INTRODUCTION TO MATERIAL BALANCE

MODULE 3
MATERIAL BALANCE
Material balance (also known as mass balance) involves the calculation and accounting of the quantities
of all materials that enter and leave any system or process. It is the simplest expression of the law of
conservation of mass which states that in an isolated system, mass is neither created nor destroyed by
chemical reactions or physical transformations. By accounting for materials entering and leaving a system,
mass flows can be identified which might have been unknown or difficult to measure without using
material balancing.

To visualize what happens in a material balance, take a look at the bank statement below:

Bank of Future Chemical Engineers

Chou, Savings Account
Month Day Notes Deposit Withdrawal Other Balance
September 1 Beginning Balance ₱1 000.00
4 Fund Transfer from ₱10 000.00 ₱11 000.00
Papa
5 Payment for Tuition ₱7 500.00 ₱3 500.00
10 OTC Deposit: Tutorials ₱5 000.00 ₱8 500.00
12 Fund Transfer from ₱2 000.00 ₱10 500.00
Ninang
20 Online Payment: ₱5 500.00 ₱5 000.00
Shopee
21 ATM Withdrawal ₱3 000.00 ₱2 000.00
30 Service charge -₱10.00
30 Interest earned 1.00
30 Closing Balance ₱1 991.00

Looking at Chou’s saving account, we can find four (5) important events: (1) his beginning balance, (2) his
deposits, (3) his withdrawals, (4) his closing balance and, (5) his interests/service charges. So how do we
relate this to material balance?

Remember that material balance is the calculation and accounting of the quantities of all materials that
enter and leave a system or process. So, imagine Chou’s saving’s account as a system wherein money is
the material. His beginning balance of ₱1 000.00 is the system’s initial condition. His deposits are an influx
of material into the system and his withdrawals are an outflux of material from the system. His closing
balance of ₱1 991.00 is the system’s final condition. The difference between the initial condition and the
final condition is the accumulation of material in the system (which can be either positive or negative).
His interest earned is a generation of material and his service charge is the consumption of material.

We can simplify these events into a single general equation of material balance.
Accumulation = Initial Mass – Final Mass = Mass Influx – Mass Outflux + Mass Generation - Mass Consumption

Where the generation and consumption of materials in an industrial process occurs because of chemical
reactions.
Your material balance equation however, might vary depending on a few factors: (a) system and, (b)
process.

SYSTEM
A system is any arbitrary portion of a process set out specifically for analysis. A control volume (also
known as system boundary) is any imaginary or tangible boundary which encloses the system.

There are two kinds of systems:

CLOSED SYSTEM
A system is closed if there is no mass passing through the control volume during the period of analysis.

OPEN SYSTEM
A system is open if mass can pass through the control volume during the period of analysis.
PROCESS
A process is a series of operations involving the physical, chemical, or biological transformation of an input
material for the purpose of achieving a desired product material.

There are three kinds of processes:

BATCH
The feed materials are placed into the system at the beginning of the process. These materials are held
for a period of time known as residence time or retention period during which the required physical and/or
chemical changes have occurred. No masses cross the system boundary during this time. Once all required
physical and/or chemical changes have occurred, all products are removed at the same time. Batch
processes fall into the category of closed systems.

SEMIBATCH / SEMICONTINUOUS
The feed materials are continuously added at the beginning of the process. There is only an influx of
materials entering the system and no outflux of materials until the required physical and/or chemical
changes have occurred. This process is useful when the system’s heat of reaction is large. The heat evolved
can be controlled by regulating the rate of addition of the reactants.
CONTINUOUS
The input and output materials are continuously transferred across the system boundary; i.e., the feed
continuously enters the system and the product continuously leaves the system. The physical and/or
chemical changes take place during the flow of materials.

This type of process can be classified as steady state and unsteady state processes.

STEADY STATE PROCESS

The steady state process can be defined as the process in which all the operating conditions
(temperature, pressures, compositions, flow rate…. etc.) remains constant with time. In such
process there is no accumulation in the system, and the equation of material balance can be
written as:

INPUT = OUTPUT

UNSTEADY STATE PROCESS

For an unsteady state process, not all of the operating conditions in the process (e.g.,
temperature, pressure, compositions, flow rate… etc.) remain constant with time, hence the
accumulation of materials within the system can be written as follows:

INPUT – OUTPUT = ACCUMULATION

MATERIAL BALANCE EQUATION APPLICATION
Your success in finishing the program of BS Chemical Engineering relies heavily on your mastery of material
balance calculations since this is a prerequisite to all other calculations in the solution of both simple and
complex chemical engineering problems.

Below is a list on how to solve material balance problems taken from Basic Principles and Calculations in
Chemical Engineering by Himmelblau and Riggs. This is meant to guide you as you solve the various
problems presented throughout the course.

1. Read and understand the problem statement

2. Draw a sketch of the process and specify the system boundary
3. Place labels (symbols, numbers, and units) on the diagram for all of the known flows, materials,
and compositions
4. Obtain any data you know are needed to solve the problem but are missing
5. Choose a basis
6. Determine the number of variables whose values are unknown (the unknowns)
7. Determine the number of independent equations and carry out a degree-of-freedom analysis
8. Write down the equations to be solved in terms of the knowns and unknowns
9. Solve the equations and calculate the quantities asked for in the problem
10. Check your answer(s)

The figure below compares the skills of a novice in problem solving with those of an expert.
Degrees of Freedom (DF) Analysis
The procedure of determining whether enough information is given to solve the problem. To determine
the degrees of freedom (DF):

DF = U–V

where U = number of unknown variables to be solved

V = number of independent equations relating the unknown variables

An equation is independent if it cannot be derived algebraically from the other equations.

Possible cases depending on the value of DF:

DF = 0: there are equal number of unknowns and independent equations and the
problem, in principle, can be solved.
DF > 0: there are more unknowns than independent equations and the problem is
underspecified and has infinitely many solutions.
DF < 0: there are more independent equations than unknowns and the problem is over
specified and has no exact solution.

Possible Sources of Equations in Material Balance Analysis:

1. Material balance equations
2. Stoichiometric relationships based on chemical reactions
3. Energy balance equations
4. Physical constraints on some variables
5. Process specifications
6. Physical properties and laws

Tie Element
The tie element or key component is the material which enters and leaves the system in a single stream
or one which enters and leaves without any change. An element, compound or an unreactive mass like
the ash present in coal can be treated as a key component. Proper choice of key components makes the
calculation of the quantitative ratio of the two streams easier. Consider, for example, absorption of
ammonia from a mixture of air and ammonia by contacting it with pure water as the solvent. Assume that
100 kmol of the gas mixture containing 10% ammonia is treated to reduce the ammonia content to, say,
1%. The quantity of the final gas leaving the absorber is easily obtained by taking ammonia-free air as the
tie element. Since air is insoluble in water, all the air in the entering stream, that is 90 kmol, should be
present in the exit gas as well. Since the air in the exit gas constitute 99.0% of the exit stream, the total
exit gas would be 90/0.99 = 90.91 kmol.

Though the solution of material balance problems is very much simplified through the use of tie element
concept, it is not always necessary that certain component be present as key component for solving
material balance problems. Also, in complex processes more than one key component will be necessary
for solution.
EXAMPLE 9.1: Coal contains 85% carbon and 15% ash. The cinder formed in the combustion of coal
contains 80% ash and 20% carbon. Determine the weight of cinder formed by the combustion of 100 kg
of coal and the percent of fuel value that is lost.

Solution Basis: 100 kg of coal (refer to Figure 9.3)

Ash enters the system in a single stream, that is, with the coal fired. It leaves the system in a single stream
without any change, with the cinder formed by the combustion. Therefore, ash can be used as a key
component for getting the quantity of cinder formed.

The weight of ash entering the system is

15
𝑥 100 = 15𝑘𝑔
100

Let w be the weight of cinder formed.

The weight of ash leaving is

80
𝑤𝑋 𝑘𝑔
100

Taking an ash balance, we get

80
15 = 𝑤 𝑥
100

𝑤 = 18.75 𝑘𝑔

Hence, 18.75 kg cinder is formed by the combustion of 100 kg coal.

Since 20% of cinder is carbon, weight of carbon that is lost unburned when 100 kg of
coal is charged is equal to (20/100) x 18.75 = 3.75 kg. As the coal originally contained 85 kg
of carbon, the percent fuel value that is lost in the cinder is

(3.75/85) x 100 = 4.41%

Basis for Calculation
In complex problems involving a number of different materials and quantities, the choice of a basis is
critical for simplifying the solution. Usually, a certain quantity of one of the pertinent components is
chosen as the basis. This may be the quantity of one of the streams entering or leaving the process, the
quantity of one of the active components entering or leaving the process, or the quantity of one of the
inert components entering or leaving the process. In Example 9.1 we have used 100 kg of coal burned as
the basis for calculation which was an obvious choice for solving that problem. We could have used 100
kg of carbon in the coal as the basis and obtained the same result as above; but the solution will not be
that easy as the one provided above. In many situations the statement of the problem makes the choice
of the basis quite obvious. Consider, for example, 1000 kg/h of 40% NaOH solution being concentrated to
5% by evaporation. How much water is to be evaporated? The basis to be chosen is one hour operation
or 1000 kg/h feed to the evaporator.

Depending upon the choice of the basis, the final answer to the problem may require multiplication of the
values obtained by a scale factor. It is preferable to choose as basis a quantity which gives the answer
directly. But this may lead to more tedious calculations in some situations. The following guidelines may
be useful in selecting a basis.

a) For streams which are mixtures of gases and whose analyses are given on volume percent, the
problem can be handled best by choosing 100 mol or kmol as a basis. Note that the volume
percent is equal to the mole percent for gases.

b) For solid streams 100 kg or 1 mol (or 1 kmol) of a pure component solid can be chosen as a basis.
For solid streams containing substances like ash, gangue, inert cake, etc. the weight basis should
be used for computation. Liquid streams also can be handled by choosing 100 kg or 1 mol as a
basis.

c) If the problem demands answers as a time rate, as for example the production rate in kg/h or the
flow rate in cubic meters per hour, it would be convenient to make the computation on the basis
of the quantity of material flowing in unit time.

d) In processes like drying and humidification operations, unit weight (or unit mole) of dry gas (air)
and the accompanying vapor will serve as a good basis for material balance calculations.
EXAMPLE 9.2 Wood containing 40% moisture is dried to 5% moisture. What mass of water in kilograms is
evaporated per kg of dry wood?

Solution Basis: 1 kg of dry wood in the feed to the drier (Figure 9.4)

The entering material contains 40/60 = 2/3 kg water per kg dry wood and the leaving material contains
5/95 kg water per kg dry wood. If w be the weight of water evaporated, then water balance about the
drier yields

40 5
1𝑥 =𝑤+
60 95

40 5
𝑤= − = 0.614 𝑘𝑔
60 95

The amount of water evaporated per kg dry wood is 0.614 kg.

If we were required to find the amount of water evaporated per kilogram of wet wood entering the drier,
the basis of 1 kg of dry wood could still be chosen for solving the problem. Knowing that 1 kg of dry wood
is associated with 100/60 kg of wet wood, the water evaporated per kg of wet material is

60
0.614 𝑥 = 0.368 𝑘𝑔
100
SAMPLE PROBLEM NO. 1
It is required to prepare 1250 kg of a solution composed of 12 wt.% ethanol and 88 wt.% water. Two
solutions are available, the first contains 5 wt.% ethanol, and the second contains 25 wt.% ethanol. How
much of each solution are mixed to prepare the desired solution?

Video discussion of solution: https://youtu.be/TTwrS0l0N08

SAMPLE PROBLEM NO. 2
Membranes represent a relatively new technology for the separation of gases. One use that has attracted
attention is the separation of nitrogen and oxygen from air. The figure below illustrates a nano porous
membrane that is made by coating a very thin layer of polymer on a porous graphite supporting layer.
What is the composition of the waste stream if the waste stream amounts to 80% of the input stream?

Video discussion of solution: https://youtu.be/P2PzqNj31t8

SAMPLE PROBLEM NO. 3
A gaseous mixture (F) consists of 16 mol% CS2 and 84 mol% air is fed to the absorption column at a rate
of 1000 Ibmole/hr. Most of the CS2 input are absorbed by liquid benzene (L) which is fed to the top of the
column. 1 % of benzene input are evaporated and out with the exit gas stream which consists of 96 mol%
air, 2 mol% CS2 and 2 mol% benzene. The product liquid stream (P) consists of benzene and CS2. Calculate
the mole flow rates of (G), (L) and (P) and the compositions.

Video discussion of solution: https://youtu.be/iJYQQ03urmY

SAMPLE PROBLEM NO. 4
In the processing of the fish, after the oil is extracted, the fish cake is dried in rotary drum dryers, finely
ground, and packed. The resulting product contains 65% protein. In a given batch of fish cake that contains
80% water (the remainder is dry cake), 100 kg of water is removed, and it is found that the fish cake is
then 40% water. Calculate the weight of the fish cake originally put into the dryer.

Video discussion of solution:

TRY THIS:
Two streams enter a mixer. Stream 1 is 30% A and the rest B. Stream 2 is 40% A and the rest C. One stream
exits the mixer. What is the concentration of A, B, and C in the product if 120kg of stream 2 makes 380 kg
of product?