Chapter 2

Processes and
Process Variables
 Content

 Density
 Flow Rate
 Chemical Composition
 Pressure
 Temperature
 Process
Process Process
Input/Feed Unit Output/Product Unit Output/Product

 Process- any operation that cause a physical or chemical

change in a substance. Can consist of several process unit.
 Chemical/bioprocess engineering is responsible to design
and operate the process.
 Design
o Formation of process flow sheet/layout
o Specification of individual process unit
o Associated operating variables
 Operate: running day-to-day process
 Density & Specific Gravity
 Density ()
 mass/volume
 Unit: g/cm3; kg/m3; lbm/ft3

 Specific Volume
 volume/ unit mass
 inverse of density
 Unit: cm3/g; m3/kg; ft3/lbm
 Density & Specific Gravity
 Densities of pure solids and liquids are essentially
independent of pressure and vary relatively
slightly with temperature.

 The density of a substance can be used as a

conversion factor to relate the mass and the
volume of the substances
 Specific Gravity
 Specific Gravity (SG)
 ratio of the density () of the substance to the
density of a reference (ref) substance at a
specific condition:
 SG = substance/ref or substance = SG * ref

 density of water at 4˚C is used as a reference

density; whereas the value is showed below:
ref@H2O(l) (4˚C) = 1.000 g/cm3
= 1000 kg/m3
= 62.43 lbm/ft3
 Specific Gravity
 SG is dimensionless. To get the density of a
substance, multiply the SG value to the value of
reference density.

20˚
SG= 0.6
4˚

 means that the specific gravity of a substance at

20˚C with reference to water at 4˚C is 0.6
 Exercise
 The density of CCl4 is 1.595 g/cm3; what is
a) Mass of 20 cm3 of CCl4
b) Volume of 6.20 lbm of CCl4

20 cm3 1.595 g
cm3 = 31.9 g

6.20 lbm 454 g cm3

= 1760 cm3
1 lbm 1.595 g
 Exercise

 A liquid has a SG of 0.50. Find

a) Density in g/cm3
b) Density in lbm/ft3
c) Mass of 3 cm3 of this liquid
d) Volume occupied by 18 g of this liquid
 Solution
0.5 1g
a) ρ= = 0.5 g/cm3
cm3

b) 0.5 62.43 lbm

ρ= = 31.215 lbm/ft3
ft3

3 cm3 0.5 g
c) = 1.5 g
cm 3

18 g cm3
= 36 cm3
d) 0.5 g
 Flow Rate
 Flow rate- the rate at which a material is
transported through a process line.

 Can be expressed as :
 mass flow rate (mass/time)
 volumetric flow rate (volume/time)

 The density of a fluid can be used to convert a

known volumetric flow rate of a process stream
to the mass flow rate of that stream or vice
versa.
 Flow Rate
 The mass flow rates of process streams must be
known for many process calculations, but it is
frequently more convenient to measure
volumetric flow rates than mass flow rate.
Therefore, the density is used to convert volume
flow rate to mass flow rate.

 Flow meter is a device mounted in a process line

that provides a continuous reading of the flow
rate in the line.

 Two commonly used flow meter are rotameter

and orifice meter
 Chemical Composition

Topics that will be covered:

 Moles and Molecular Weight
 Mass and Mole Fractions
 Average Molecular Weight
 Concentration
 Parts per Million (ppm) & Part per
Billion (ppb)
 Moles & Molecular Weight
 Atomic weight of element- mass of an atom
based on carbon isotope 12C

 Molecular weight of compound- sum of the

atomic weights of atoms that constitute a
molecule of the compound

 Moles= Mass / Molecular Weight

 Unit for moles are g-mole, kmol,lb-mole etc

( g-mole is same as mol )
 Moles & Molecular Weight
 If the molecular weight of a substance is M, then
there are M kg/kmol, M g/mol, and M lbm/lb-mole
of this substance.

 The molecular weight may thus be used as a

conversion factor that relates the mass and the
number of moles of a quantity of the substance.

 One gram-mole of any species contains 6.02 x

1023 (Avogadro’s number) molecules of that
species.
 Exercises
a) What is the molar flow rate for 100kg/h CO2
(M=44) fed to the reactor?

b) What is the corresponding mass flow rate of

850lb-moles/min CO2?

c) How many gram of O2 consist in 100g of CO2?

d) Find the number of molecules of CO2 in 100g of

CO2?
 Solution
100kg CO2 1 kmol CO2 = 2.27 kmol CO2
a)
h 44 kg CO2 h

850 lb-moles CO2 44 lbm CO2 = 37 400 lbm CO2

b)
min 1 lb-moles CO2 min

100 g CO2 1mol CO2 1 mol O2 32 g O2 = 72.73 g O2

C)
44 g CO2 1 mol CO2 1 mol O2

100 g CO2 1mol CO2 6.02 x 1023 Molecules = 1.37 x 1024

d)
Molecules
44 g CO2 1 mol CO2
 Mass and Mole Fractions
 Process streams consist of mixtures of liquids or gases, or
solutions of one or more solutes in a liquid solvents.

 The following terms may be used to define the composition

of a mixture of substances, including a species A.

 Mass fraction: xA= mass of A / total mass

Unit: kg A/kg total; g A/g total; lbm A/lbm total

 Mole fraction: yA= moles of A/ total moles

Unit: kmol A/kmol total; lb-moles A/lb-mole total
 Mass and Mole Fractions
 The percent by mass of A is 100xA, and the mole
percent of A is 100yA.

 Note that the numerical value of mass or a mole

fraction does not depend on the mass units in the
numerator and denominator as long as these
units are the same.
 Procedure to Convert from Mass
Fractions to Moles Fractions

1. assuming as a basis of calculation a mass of the

mixture (e.g. 100 kg or 100 lbm)

2. using the known mass fractions to calculate the

mass of each component in the basis quantity,
and converting these masses to moles.

3. taking the ratio of the moles of each component

to the total number of moles
 Exercise
A mixture of gases has the following mass
composition:

O2 16%
CO 4%
CO2 17%
N2 63%
What is the molar composition?
 Solution

Basis: 100g of mixture

Component Mass Fraction Mass MW Moles Mole Fraction

i xi mi Mi ni yi
O2 0.16 16 32 0.500 0.152
CO 0.04 4 28 0.143 0.044
CO2 0.17 17 44 0.386 0.118
N2 0.63 63 28 2.250 0.686
Total 1.00 100   3.279 1.000
 Average Molecular Weight
 The average molecular weight (or mean molecular weight)
of a mixture, M (kg/kmol, lbm/lb-mole, etc.), is the ratio of
the mass of a sample of the mixture (mt) to the number of
moles of all species (nt) in the sample.

 If yi is the mole fraction of the ith the component of the

mixture:
M  y1 M 1  y 2 M 2  .....   y i M i
all component

 If xi is the mass fraction of the ith component of the

mixture:
1 x1 x2 xi
   .....  
M M1 M 2 all component M i
 Exercise
If 100 lbm/min of A (MA=2) and 300 lbm/min of B (MB=3) flow
through a pipe, find

a) Mass fractions of A and B

b) Mole fractions of A and B
c) Mass flow rate of A
d) Molar flow rate of B
e) Total mass flow rate
f) Total molar flow rate

of the mixture.
 Answers
a) 0.25 lbm A/lbm; 0.75 lbm B/lbm
b) 0.333 mole A/mole; 0.667 mole B/mole
c) 100 lbm A/min
d) 100 lb-mole B/min
e) 400 lbm/min
f) 150 lb-moles/min
 Concentration
 Mass concentration (cA):
mass of A
cA 
Volume of mixture

 Molar concentration (CA):

moles of A
CA 
Volume of mixture

 Molarity : moles of A
Molarity 
Volume of mixture in Liter
 Parts per Million (ppm)&
Parts per Billion (ppb)
 To express the concentrations of trace species in
gases or liquids

 May refer to mass ratios (usual for liquids) or mole

ratios (usual for gases)
ppmi= yi x 106
ppbi = yi x 109

 15 ppm SO2 in air means:

every million moles of air contains 15 moles of SO2
mole fractions of SO2 in air is 15 x 10-6
 Pressure
 A pressure is the ratio of a force to the area on which the
force acts (P= F/A).

 Pressure units: N/m2, dynes/cm2, lbf/in2, psi, Pa.

 The fluid pressure may be defined as the ratio F/A, where F

is the minimum force that would have to be exerted on a
frictionless plug in the hole to keep the fluid from
emerging. F (N)

A (m2)

P (N/m2) A (m2)
F (N)
P (N/m2)
 Pressure
 Hydrostatic pressure of the fluid- the pressure P of the fluid
at the base of the column

P = Po + ρgh

 Head pressure- the height of a hypothetical column of the

fluid that would exert the given pressure at its base if the
pressure at the top were zero.
 The equivalence between a pressure P (force/area) and the
corresponding head Ph (height of a fluid) is given by:

P (force/area) =ρ fluid g Ph (head of fluid)

 Atmospheric, Absolute & Gauge Pressure

 Relationship between absolute pressure and gauge pressure is:

Pabsolute = Pgauge + Patmosphere

 The atmosphere pressure can be thought of as the pressure at the

base of a column of fluid (air) located at the point measurement
(e.g. at sea level)

 A typical value of the atmospheric pressure at sea level, 760.0 mm

Hg, has been designated as a standard pressure of 1 atmosphere.

 The fluid pressure referred to so far are all absolute pressures, in

that a pressure of zero corresponds to a perfect vacuum.

 The pressure relative to atmospheric pressure is called the gauge

pressure.
 Temperature of a substance in a particular state of aggregation
(solid, liquid, or gas) is a measure of the average kinetic energy
possessed by the substance molecules.
 Some temperature measuring devices based on substance
properties include electrical resistance of a conductor (resistance
thermometer), voltage at the junction of two similar metals
(thermocouple), spectra of emitted radiation (pyrometer), and
volume of a fixed mass of fluid (thermometer).
 The following relationship may be used to convert a temperature
expressed in one defined scale unit to its equivalent in another;

T (K) = T (˚ C) + 273.15
T (˚R) = T (˚ F) + 459.67
T (˚ R) = 1.8T (K)
T (˚ F) = 1.8T (˚ C) + 32
 Conversion Factor for Interval Temperature

1.8 F 1.8 R 1 F 1C

; ; ;
1C 1K 1 R 1K

 Consider the temperature interval from 0˚C to

5˚C:
 5 Celsius and 5 Kelvin degree in this interval
 9 Fahrenheit and 9 Rankine degree in this
intervals
 Example
Consider the interval from 20˚F to 80˚F
a) Calculate the equivalent temperature in ˚C and
the interval between them
b) Calculate directly the interval in ˚C between the
temperature
 Solution
a) T (C ) 
T ( F )  32
1.8
 20  32 
T1 (20 F )   C  6.7C
 1.8 
 80  32 
T2 (80 F )   C  26.6C
 1.8 
T  T2  T1  26.6  (6.7)  33.3C

1C
b) T (C )  T ( F ) 
1.8 F
1C
 (80  20) F   33.3C
1.8 F
 ANY
QUESTION?