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Assignment on Mass
Diffusion
Shafi Md. Istiak
Roll: 142092
Some common examples of mass transfer processes are the evaporation of water from a pond to the
atmosphere, the purification of blood in the kidneys and liver, and the distillation of alcohol. In industrial
processes, mass transfer operations include separation of chemical components in distillation columns,
absorbers such as scrubbers or stripping, adsorbers such as activated carbon beds, and liquid-liquid
extraction. Mass transfer is often coupled to additional transport processes, for instance in industrial
cooling towers. These towers couple heat transfer to mass transfer by allowing hot water to flow in
contact with air. The water is cooled by expelling some of its content in the form of water vapor.
Where, JA is the molar flux of component A in the Z direction. CA is the concentration of A and Z is the
distance of diffusion. The proportionality constant, DAB is the diffusion coefficient of the molecule A in
B. This is valid only at steady state condition of diffusion. The Equation (2.2) is called Fick’s first law of
diffusion. If the concentration gradient is expressed as the gradient of mole fraction and in three
dimensional cases, the molar flux can be expressed as
Mass diffusivity
Diffusivity or diffusion coefficient is a proportionality constant between the molar flux due to molecular
diffusion and the gradient in the concentration of the species (or the driving force for diffusion).
Diffusivity is encountered in Fick's law and numerous other equations of physical chemistry.
The diffusivity is generally prescribed for a given pair of species and pairwise for a multi-species system.
The higher the diffusivity (of one substance with respect to another), the faster they diffuse into each
other. Typically, a compound's diffusion coefficient is ~10,000× as great in air as in water. Carbon
dioxide in air has a diffusion coefficient of 16 mm2/s, and in water its diffusion coefficient is 0.0016
mm2/s.
Solids
The diffusion coefficient in solids at different temperatures is generally found to be well predicted by the
Arrhenius equation:
Where,
Liquids
An approximate dependence of the diffusion coefficient on temperature in liquids can often be found
using Stokes–Einstein equation, which predicts that
Where,
Where,
A is an empirical coefficient
Where,
The transport-available porosity equals the total porosity less the pores which, due to their size, are not
accessible to the diffusing particles, and less dead-end and blind pores (i.e., pores without being
connected to the rest of the pore system). The constrictivity describes the slowing down of diffusion by
increasing the viscosity in narrow pores as a result of greater proximity to the average pore wall. It is a
function of pore diameter and the size of the diffusing particles.
References:
1. https://chrisbharding.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/chapter-24-fundamentals-of-mass-transfer-diffusivity-
of-water-in-air-at-25-degrees-celsius/
2. http://dtrx.de/od/diff/