There was a shortage of syrups in stores and the chemical engineer decided to buy a lunch bar

chocolate and extract the syrup from the lunch bar for his bread in the following process, he also had
to add water along the process so as to decrease the concentration of sugar since the sweetness of the
syrup from the lunch bar is very higher than that of the normal syrup. The ratio of peanuts to
chocolate juice in stream 2 is 3:1 and an engineer discovered that 65% of chocolate juice is being
recovered. The process information is given in table 1 below.

Table 1

Streams 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Mass flow rates(g/ h) 32 92
%Comp of peanuts 100 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
%Comp of chocolate 18.5 0 100 0 0 0
juice.
%Comp of syrup 100 0
%Comp of H2O 0 31 100 100
Mass flow rates of 17.2
H20 (g/h)

5
1) melter Sep 1 Sep 2
2 3

6
4

8 14

9
11

15 Sep 3

10

13

12
Questions

1. Spot what is wrong with the process? (3)

2. This engineer eats 4 slices of bread per day and he uses 16 g of syrup per slice. Will the produced
syrup be enough for him per month? (7)

3. If 65 g of lunch bar chocolate in a shop cost R4-50 how much will an engineer have to pay if the
process operates in a day? (3)

3. Calculate the mass flow rate of stream 15 and all its compositions. (2)

Solutions

c- Chocolate juice
p- Peanuts
s- Syrup
m- Mass flow rate

1. Stream 10 split to be stream 13 and 12 and the compositions in these streams are supposed to be
the same but they are not since we are given that stream 10 consist of both H2O and syrup while
stream 12 and 13 are 100% syrup and H2O respectively. This could mean that the splitter is
inefficient which is totally wrong because it is actually impossible to have something like this.

2. To find stream 12

m5=0.65 m1c
32=0.65 m1c
m1c= 49.23 g/h

18.5/100= m1c/m1
0.185= 49.23/m1
m1= 266.11 g/h

m2p/ m2c = 3/1

m2p=3(49.23)
=147.69 g/h

Overall mass balance

m1= m1p+ m1c+ m1s
266.11= 147.69+49.23+ m1s
m1s= 69.19 g/h

Overall mass balance of syrup

M1s= m12s
69.19= m12
Therefore stream 12 is equal to 69.19 g/h

1 slice = 16 g of syrup

16 g/slice * 4slices/ day

64 g/day

64 g/day * 30 day/month

1920 g/month of syrup the engineer uses

69.19 g/hr * 24 hr/day * 30 days/month = 49816.8 g/month of syrup produced

Therefore the syrup will be enough for the chemical engineer.

3. The process uses 266.11 g in an hour (m1= 266.11 g/hr)

266.11 g/hr * 24 hr/day = 6386.64 g/day

In a shop an engineer will pay R4-50 per 62 g of lunch bar

R4-50/62 g

R0.072581/g

So R0.072581/g * 6386.64 g/day = R463-50/day

Therefore the chemical engineer will have to pay R463-50 per day.

4. Overall mass balance of chocolate juice

m1c= m5c+ m15c

49.23= 32+ m15c

M15c= 17.23 g/hr

m9H20= 0.31m9

=0.39(92)

=28.52 g/hr
H20 mass balance around separator 3

M9H20= m15H20 + m10H20

28.52= m15H20 +17.2

m15H2O= 11.32 g/hr

m15= m15H2O+ m15c

=11.32+17.23

=28.55 g/hr

XC= 17.23/28.55

=0.604

Therefore the composition of chocolate juice in stream 15 is 60.4%

XH2O= 11.32/28.55

=0.396

Therefore the composition of H2O in stream 15 is 39.6%