CHAPTER 3

PROCESS DESIGN AND SAFETY

3.1 Safety
3.2 Case study on process design and safety
3.3 Chemistry and separations
3.4 Unit ratio material balance
3.5 Detailed flow sheet
 Course Outcome

Ability to explain and identify process design

and safety.
3.4 UNIT RATIO MATERIAL BALANCE

3.5 DETAILED FLOW SHEET

 Process Classification
Chemical processes can be classified as batch,
continuous or semi-batch and as either transient or
steady state
Batch process is one in which the feed is charged into
the system at the beginning of the process, and the
products are removed all at once some time later
Continuous process is when the inputs and outputs
flow continuously across the boundaries throughout
the duration of the process.

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 Semi-batch process is a process in which its inputs
are nearly instantaneous but the outputs are
continuous or vice versa
If the values of all process variables in a process do
not change with time, the process is said to be
operating at steady state. If any changes with time,
transient or unsteady state operation exists

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 One of the main responsibilities of chemical
engineers is to create/construct/ analyse chemical
processes (or, at least, to understand the existing
processes)
The layout of a chemical process is called process
flow sheet (PFS) or process flow diagram (PFD)
PFS or PFD can be for just a single process unit or for
the whole process, either simple or complicated
process.

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Examples of PFS or PFD

PFD for a water-softening by ion-exchange process

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PFD for Ammonia Synthesis Plant
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Normally, a PFS or a PFD comprises:
All major process equipments/units
Lines entering or leaving the process/unit and/or
lines connecting two or more process
equipments/units (these lines are called streams)
Flow rate of each stream
Composition of each stream
operating conditions of each stream and/or
unit/equipment (e.g., T, P)
Energy/heat needed to be added to and/or removed
from any particular part of the process or the entire
process
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Some important symbols of process equipments

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Material Balance Equation
Material balance are based on :
Law of Conservation of Mass
The law states that mass can neither be
created nor destroyed
Material balance equations are the
manifestation of the law
TOTAL MASS INPUT = TOTAL MASS OUTPUT
The design of a new process or analysis of
existing one is not complete until it is
established that the inputs and outputs of the
process satisfy the material balance equation.
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 Material Balance Equation
Suppose methane, is a component of both input and
output of a process

qin(kg CH4/h) Process qout(kg CH4/h)

unit
If the flow rates of input and output are found to be
different. Possible explanations are .
1. methane is leaking
2. methane is consumed or generated in a reaction
3. methane is accumulating in the process vessel
4. wrong measurement
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 General Material Balance Equation
A balance on a material in a process system may be
written as:
Input + generation - output - consumption = accumulation
The equation may be written for any material that
enters or leaves any process system
It can be applied to the total mass or total moles of this
material or to any atomic species involved in the process

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EXAMPLE: The General Balance Equation
Each year 50,000 people move into a city, 75,000 people
move out, 22,000 are born, and 19,000 die.
Write a balance on the population of the city.
SOLUTION Let P denotes people:
Input + generation - output - consumption = accumulation

Each year the city's population decreases by 22,000 people.

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 Two types of balances may be written for any
system;
differential balances and
integral balances

Differential balances indicate what is happening in a

system at an instant of time. Each term is a rate and
has a unit of quantity unit per time
Integral balances describe what happens between two
instant of time. Each term of the equation is an
amount of the quantity with a corresponding unit

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 Balances on Steady- State Processes
The process is said to be operating at steady-state
when all process variables do not change with time.
The accumulation term in a balance must equal to
zero to ensure that the amount/mass of material in
the process do not change with time
STEADY STATE means ACCUMULATION = 0

Input + generation - output - consumption = 0

Input + generation = output + consumption

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 The generation and consumption terms are
applied only when chemical reaction is
involved
if there is no reaction,
Input =output

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Balances on Steady- State Continuous Processes
(Continuous Distillation Process)
One thousand kilograms per hour of a mixture of benzene (B) and
toluene (T) containing 50% benzene by mass is separated by
distillation into two fractions. The mass flow rate of benzene in the
top stream is 450 kg B/h and that of toluene in the bottom stream is
475 kg T/h. The operation is at steady state. Write balances on
benzene and toluene to calculate the unknown component flow
rates in the output streams.
450 kg B/hr
q1 (kg T/hr)

500 kg B/hr
500 kg T/hr
Distillation
475 kg T/hr
q2 (kg B/hr)

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no reaction,
rate of input = rate of output
450 kg B/hr
q1 (kg T/hr)

500 kg B/hr
500 kg T/hr
Distillation
475 kg T/hr
q2 (kg B/hr)

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 EXAMPLE: Balances on a Batch Mixing Process
Two methanol-water mixture are contained in separate
flasks. The first mixture contains 40 wt % methanol, and
the second contains 70% methanol. If 200 g of the first
mixture are combined with 150 g of the second, what are
the mass and composition of the product.

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Flowchart
Draw a flowchart of the process, using boxes or
other symbols to represent process units
(reactors, mixers, separation units, etc.) and lines
with arrows to represent inputs and outputs.
100 mols/hr C2H6

2100 mols/hr
2000 mols/hr Air
0.0476 mol C2H6/ mol

0.21 mol O2/ mol 0.200 mol O2/ mol

0.79 mol N2/ mol 0.752 mol N2/ mol

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 The chart must be fully labeled with values of known
variables at the locations of the streams

For example a stream containg 21 mole % O2 and

79%N2 at 320C and 1.4 atm flowing at a rate 400
mol/h might be labeled.

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 the total amount or flow rate of the stream and the
fractions of each component,

Or directly as the amount or flow rate of each

component.

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 Assign algebraic symbols to unknown streams [such as
(kg solution/min), x (lbm N2/lbm), and n (kmol C3H8)]
and write their associated units on the chart

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 When labeling component mass or mole fractions of a
stream the last one must be 1 minus the sum
of the others.
If you are given that the mass of stream 1 is half that of
stream 2, label the masses of these streams m and 2m
rather than ml and m2;
if you know that there is three times as much nitrogen (by
mass) in a stream as oxygen, label the mass fractions of
O2 and N2 y(g O2/g) and 3y(g N2/g) rather than yl and y2.

If a volumetric flow rate of a stream is given, convert to

mass or molar flow rate since balances are not normally
written in volumetric quantities
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 Degree of Freedom Analysis
Draw and label flow chart
Count the unknown variables on the flow chart, nunknowns
Count the independent equations relating them, nindep eqns
ndf = nunknowns - nindep eqns
If ndf = 0, the problem is solvable
If ndf>0, the problem is underspecified, need to provide
more information/equations.
If ndf0, the problem is overspecified, more equations
than unknowns, redundant and possibly inconsistent
information.

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 An experiment on the growth rate of certain organisms requires
an environment of humid air enriched in oxygen. Three input
streams are fed into an evaporation chamber to produce an
output stream with the desired composition.
A: Liquid water, fed at a rate of 20.0 cm3/min
B: Air (21 mole% O2, the balance N2)
C: Pure oxygen, with a molar flow rate one-fifth of the molar
flow rate of stream B. The output gas is analyzed and is found to
contain 1.5 mole % water. Draw and label a flowchart of the
process, and calculate all unknown stream variables.

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 Flowchart Scaling and Basis of Calculation
The procedure of changing the
values of all stream amounts or
flow rates by a proportional
amount while leaving the stream
compositions unchanged is
referred to as scaling the flow
chart.
Scaling up: if the final stream
quantities are larger than the
original quantities,
Scaling down: if they are
smaller.

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 Suppose you have balanced a process and the
amount or flow rate of one of the process streams
is n1.
You can scale the flowchart to make the amount
or flow rate of this stream n2 by multiplying all
stream amounts or flow rates by the ratio n2/n1.

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 It is desired to achieve the same separation with a
continuous feed of 1250 lb-moles/h. Scale the
flowchart accordingly.
The scale factor is:

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Before scaling

After scaling

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Material balance on single unit
process
General Procedure for Material Balance Calculations
1. Choose as a basis of calculations an amount or flow rate of one of
the process streams
2. Draw a flowchart of the process. Include all the given variables
on the chart and label the unknown stream variables on the chart
3. Write the expressions for the quantities requested in problem
statement
4. Convert all mass and molar unit quantities to one basis
5. Do the degree of freedom analysis. For any given information
that has not been used in labeling the flowchart, translate it into
equations in terms of the unknown variables
6. If nDF = 0, write material balance equations in an order such that
those involve the fewest unknowns are written first
7. Solve the equations and calculate the additional quantities
requested in the problem statement
8. Scale the quantities accordingly 35
 Example :An aqueous solution of NaOH contains 20%
NaOH by mass. It is desired to produce an 8% NaOH
solution by diluting a stream of 20% solution with a
stream of pure water.
Calculate the ratios (liters H2O/kg feed solution) and (kg
product solution/kg feed solution).

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NaOH balance (input = output).

Total mass balance (input = output).

Ratios requested in problem statement.

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