Chemical Engineering Department

CHAPTER 4
Fundamentals of Material Balances

COURSE CODE: KMÜ 241

COURSE TITLE: MATERIAL AND ENERGY BALANCES I

COURSE TEXTBOOK: Felder, R. M. and R. W. Rousseau, "Elementary Principles of

Chemical Processes", 3rd Edition, John Wiley&Sons, Inc., New York, 2000.
 OUTLINE OF A PROCEDURE FOR MATERIAL
BALANCE CALCULATIONS

1. Draw a flowchart, and fill in all given variable values.

2. Choose as a basis of calculation an amount or flow rate of one of the process stream.
3. Label unknown stream variables on the chart.
4. Do the problem bookkeeping.
5. Convert known stream volumes or volumetric flow rates to mass or molar quantities,
using tabulated densities or gas laws.
6. If you are given mixed mass and mole units for a stream convert all quantities to
one basis or the other using the methods of Section 3.3b.
7. If any information is given in the problem statement that has not been used in
labeling the flowchart, translate it into equations in the variables defined in step 3.
8. Write material balance equations.
9. Solve the equations derived in steps 7 and 8 for the unknown quantities to be
determined. When the value of an unknown has been calculated, write it on the
flowchart immediately.
10. If a stream quantity or flow rate Qg was given in the problem statement and another
value Qc was either taken as a basis or calculated for this stream, scale the balanced
process by the ratio Qg/Qc to obtain the final result.
4. Fundamentals of Material Balances

1500 lbm of sulfur per day

leave the furnace in one
form or another

The Law of Conservation of Mass

The mass can neither be created nor destroyed.
Total mass of input=total mass of output
4.1 Process Classification
Batch Process: The feed is charged into the system at the beginning of
the process, and the products are removed all at once sometime later.

Continuous Process: The input and outputs flow coninuously throught

the duration of the process.

Semibatch Process: Any process that is neither batch nor continuous.

• If the values of all the variables in a process do
not change with time, the process is said to be
operating at steady state.

• If any o the process variables change with

time, transient or unsteady-state operation is
said to exist.
 4.2a The General Balance Equation

𝑚̇ 𝑖𝑛 ≠ 𝑚̇ 𝑜𝑢𝑡

1. Methane is leaking from the unit

2. Methane is eithe being consumed as a reactant or being
generated as a product within the unit
3. Methane is accumulating in the unit
4. The measurements are wrong

Input + Generation – Output - Consumption = Accumulation

𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚
𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚
𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚 𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 leaves 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚 𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑏𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑢𝑝 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚
 EXAMPLE 4.2-1
The General Balance Equation

• Each year 50 000 people move into a city,

75 000 people move out, 22 000 are born and
19 000 die.
Write a balance on the population of the city.
The two type of balances may be written
• Differential Balances, or balances that indicate
what is happening in a system at an instant of
time.
• Integral Balances, or balances that describe
what happens between two instants of time
4.2b Balances on Continuous Steady-
State Processes

Input + Generation – Output – Consumption = Accumulation

Input + Generation = Output + Consumption

If the balance on a nonreactive species or on total mass

Input= Output
EXAMPLE 4.2-2 Material Balances on a
Continuous Distillation Process
One thousand kilograms per hour of a mixture of benzene (B)
and toluene (T) that contains 50% benzene by mass are
separated by distillation into two fractions. The mass flow rate of
benzene in the top stream is 450 kg B/h, and that of toluene in
the bottom stream is 475 kg T/h. The operation is at steady state.
Write balances on benzene and toluene to calculate the
unknown component flow rates in the output streams.
4.2c Integral Balances on Batch
Processes

At time t = 0, n0 mol of ammonia in the reactor.

At a later time tf the reaction terminates and the contents of
the reactor, which include nf mol of ammonia, are
withdrawn.

Input + Generation – Output – Consumption = Accumulation

Generation = Accumulation
Moreover, the quantity of ammonia that bulds up in the reactor
between t0 and tf is simply
nf – n0
Accumulation = final output – initial input
= generation – consumption
initial input + generation = final output + consumption
EXAMPLE 4.2-3
Balances on a Batch Mixing Process
Two methanol-water mixtures are contained in separate flasks.
The first mixture contains 40 wt% methanol, and the second
contains 70 wt% methanol. If 200 g of the first mixture are
combined with 150 g of the second, what are the mass and
composition of the product?
4.2d Integral Balances on Semibatch and
Continuous Processes
The procedure is to write a differential balance on the system
and then to integrate it between two instants of time
EXAMPLE 4.2-4
Integral Balance on a Semibatch Equation

Air is bubbled through a drum of liquid hexane at a rate of 0.100

kmol/min. The gas stream leaving the drum contains 10.0 mole%
hexane vapor. Air may be considered insoluble in liquid hexane.
Use an integral balance to estimate the time required to vaporize
10.0 m3 hexane.