Material and Energy Balances

Bypass and Recycle

Processes

02/12/10 1
 Objectives
Material and Energy Balances

At the end of this chapter, you should be able

to:
• Apply material balances for processes
involving bypass and recycle
• Derive and solve material balance problems

02/12/10 2
 Recycle
Material and Energy Balances

• One of the more common processing

configurations is the material recycle
structure

• These are particularly useful for reactors,

where they allow better control of reactor
selectivity when multiple reactions occur
02/12/10 3
 Recycle
Material and Energy Balances

• When we study recycle systems, we are often

asked to calculate the recycle ratio.
• Usually, this is found by dividing the mass flow of
the recycle stream by the mass flow of the "fresh
feed" entering the system.
• In the industrial world, recycle ratios have important
consequences for system performance and
operating costs

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 Recycle
Material and Energy Balances

• A common recycle structure is the reactor/separator

which is used to recover unreacted material and return

it to the reactor. The "separator" may be a single piece
of equipment or it may be an entire process on its own

02/12/10 5
 Bypass
Material and Energy Balances

A related process structure is the bypass system

One use of bypass is to obtain precise control of the

output stream, as when a small wet air stream
bypasses a drier so that the output humidity can be
regulated

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 Solving Recycle and Bypass Problems
Material and Energy Balances

• The methods for solving recycle and bypass

problems are basically the same.
• In the steady state, there is no buildup or depletion
of material within the system or recycle stream of a
properly designed and operated process.
• When solving, you can write balances (total material
or component) around:
– the entire process structure
– the mixing point
– the splitter
– the processing unit (inside the recycle/bypass)

02/12/10 7
 Recycle and bypass
Material and Energy Balances

Note:
At IN OUT
bypass,
the
compone“Splitti “Mixin
Bypas
nts mass ng g
s
fractions Points” Points
remain ”
the OUT IN
same.
The
ONLY Recycl
differenc e
e is the
02/12/10 8
 Solving Recycle and Bypass Problems
Material and Energy Balances

• Only three of these will be independent (the

fourth is a linear combination).
• If you pick the right balances, you may be able
to organize the problem for sequential solution.
• In particular, when you write the balance around
the entire process system, terms describing the
recycle/bypass stream do not appear; only the
fresh feed and the product are required.

02/12/10 9
 Example 1
Material and Energy Balances

Given the process shown, find the recycle flow in

pounds/hour, the production rate of potassium nitrate,
and the recycle ratio

02/12/10 10
 Example 1
Material and Energy Balances

• You are asked to find three things:

• (i) the recycle flow (labeled R on the drawing),
• (ii) the production rate (labeled C on the drawing),
and
• (iii) the recycle ratio, which will be calculated as
R/10000 if we don't change the basis

02/12/10 11
 Example 1
Material and Energy Balances

• The sketch is already done, so we need to label the

variables.
• Let's call the fresh feed F.
• If we look over the compositions, we'll note that
they are not consistently represented.
– Two are given as %KNO3, one as %H2O, and
one as lb KNO3 per lb H2O.
• We'd usually prefer all the numbers to be in
percent, so let's do the problem using percent
nitrate.
• Shifting the water percentage to nitrate is easy, just
subtract from 100.
• The other stream (R) requires a calculation

02/12/10 12
 Example 1
Material and Energy Balances

• Do we really need to calculate the mass fraction

nitrate in R? Since we're asked two questions about
the stream, it seems almost certain. To do that
calculation, look at the composition given and
choose a basis for computing the composition (we
can change the basis for the rest of the problem)
• Basis : 1 lb H2O in water in stream R

02/12/10 13
 Example 1
Material and Energy Balances

• Step 1: Make a KNO3 balance over the

entire system
• Step 2: Make a balance around the
crystallizer

02/12/10 14
 Example 2
Material and Energy Balances

Fresh air containing 5.00 mole% water vapour is to be

cooled and dehumified to a water content of 2.00
mole% H2O. A stream of fresh air is combined with a
recycle stream of previously dehumidified air and
passed through the cooler. The blended stream
entering the unit contains 2.50 mole% H2O. In the air
conditioner, some of the water in the feed stream is
condensed and removed as liquid. A fraction of the
dehumidified air leaving the cooler is recycled and the
remainder is delivered to a room.

Taking 150 mol of dehumidified air delivered to the

room as a basis of calculation, calculate the moles of
fresh feed, moles of water condensed, and moles of
dehumidified air recycled.

02/12/10 15
 Example 2
Material and Energy Balances

0.98 mol DA/mol

n5 (mol ) 0.020 mol
W(l)/mol

n1 (mol ) n2 (mol ) AIR n4 (mol ) 150 mol

0.950 mol 0.975 mol CON 0.98 mol DA/mol0.98 mol DA/mol
DA/mol DA/mol
D 0.020 mol 0.020 mol
0.050 mol 0.025 mol W(v)/mol W(v)/mol
W(v)/mol W(v)/mol

n3 [mol W (l )]

02/12/10 16
 Purge
Material and Energy Balances

• A stream bled off to remove accumulation of

inert or unwanted material that might
otherwise build up in the recycle stream

02/12/10 17
 Purge - Example
Material and Energy Balances

• Two of the main gases that can be generated under

suitable conditions from in-situ coal combustion in
the presence of steam are H2 and CO. After
cleanup, these two gases can be combined to yield
methanol according to the following equation
CO + 2H2  CH3OH
• The figure below illustrates a steady state process.
All compositions are in the mole fractions. The
stream flows are in moles.

02/12/10 18
 Purge - Example
Material and Energy Balances

Feed, F E
REACTOR SEPARATOR 100%
67.3%
CH3OH
H2 Recycle, R
x H2 Purge,
32.5% P
y CO
CO
z CH4
0.2 CH4
You will note that some methane enters the process. A
purge stream is used to maintain the CH4 concentration
in the exit of the separator at no more than 3.2 mol%.
The conversion of the CO in the reactor is 18%.
Compute:
– Moles of recycle, CH3OH and purge
– Purge gas composition

02/12/10 19
 Example 2
Material and Energy Balances

4500 kg/h of a solution containing 1/3 sugar( by mass) is mixed

with a recycle stream containing 36.4% sugar and the combined
stream is fed into an evaporator. The concentrated stream
leaving the evaporator contains 49.4% sugar is fed into a
crystallizer, where it is cooled ( in order to form sugar crystals)
and filtered. The filter cake consists of sugar crystals and a
solution with 36.4% sugar by mass and the crystals account for
95% of the total mass of the filter cake. The solution that passes
through the filter, also 36.4% sugar is the recycle stream.

Calculate the rate of evaporation, rate of production of crystalline

sugar, and the recycle ratio ( mass of recycle/mass of feed)

02/12/10 20
 Conclusions
Material and Energy Balances

• You have learnt

– To derive and solve material balance
problems on recycle processes

02/12/10 21