Simple Material Balances

A significant part of this module will be concerned

with material balances
a key tool of the chemical engineer
This session is intended to introduce the idea of the
material balance, so you will be able to do simple
balances
Chapter 4 of Felder and Rousseau covers the material
presented in this lecture

inputs Process Unit outputs

 General Balance Equation 1
In general terms, if we consider a component entering
and leaving a system (e.g. a process unit), we can write
the following balance equation

accumulation = inputs outputs + net generation

the amount
building up in the net amount
the system made in the
the total system, i.e.
the total leaving the amount created
entering the system amount destroyed
system
 General Balance Equation 2
We can apply the general balance equation to various
measures of quantity
total mass
except in nuclear reactions, there is no
generation or destruction of mass
component mass
because one component may be converted to
another in chemical reactions, this should only
be used in non-reacting systems (use a
component mole balance in a reacting system,
see later in module)
 General Balance Equation 3
We can apply the general balance equation to various
measures of quantity (continued)
total moles
can be useful in non-reacting systems
its difficult to work out the total mole balance
in reacting systems (use the individual
component mole balances)
component moles
we need to take into account the amount made or
destroyed in chemical reactions (see later in
module)
 General Balance Equation 4
We can apply the general balance equation to various
measures of quantity (continued)
elemental moles
provided there arent any nuclear reactions, the
number of moles of each element present in a
system isnt changed by chemical reactions
this can be very useful in checking the material
balances of reacting systems

2NaOH + H2SO4 Na2SO4 + 2H2O

 Simple Systems
For the moment, we will simplify the system
assume steady-state continuous process,
i.e. accumulation = 0
assume no chemical reactions
i.e. net generation = 0
this gives the basic equation

0 = inputs outputs
or
inputs = outputs
 A First Example

Distillate product:
98 mol% benzene
Feed:
100 kmol/h benzene- distillation
toluene mixture column
60 mol% benzene
Bottom product:
97 mol% toluene

What are the flow rates of the product streams?

 A first example 1

Distillate product:
nD,total = ?
xD,benzene = 0.98
Feed:
xD,toluene = ?
nF,total = 100 kmol / h distillation
xF,benzene = 0.60 column

xF,toluene = ? Bottom product:

nW,total = ?
xW,benzene = ?
xW,toluene = 0.97
 A first example 2

1) Carry out an overall mass balance first

nF,total = nD,total + nW,total (1)
Distillate
(F = D + W) (D)
Feed (F)

2) Carry out a component balance

Bottom
nF,total xF,benzene nD,total xD,benzene nW,total xW,benzene (2) (W)

3) Substitute for nD,total or nW,total in eqn (2)

nF,total xF,benzene (nF,total nW,total) xD,benzene nW,total xW,benzene
 Nomenclature 1
In problems like the first example, we usually have
several different streams
e.g. feed, distillate product, bottom product
We also have to consider several different components
When identifying, say, a mole fraction, we need to
identify
the stream that the mole fraction refers to
the component the mole fraction refers to
 Nomenclature 2
So we need to identify the stream, i, and the component, j
xij is the mole fraction of component j in stream i
nij is the mole flow of component j in stream i
etc.
To refer to the total flow of stream i
ni is the total mole flow of stream i
etc
In more complex cases it helps to use numbers for streams
(i) and letters for components (j)
 Nomenclature 3
Using this nomenclature, we can write some
relationships:
nij ni xij

xij is the mole fraction mij mi wij

of component j in
nij Vi Cij
stream i
mij Vi cij
nij is the mole flow of
component j in stream i N
ni nij
j 1

N
mi mij
j 1
 Total Balances
Assuming steady-state (no accumulation), and no
chemical reaction, we can write the total balance
equations
assuming there are
A input streams (indicated by subscript a)
B output streams (indicated by subscript b)
A B
total mass balance is ma mb
a 1 b 1
A B
total mole balance is na nb
a 1 b 1
 Component Balances
Using the same assumptions and nomenclature, we can
write the component balances for a general component j
mass balance
A B A B
maj mbj or ma waj mb wbj
a 1 b1 a 1 b1

mole balance
A B A B
naj nbj or na xaj nb xbj
a 1 b1 a 1 b1
 A Second Example 1
Consider a distillation column separating A, B & C
nD
xDA
xDB
nF xDC
xFA distillation
xFB column
xFC nW
xWA
xWB
xWC
 A Second Example 2
Component A mole balance

nF xFA nD xDA nW xWA [a]

Component B mole balance

nF xFB nD xDB nW xWB [b]

Component C mole balance

nF xFC nD xDC nW xWC [c]

Adding the three component balances gives

nF xFA xFB xFC

nD xDA xDB xDC nW xWA xWB xWC [d]

 A Second Example 3
N
But in each stream i, xij 1, so
j 1
xFA xFB xFC 1 [e]
xDA xDB xDC 1 [f]
xWA xWB xWC 1 [g]
Substituting [e], [f] and [g] into [d] gives
nF nD nW [the total mole balance!]
So the total balance can be obtained by summing the
component balances
it is not independent of the other equations
 Number of Independent Balance
Equations 1
Considering this example
there were 3 components (A, B & C)
there were 3 independent equations
A general rule
if there are N components in a system, then there
are N independent balance equations
even though N+1 equations can be written
either N component balance equations
or total balance plus N1 component balance
equations
 Number of Independent Balance
Equations 2
To solve a set of equations for J unknown variables,
you need J independent equations
When solving a material balance over a process unit, if
you have J unknown variables and
N components, you can only use N balance eqns
you need another (J N) equations
in some cases you could specify the values of
certain variables to provide some of these extra
equations
if (J N) is negative, the problem is
overspecified
 Summary
After this session, you should be able to perform
material balances over a single process unit provided
that
the system is at steady state
there is no chemical reaction occurring
Now, you need to practice!