Mass Balance 1

(KKEK 1123 Chemical Process Principles 1)

1st Semester, 2015/16 Session

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA

Motivation / Background
What to start with?

How to sort out this mess?

Recipe to make chocolate

What is the growth rate of the

cakes?

Malaysian population?

What to buy for DIY skate

We add fresh water to a fish

boards?

pond and remove some dirty

water. How much is enough to
maintain the oxygen level in the
pond?

How much budget to allocate

for refugees?

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

Learning outcomes
At the end of this class, you should be able to
Choose a suitable
basis for calculations

Derive the general

mass balance equation

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

Picking a basis of calculation

A basis reflects the size of

Example: we want to know

the process

how much A, B and C to

produce a product. What is a
good basis?

It is convenient to pick an

easy basis, e.g.

one cake
100 moles of reactant
1 tonne of product
1 person
1 week

C
A

Process

Product

1 tonne of A

1 mole of B

100 tonnes of C

1 mole of Product

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

continued
Often we also pick whatever
given as the basis because
the given numbers are

Find the other flow rates:

100 mol/h A

convenient enough

Basis:

it is not required to consider

other sizes, e.g. we are only

interested in this case, not a
general case

Examples:
Process

Product

Do the C, N and P balance

for a given park. Monthly data

for the fertilizer applied and
waste collected are available.
Basis: 1 hectare?

Basis: 1 month?
Basis: 1 kg C?

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

Common use of basis

To determine or compare unit production cost.

e.g. How much to produce 1 ton of something?

To scale-up or scale-down the flowsheet.

e.g. If we have results for 1 ton of product, what are the numbers
for 2000 ton/day?
0.2 t C
0.5 t A

Process
0.7 t B

?C
1 t product

?A

Process
?B

2000 tpd
product

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

1. Control volume = where to focus

Suppose we are interested
in the changes in the mass
of water in an aquarium:

Pick a volume that will capture

the item of interest

This is called the
control volume

Water in

Avoid picking a volume that

changes in shape or size

Consider ALL inlet and outlet
Water out

streams that cross the boundaries

of the control volume only

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

2. Rate of accumulation
Accumulation = ?
= change, i.e. final initial

Question: accumulation
over how much time?
e.g. you accumulate RM1k

Example:
control volume: your bank

account
accumulation of wealth =

final sum starting sum

Over 1 year? Over 1 day?

Rate of accumulation:
better reflects the situation

Must accumulation > 0?

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

10

continued
For a general quantity Q
that changes with time t,
what is its rate of
accumulation at any given
time?

Clearly, if t is large, we get only

an average rate of accumulation

In general, the rate of

accumulation of a quantity Q at any

instant is given by

Q2

Q
Q1
t

time t

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

11

3. What decides rate of accumulation?

In-class activity

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

12

4. Application to mass balance

For a given control volume:
Rate of accumulation of mass of a chemical species S =

Rate of accumulation of the total mass =

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

13

5. Steady or unsteady state?

Mathematically, steady
state occurs when

Steady state = conditions in

the control volume do not

change with time
Unsteady state = conditions

in the control volume change

with time
Q

Classic application: how

Steady state

Unsteady state

Time

does this apply to the mass

balance of a species S not
involved in any chemical
reactions?

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

14

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

15

Test yourself
A cylindrical tank contains 3.3 m
deep of concentrated HCl
solution. The internal diameter
of the tank is 9.0 m, and the
overflow line is 6.5 m from the
base of the tank.
Feeding rate of the same HCl
solution into the tank is at 48
m3/h continuously.
When the HCl is transferred to
the road tanker, the pump down
rate is 30 m3/h.

Questions:

1. If no road tankers come

to take the HCl solution,
how many more hours are
left before the tank
overflows?

2. When one road tanker

is taking the HCl, how fast
will the tank level change?

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

16

Solution
Always helpful if you
sketch out the problem:

Basis of calculation:

Control volume:
Assumption:
What to balance?

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

17

solution (continued)
Let
V = volume of HCl in the tank (m3)
A = cross sectional area of the tank (m2)
= density of HCl (kg/m3)

Case 1: no tanker coming

Overall mass balance gives

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

18

solution (continued)
Case 2: when one tanker is drawing out the HCl
Overall mass balance:

Going through the same route, we obtain a reduced rate of rise of

the liquid level:

The tank will still overflow,
it just takes a longer time.
What to do?

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

19

Summary
Basis of calculation
sets
the size of the process

For a chosen control volume:

Overall mass balance (as rates):

Accumulation = in out
Species mass balance (as rates):

Accumulation = (in out) + (gen con)

At steady state:
Rate of accumulation = 0

Pick a convenient basis!

Dr. Yeoh Hak Koon 2015

20