1.

6 Process and process variables

Chapter outline
Mass and volume Flow rate Chemical composition

1.6.1 Mass and volume

Density, = mass (kg/m3,g/m3,lbm/ft3..) volume Specific volume is the inverse of density Density of pure solids and liquids are independent of pressure and vary relatively slightly with temperature Eg. Liquid water T (oC) (g/cm3)
0 3.98 100 0.999868 1.00000 0.95838

 Specific gravity, SG =

ref

density of water at 4C is used as a reference density; whereas the value is showed below: ref@H2O(l) (4C) = 1.000 g/cm3 = 1000 kg/m3 = 62.43 lbm/ft3

 SG is a dimensionless. To get the density of a substance, multiply the SG value to the value of reference density.
SG= 0.6 20

mean that the specific gravity of a substance at 20C with reference to water at 4C is 0.6
Refer Table B.1 for specific gravities of selected liq. and solids

1.6.2 Flow rate

Flow rate- the rate at which a material is transported through a process line.
Can be expressed as :
mass flow rate, (mass/time) volumetric flow rate, V (volume/time)

The density of a fluid can be used to convert a known volumetric flow rate of a process stream to the mass flow rate of that stream or vice versa.

 The mass flow rates of process streams must be known for many process calculations, but it is frequently more convenient to measure volumetric flow rates than mass flow rate. Therefore, the density is used to convert volume flow rate to mass flow rate.
Flow meter is a device mounted in a process line that provides a continuous reading of the flow rate in the line.

Two commonly used flow meter are rotameter and orifice meter

1.6.3 Chemical Composition

Moles and molecular weight Mass and mole fractions and average molecular weight Concentration Parts per million and parts per billion

Moles and molecular weight

Atomic weight of an element is the mass of an atom on a scale that assigns 12C Molecular weight (MW) of a compound is the sum of the atomic weights of the atoms that constitute a molecule of the compound. Eg; O2 Atomic weight of O= 16 MW of O2 = 32

 Gram-mole (g-mole or mol) = Mass Molecular Weight

If the molecular weight of a substance is M, then there are M kg/kmol, M g/mol, and M lbm/lb-mole of this substance. The molecular weight may thus be used as a conversion factor that relates the mass and the number of moles of a quantity of the substance. One gram-mole of any species contains 6.02 x 1023 (Avogadros number) molecules of that species.

Mass and mole fractions and average molecular weight

Process streams consist of mixtures of liquids or gases, or solutions of one or more solutes in a liquid solvents. The following terms may be used to define the composition of a mixture of substances, including a species A. Mass fraction: xA = Mass of A
Mole fraction: yA = Moles of A
Total moles
Total mass

 The percent by mass of A is 100xA, and the mole percent of A is 100yA. Procedure to Convert from Mass Fractions to Moles Fractions
1. assuming as a basis of calculation a mass of the mixture (e.g. 100 kg or 100 lbm) 2. using the known mass fractions to calculate the mass of each component in the basis quantity, and converting these masses to moles.
3. taking the ratio of the moles of each component to the total number of moles

 The average molecular weight (or mean molecular weight) of a mixture, (kg/kmol, lbm/lb-mole, etc.), is the ratio of the mass of a sample of the mixture (mt) to the number of moles of all species (nt) in the sample. If yi is the mole fraction of the ith the component of the mixture:
M y1M1 y 2 M 2 .....
yi M i all component

If xi is the mass fraction of the ith component of the mixture: x x xi M 1 2 ..... all component M i M1 M 2

Concentration
Mass concentration of a component of a mixture or solution is mass of this component = g/cm3, lbm/ft3, kg/in2 volume of the mixture
Molar concentration of a component is the no. of moles of the component = kmol/m3, lb-moles/ft3 volume of the mixture The molarity of a solution is the value of the molar concentration of the solute expressed in gram-moles solute/liter solution

Parts per million and parts per billion

Used to express the concentrations of trace species in mixtures of gases or liquids. If yi is the fraction of component i, then by definition ppmi = yi x 106 ppbi = yi x 109