MASS TRANSFER FUNDAMENTALS

Steady State Diffusion

Dr. M. Azam Saeed

EQUIMOLAR COUNTER DIFFUSION OF A AND B:

• When a system is at steady state, the variables and parameters

associated with it do not change with time.
• Consider a binary mixture of A and B with the following
assumptions:

I. The area through which the diffusion occurs is constant

II. The gas mixture is ideal
III. The temperature is uniform
IV. Diffusion occurs at steady state
EQUIMOLAR COUNTER DIFFUSION OF A AND B:
• Both components A and B diffuse at equal rates but in opposite
directions.
• Examples: O2

I. Particle of carbon burning in air.

(Oxygen and carbon dioxide
Carbon CO2
molecules undergo particle
equimolar counterdiffusion)
Air Film
II. Binary Distillation
(Mass exchange between vapour and liquid phase occur in
equimolar counter diffusion mode)
EQUIMOLAR COUNTER DIFFUSION OF A AND B:
• Molar flux is given by

• For equimolar counter diffusion of A and B,

EQUIMOLAR COUNTER DIFFUSION OF A AND B:
PROBLEM:
NON EQUIMOLAR COUNTER DIFFUSION OF A AND B:

• The molecules of A and B diffuse in opposite directions at

different molar rates.
• Example:
• Diffusion of oxygen through gas film to reach the surface of hot
char particle and product is carbon monoxide only.
2C + O2 2CO
• For each mole of oxygen (A) diffusing towards the particle, two
moles of CO (B) diffuse in the opposite direction.
• For non equimolar counter diffusion of A and B,
NON EQUIMOLAR COUNTER DIFFUSION OF A AND B:

• For gas phase diffusion,

• For non equimolar counter diffusion of A and B,

𝑁𝐵 = −2𝑁𝐴
𝑝𝐴 𝐷𝐴𝐵 𝑑𝑝𝐴
𝑁𝐴 = 𝑁𝐴 − 2𝑁𝐴 −
𝑃 𝑅𝑇 𝑑𝑧
𝑃 + 𝑝𝐴 𝐷𝐴𝐵 𝑑𝑝𝐴
𝑁𝐴 =−
𝑃 𝑅𝑇 𝑑𝑧
𝑙
𝐷𝐴𝐵𝑃 𝑝𝐴𝑙 𝑑𝑝𝐴
𝑁𝐴 𝑑𝑧 = −
𝑜 𝑅𝑇 𝑝 𝑃 + 𝑝𝐴
𝐴𝑜

𝐷𝐴𝐵𝑃 𝑃+𝑝𝐴𝑂
𝑁𝐴 = ln
𝑅𝑇𝑙 𝑃+𝑝𝐴𝑙