Chapter 14

(Lecturer 8-Part 1)
Mass Transfer

1
Learning Outcome
 Understand the concentration gradient and the physical mechanism of
mass transfer

 Recognise the analogy between heat and mass transfer

 Describe the concentration at a location on mass or mole basis, and

relate the rate of diffusion to the concentration gradient by Fick’s law

Mass Transfer 2
Introduction
 Mass transfer is mass in transit as the result of a species concentration
difference in a mixture.

 In Heat Transfer, temperature gradient constitutes the driving potential

for heat transfer.

 In Mass Transfer, species concentration gradient in a mixture provides

the driving potential for transport of that species.

Mass Transfer 3
Introduction
 The characteristic of a mass transfer to be occurs,

 Must have a mixture of two or more species for mass transfer to occur.

 The species concentration gradient is the driving potential for transfer.

 Equations describing mass transfer by diffusion can be analogous to those

describing heat transfer by conduction.

Mass Transfer 4
Introduction
 Whenever there is a imbalance of a commodity in a medium, nature
tends to redistribute it until a ‘balance’ or ‘equality’ is established. This
tendency is often referred to as the driving force.

 If we define the flow of commodity per unit volume as the concentration

of that commodity, we can say that the flow of a commodity is always in
the direction of decreasing concentration: high concentration to low
concentration.

Mass Transfer 5
Introduction
 Physical Origins of Diffusion:
 Transfer is due to random molecular motion.
 Consider two species, A and B at the same temperature and density, but
initially separated by a partition.
 Diffusion in the direction of decreasing concentration dictates net transport
of molecules A to the right and molecules B to the left.
 In time, uniform concentrations of A and B are achieved.

Internal Flow 6
Diffusion Process
 In the diffusion process:
 The rate of flow of the commodity is proportional to the concentration gradient
dC/dx,
 which is the change in the concentration C per unit length in the flow direction x,
and the area A normal to flow direction, and is expressed as

 Flow rate  (Normal area)* (Concentration gradient)

 Q = -kdiff A (dC/dx)

 -k. diff is the diffusion coefficient of the medium

 Measure how fast a commodity diffuses in the medium
 Negative sign show the concentration decreases in the flow direction

Mass Transfer 7
Examples of Mass Transfer
 a) Water vapor molecule diffuse to
air (Liquid to gas diffusion)

 b) Co2 will get smaller as smaller in

time as the CO2 molecule diffusing
into air (Solid to gas diffusion)

 c) Spoon of sugar sweeten the

coffee (Solid to liquid diffusion)

 d) Diffuse of carbon molecule into

iron during steel making process
(Solid to solid diffusion)

Mass Transfer 8
Analogy between Heat and Mass Transfer -
Temperature
 Driving force in heat transfer is temperature difference whereas the
driving force in mass transfer is concentration difference.

 The mass transfer move from more concentrated region to the less
concentration region.

 If there is no temperature difference, then there is no heat transfer.

Similarly, there is no mass transfer when there are no difference between
the concentration of a species at different parts of a medium.

Mass Transfer 9
Analogy between Heat and Mass Transfer –
Heat Transfer
 Heat generation refers to conversion of some form of energy such as
electrical, chemical, or nuclear energy into sensible thermal energy in
the medium.

 Heat generation occurs throughout the medium and exhibits it self as a

rise in temperature.

 SOME Mass transfer problems involve chemical reactions that occur

within medium and result in the generation of a species throughout.

Mass Transfer 10
Analogy between Heat and Mass Transfer –
Heat Transfer
 Species generation is a volumetric phenomenon, and the rate of
generation may vary from point to point in the medium. This is known as
homogeneous reaction and are analogous internal heat generation.

 Some chemical reactions result in the generation of a species at the

surface due to contact between the medium and the surroundings. This
is a surface phenomenon, and as such it needs to be treated as a
boundary condition. In mass transfer studies, such reactions are called
heterogeneous reactions and are analogous to specified surface heat
flux.

Mass Transfer 11
Analogy between Heat and Mass Transfer –
Heat Transfer
 Mass is, in essence, energy since mass and energy can be converted to
each other according to Einstein’s formula E = mc2, where c is the speed
of light.
 Therefore, we can look at mass and heat as two different forms of energy
and exploits this to advantage without going overboard.

Mass Transfer 12
Analogy between Heat and Mass Transfer –
Conduction
 Heat is transfer by conduction, convection and radiation.

 Mass is transferred by conduction (called diffusion) and convection

only, and there is no such thing as ‘mass radiation’ [This is not STAR
TREK!]

 The rate of heat conduction is a direction, x is proportional the

temperature gradient dT/dx,

 dT
Qcond  kA
dx

Mass Transfer 13
Analogy between Heat and Mass Transfer –
Conduction
 ‘mass radiation’ in Star Trek

Mass Transfer 14
Analogy between Heat and Mass Transfer –
Conduction
 The rate of mass diffusion  diff of a chemical species A in a stationary
m
medium in the medium in the direction x is proportional to the
concentration gradient dC/dx, and is expressed by Fick’s Law of
Diffusion
dC A
m diff   D AB A
dx
 Where DAB is the diffusion coefficient (mass diffusivity) of the species in
the mixture and CA is the concentration of the species in the mixture at
that location.

Mass Transfer 15
Analogy between Heat and Mass Transfer –
Conduction

Fourier’s law of
heat conduction

Fick’s law of
diffusion

Mass Transfer 16
Analogy between Heat and Mass Transfer –
Convection
 Heat convection is the heat transfer mechanism that involves both heat
conduction (molecular diffusion) and bulk fluid motion.

 Mass convection is the mass transfer mechanism between a surface

and a moving fluid that involves both mass diffusion and bulk fluid
motion.

 Fluid motion also enhances mass transfer by removing the high

concentration fluid near the surface and replacing it by the lower
concentration fluid.

 In mass convection, we define a concentration boundary layer in an

analogous manner to the thermal boundary layer.

Mass Transfer 17
Analogy between Heat and Mass Transfer –
Convection
 The rate of heat convection for external flow was expressed
conveniently by Newton’s law of cooling,

Q conv  hconv As Ts  T 

 The rate of mass convection can be expressed as,

 conv  hmass As Cs  C 

m
 where hmass is the mass transfer coefficient, As is the surface area, and Cs
C is a suitable concentration difference across the concentration boundary
layer

Mass Transfer 18
Analogy between Heat and Mass Transfer –
Convection

Mass Transfer 19
Example 14.1
What do (a) homogeneous reactions and (b) heterogeneous reactions
represent in mass transfer? To what do they correspond in heat
transfer?

Fick’s law of diffusion is expressed on the mass and mole basis as

 diff = - ρADAB(dwA/dx) and n diff = -CADAB(dyA/dx), respectively.
m
Are the diffusion coefficients DAB in the two relations the same or
different?

Mass Transfer 20
Example 14.1
(a) Homogenous reactions in mass transfer represent the generation of
a species within the medium. Such reactions are analogous to internal
heat generation in heat transfer.

(b) Heterogeneous reactions in mass transfer represent the generation

of a species at the surface as a result of chemical reactions occurring at
the surface. Such reactions are analogous to specified surface heat flux
in heat transfer.

Diffusion coefficients DAB are the same.

Mass Transfer 21
Example 14.2
At a given temperature and pressure, do you think the mass diffusivity
of air in water vapor will be equal to the mass diffusivity of water vapor
in air? Explain.

At a given temperature and pressure, do you think the mass diffusivity

of copper in aluminum will be equal to the mass diffusivity of aluminum
in copper? Explain.

Mass Transfer 22
Example 14.2
In a binary ideal gas mixture of species A and B, the diffusion coefficient
of A in B is equal to the diffusion coefficient of B in A. Therefore, the
mass diffusivity of air in water vapor will be equal to the mass diffusivity
of water vapor in air since the air and water vapor mixture can be
treated as ideal gases.

Solids, in general, have different diffusivities in each other. At a given

temperature and pressure, the mass diffusivity of copper in aluminum
will not be the equal to the mass diffusivity of aluminum in copper.

Mass Transfer 23