Material Balances for Single-Stage,

Non-Reacting Systems

Objective

Our main objective is to use the laws of conservation of mass to determine

the material requirements of a process. This will be achieved using
material balance calculations.

The material balance

A balance can be written for any conserved quantity (e.g. mass, mass of
a particular species, energy, momentum etc.) and the general balance
equation has five terms. The balance equation must be set up for a
system, the boundaries of which must be carefully defined.

For example: Each year 50,000 people move into the city of Greater
Manchester (the system), 70,000 people move out, 22,000 are born and
23,000 die.

What is the system and where are its boundaries?

What is the annual change in the population of Greater Manchester?

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Chemical Engineering October 2012, CHEN10040
and Analytical Science Alastair D. Martin
 In solving this problem we used the general balance equation:

Enters Leaves Produced Consumed Build up

through the through the within the within the within the
system system system system system
boundaries boundaries boundaries boundaries boundaries

This is the only equation need to solve material balance problems. In most
cases we can eliminate some of the terms in the equation. Consider
Wk2Q15 in the problem book. If we assume that there is no reaction in the
distillation column we can eliminate the consumption and generation terms.
We also assume that the process is steady state, so that there is no
accumulation.

In addition the way that we set up the material balance will depend on how
the process is operated. For example in Wk2Q15 in the problem book, we
do not start with a given amount of material as there is a continuous flow
of feed. In contrast for Wk2Q16 no material is added or removed during
the process (a batch process). Clearly the balance equation in each case
is quite different.

For Wk2Q15 we will use balance equations on the rates of flow of material
(e.g. rate of input etc). This is called a differential balance. Differential
balances are used for continuous processes. For Wk2Q16 we will use
balance equations between two instants in time. We will thus be balancing
the amount of the conserved quantity between the beginning and the end
of the operation. This is called an integral balance. Integral balances are
used for batch operations.

Clasification of process operations

Continuous Operation: All materials enter and leave continuously

throughout the operating period.

Batch Operation: Materials are put in at a certain time, the process takes
place for some time and the materials are then removed.

Semi-batch: Also known as Semi-continuous, Open batch, batch fed. Tis

definition covers all possibilities other than Continuous and Batch.

Steady State: A process operation can be considered to be operating at

steady state if all process variables (i.e. flowrates, compositions,
temperatures and pressures of all streams) do not change with time.

Transient: All operations in which any process variable changes with time
on other words process that is not Steady state.

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Chemical Engineering October 2012, CHEN10040
and Analytical Science Alastair D. Martin
 Material balance for a simple continuous process

In Wk2Q15 the process is continuous and steady state. The balance

equation can be simplified to:

Let subscripts and denote ethanol and water and second subscripts ,
and denote feed, distillate and waste streams respectively. Thus
is the mass fraction of ethanol in the feed etc.

Before we can set up the material balance we must define the system. We
do this simply by drawing its boundaries on the flow diagram.

D
0.85 ethanol
0.15 water

2500 kg/h
0.35 ethanol
0.65 water

W
0.05 ethanol
0.95 water

The balance equation will consider the mass within the system. We only
need to consider the flow of material across the system boundary, and we
can write differential material balances equations for the total mass, ethanol
(E) and water (W).

Total mass (1)

Ethanol (2)

Water (3)

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Chemical Engineering October 2012, CHEN10040
and Analytical Science Alastair D. Martin
 This gives us three equations, with only two unknowns to determine (D &
W). However, one of these equations is redundant. For example if we sum
equations (2) and (3), and we obtain equation (1), the sum of the mass
fractions in each stream being unity. In general for an operation
involving N components, N independent material balance equations
can be obtained.

Thus:

Solving these two simultaneous equations is straightforward.

Procedure for a non-reacting, single stage system

Step 1: Drawing a Flowchart.

Now look at Wk3Q14 in the problem book. The first step is to draw a
flowchart of the process, with boxes or other symbols to indicate process
operations (reactors, mixers, distillation columns etc), and lines with arrows
to indicate inputs and outputs. For Wk3Q14, there is only one process
operation – a continuous crystalliser. The question mentions an input
stream (the feed) and an output (the product slurry). and we must infer a
stream of evaporated water. As an added complication the product is a
slurry, a two phase mixture of solid and liquid with different compositions.
With the data provided it is easiest to treat the two phases separately:

evaporated
water
mother
liquor
slurry
feed
CRYSTALLISER
crystals

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Chemical Engineering October 2012, CHEN10040
and Analytical Science Alastair D. Martin
 The next step is to label the streams with information on the amount or flow
rate of each component in the stream. To do this we must first choose a
basis for the calculation.

Since a material balance can always be scaled (see below), a material

balance calculation can be performed on the basis of any convenient
stream amount or flow rate, and the results can afterwards be scaled. A
basis of calculation is an amount or flow rate of a stream or component.
The first step in is always to choose the basis of calculation; all variables
are then calculated to be consistent with this basis. The choice of the basis
of calculation is arbitrary; any choice should lead to a correct solution.
However, an appropriate choice may make the problem simpler to solve. In
Wk3Q14, using 1000 kg of feed as the basis of calculation, no scaling will
be required to obtain the required answer to part (a).

slurry
CRYSTALLISER

Scaling and Basis of Calculation

A balanced flowsheet, for which material balances for all components are
satisfied, can be scaled up or down. A balanced process can be scaled up
or down by increasing the amount or flow rate of all streams
proportionately, while keeping the composition of all streams constant.

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Chemical Engineering October 2012, CHEN10040
and Analytical Science Alastair D. Martin
 Example:

1kg of benzene is mixed with 1kg of toluene to produce 2 kg of mixture.

The composition of the mixture is obviously 50 %w/w benzene and 50
%w/w toluene.

1 kg C6H6
2 kg
1 kg C7H8 0.5 kg C6H6 / kg
0.5 kg C7H8 / kg

This is a balanced process as the material balances for both components

are satisfied. The process can be scaled up or down and by multiplying
the amount or flow rate of each stream by a constant factor.

e.g. x 300:

300 kg C6H6
600 kg
300 kg C7H8 0.5 kg C6H6 / kg
0.5 kg C7H8 / kg

e.g. kg to kg/hr, replace kg with lbm:

300 lbm/hr C6H6

600 lbm/hr

300 lbm/hr C7H8 0.5 lbm C6H6 / lbm

0.5 lbm C7H8 / lbm

For a batch process we will be carrying out an integral material balance

between the start and finish time of the process. The flow chart in this case
does not represent the flows of material, but represents the changes that
occur with time. Consider Wk3Q15 in the problem book. We will construct
a flowsheet starting on the left when the process starts, and finishing on the
right when the process finishes with mixing in between:

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Chemical Engineering October 2012, CHEN10040
and Analytical Science Alastair D. Martin
 Start Finish

MIXER

Step 2: Setting up the Balance Equations.

As the process is non-reactive we can set up balance equations simply as

input = output. Balance equations can in principle be set up for each
component as well as a total balance. However, the total balance will be a
sum of the component balances, so the number of independent balances
(i.e. the number of simultaneous equations) is equal to the number of
component involved.

For Wk3Q14 on the problem sheet, we have three simultaneous equations

for the three unknowns, , , and . The balance on KCl has only one
unknown so we can solve this directly.

Balances on NaCl and H2O can then be used to determine , and (an
overall balance will give an equation including both unknowns):

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Chemical Engineering October 2012, CHEN10040
and Analytical Science Alastair D. Martin
 In general for an operation involving N components, N independent
material balance equations can be obtained, and these can thus be
solved for N unknowns. It is thus possible to determine at the start
whether a problem can be solved. This is called degree of freedom
analysis – see Felder and Rousseau for further details.

Ideal Gases and Daltons Law Revisited

This topic was covered in the handout on units. In Wk3Q15 we have 3

unknowns and only two balance equations. To solve this question we
must use the ideal gas law to determine from , and .

For gases composition is normally given as mol fraction or volume

fraction. For ideal gases these are identical. Sometimes the partial
pressure is given, which can be converted to mol fraction by:

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Chemical Engineering October 2012, CHEN10040
and Analytical Science Alastair D. Martin