Practical No: 08

Title: Explanation of mass balance by algebraic equations

Objective: To acquaint Food processing operation by mass balance.

Theory:

The law of conservation of mass, or principle of mass conservation, states that mass can neither
be produced nor destroyed. Food processing plants usually comprises a series of processing
operation through which the food is passed in sequence. The individual operations are often
referred as unit operation. The simplest form of representation of a process is by means of a
block diagram, in which each unit operation or processing unit is represented by a rectangle.
The flow into and out of the unit operations are represented by single line with arrows to
show direction of flow. A block diagram usually represents the major unit operations and
process flows. A block diagram for a single process is shown in figure. In which the process
has two inputs and one output.

Figure 1.1- Block diagram

More complex process may be represented by a series of blocks as shown in figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2- Mass balance for two stage system

In Fig 1.2 each flow line into and out of a stage is given labeled. In this case, S 1, S2….S5 are
the symbols used to uniquely identify each stream.
Determination of Mass balance by algebraic expression:

In principle, mass balance is straight forward. Simply add up the material entering the
system and the materials leaving the system. If the system is in steady state, these two totals
should be the same. Any unknown streams may then be found by difference.

One way to do this is to represent the mass balance by equations relating input and output.
Each processing operation will have a mass balance equation associated with it. In addition,
there will be an equation relating to the inputs and outputs for the whole process. Looking at
the Figure 3.2. The following mass balance equation can be written as;

Stage 1: S1+S2 = S 3

Stage 2: S3 = S 4 + S 5

Overall: S1 + S2 = S4 + S5

Procedure:

1. Draw a block diagram of the given process.

2. Select suitable time basis (Operation hour) or weight basis (Product output or feed
input)
3. Draw up a mass balance table and enter all the available information into the table.
4. Write required mass balance equation for over all mass balance and component
balance.
5. Indentify and calculate the unknown values, by solving the mass balance equations
and enter them into the table for ease of remembrance and calculation.

Calculations:

Lets; A single effect evaporator is fed with 10,000 kg per hour of weak liquor containing
15% sugar by weight and is concentrated to thick liquor containing 40 % sugar by
weight. Calculate kg/h of water evaporated and kg/h of thick liquor obtained.

Solution:

The block diagram for the above problem can be drawn as given below:
Assumption: 1 hr of operation

Let the flow rate of thick liquor be S kg/h (i.e. S kg of thick liquor in 1 hr) and flow rate of
water evaporated is = T kg/h (i.e. T kg of water evaporation in 1 hr)

Now Applying overall material balance over evaporator

S + T = 10,000

Again by carrying out sugar balance over the evaporator

0.4 * S = 0.15 * 10,000 kg

0.4S = 1500 kg

S = 1500/0.4

S = 3750 kg

Now substituting the value of S in the overall mass balance equation gives

T = 10,000 – 3750

T = 6250 kg

There for water evaporated during the one hour process is 6250 kg and the thick liquor
obtaining 3750 kg.

Numerical Problem

2000 kg of milk (with 87.6% water, 3.8% fat, 3.2% protein, 4.6% lactose, and 0.7% ash content)
has to be reduced in fat content from 3.8% to 2.5% by removal of cream with 40% fat content
from the milk. How much milk will have to be removed?

Solution.
TMB: 2000 = C + M
FMB:   2000*0.038 = 0.4*C + 0.025*M
2000*0.025 = 0.025*C + 0.025*M
Solving the equations will give the values of C = 69.3 kg and the remaining milk M = 1930.7 kg.
Numerical Problem
If 3000 kg of the same milk used in the previous example is separated into cream with 45% fat
and skimmed milk with 0.05% fat, how much cream and skimmed milk are expected assuming
no losses?

Solution

TMB:   3000 = C + M
FMB:   3000*0.038 = 0.45*C + 0.0.0005*S
Solving the equations will give C = 250.3 kg and S = 2749.7 kg

Numerical Problem:

Determine the amount of lean beef (12% fat, 20% protein and 68% water), Pork (88% fat,
2% protein and 10% water) and water to make the 50 kg of frankfurter (18% fat, 16%
protein and 66% water) formulation.