation, we finally obtain

where C2 is another constant of integration. Since the

instantaneous, we have the following two boundary conditions,

reaction

is

at

and
at

By applying the above boundary conditions, we may determine the

constants of integration C1 and C2. Thus, the mass transfer rate is given by

Slow chemical reaction:

The previous problem may also be solved when the reaction 2A A2 is a
slow reaction at the outer surface of the catalyst particle. Let the rate of
disappearance of component A be proportional to the surface concentration
of component A. In this case, the second boundary condition given above
may be modified as shown below.

Which leads to the solution

The expression given in Equation (40.12) is a transcendental equation

for NAz and may require numerical techniques for determining NAz for the
given values of xA0, c, DAA2 and . For the case where k1 is very large,
Equation (40.12) reduces to the solution given in Equation (40.10) for
instantaneous reactions.
Leaching of a component from a spherical particle
A spherical particle contains a compound A that is to be leached out by a
solvent B. The concentration of A in the bulk stream is cA at surface of
particle is cAS which is the saturation concentration of A in B. Assume the
solvent B is flowing over the spherical particle under turbulent flow
conditions. As before, we may assume a stagnant film of thickness around
the spherical particle through which A is leached out into the bulk stream.
Furthermore, if we neglect the curvature effects this problem reduces to a
problem as shown in Fig 41.1. Determine the rate of leaching.

Fig 41.1 Mass transfer through a stagnant liquid film

Assumption
1. steady state.
2. Mass transfer is only by diffusion.
3. B is stagnant.
4. Diffusivity of A in B, DAB is a constant.
5. Mass transport in x and y directions are negligible
6. No reaction taking place.

Using assumption (1) to (6), the equation of continuity for this system may
be simplified as

But here, total flux of A may be written as

Since NBz is zero and the transport of component A takes place only by
diffusion, we may neglect the convective term in Equation (41.2), or

Substituting the Ficks law of diffusion in Equation (41.3), we get

From Equations (41.1) and (41.4), we obtain

and after integration, we have

The integration constants C1 and C2 may be determined by using the

following boundary conditions.
at

and
at

Using above boundary conditions, we obtain

and

Finally, the concentration profile along the z direction is given by

The leaching rate may be calculated as

A slightly better solution of above problem may be found by not neglecting

the convective term in Equation (41.2), i.e.,

or

= constant

After applying the Ficks law of diffusion, we get the expression

and after integration of Equation (41.14), we find

or

Equation (41.15) is subjected to the boundary conditions given in Equations

(41.7) and (41.8) which finally gives the leaching rate as

and the concentration profile as

Conclusions:
In this web course on transport phenomena we have derived the basic
equations of heat, mass, and momentum transfer. These equations involve
solution of partial differential equations. However for steady one
dimensional flow of heat, mass and momentum transfer under laminar flow

conditions, these equations reduce to simple ordinary differential equations

which may be solved easily. On the other hand, for unsteady or two or three
dimensional flows, and other complicated problems one needs to solve the
partial differential equations involving more than one independent variable.
There are many analytical techniques such as the method of similarity
transform, Laplace transform, and Fourier transform which may be tried for
solution of these partial differential equations. In places where these
techniques cannot be applied, the numerical techniques may be tried. To
keep this course simple for undergraduate students, these techniques are
not included here in this course.
Finally, it is emphasized that though we have derived all basis equations for
describing mass, momentum, and heat transport, these equation become
more and more complicated as we move from laminar flow condition to
turbulent flow conditions. The reason for this was explained earlier when we
discussed laminar and turbulent flows in Lecture. So, even when the
intuition points to one dimensional flow, such as turbulent flow in a pipe, all
components of velocities are present and these velocities are also a function
of time. Therefore, none of the terms in these equations can be dropped, as
was the case when we were trying to find the solution of the same problems
under laminar flow conditions. Fortunately, there is a way out of this
difficulty which involves taking the time average of these equations by
which all linear terms in these equation retain the same form.
Unfortunately when we take the time average, the convective terms in
these equations produce addition quantities called turbulent fluxes which
than have to be specified in terms of time averaged velocities,
temperatures, or concentrations. The main simplification of this approach is
that the intuition which led to simplifications for laminar flows may work and
some solution may be obtained for turbulent flow problems. Many theories
such as the Prandtls mixing length and K-e theory have been used to
predict these turbulent fluxes. Keeping in mind that this web course is
designed for undergraduate students, the solution of turbulent flow
problems is completely avoided and may be taken up in more advanced
courses.