Law of Conservation of Mass

CONSERVATION OF MASS
 Mass can neither be created nor destroyed. However, its composition can
be altered from one form to another.
 CONSERVATION OF MASS
 Mathematical form
 For general case:
 CONSERVATION OF MASS
 The rate of mass flow exiting the system
 CONSERVATION OF MASS
 The rate of mass accumulation within the system boundary, expressed as
a function of time
CLOSED System
 quantity of matter as a system system that contains
the same amount of matter and no mass is crossing the
system boundary
 the boundary is not fixed as long as it contains the same
amount of matter
 ex. a gas trapped within a cylinder and being
compressed by a piston
OPEN System
 region of space as a system system volume is fixed, thus there is a specific
system boundary
 controlled volume
 the quantity of matter inside the system boundary may change
steady flow open systems  open system whose quantity of matter is
unchanged
unsteady flow open systems  open system whose quantity of matter is
changed
 ex. a gas within a certain length of pipe
ISOLATED SYSTEM

system whose mass and energy are

not crossing its boundary
 CONSERVATION OF MASS for an Open System
 Consider a section of pipe used in transporting a fluid.
 Fluid velocity, u is entering the system across a differential area dA
 The total mass of the system may be expressed as :
Simplified for two common situations:
 If the flow is uniform, then all measurable properties of the fluid are
uniform throughout the cross-sectional area (same in the radial direction)
 Ex. Fruit juice flowing in a pipe has the same value of its properties at the
center and the inside surface of the pipe i.e. density, pressure, or
temperature
 Steady-state: the flow rate does not change with time,
although it may be different from one location to another
  Incompressible fluid: a good assumption for most liquids –
there is no change in density

Volumetric flow rate : velocity X area

 According to the conservation of mass principle, for a steady,
uniform, and incompressible flow  the volumetric flow remains
unchanged
 For compressible fluids such as steam and gases, the inlet mass
flow rate will be the same as the exit mass flow rate
 CONSERVATION OF MASS for a Closed System
 Closed system: mass cannot cross the system boundaries; no time rate of
change of mass in the system
Material Balance
 Importance
 Very important in the food industry. They are fundamental to the control
of processing, particularly in the control of yields of the products.
 The first material balances are determined in the exploratory stages of a
new process, improved during pilot plant experiments when the process
is being planned and tested, checked out when the plant is commissioned
and then refined and maintained as a control instrument as production
continues. When any changes occur in the process, the material balances
need to be determined again.
 The increasing cost of energy has caused the food industry to examine
means of reducing energy consumption in processing.
 Importance
 Material balance calculations are employed in tracing the inflow and
outflow of material in a process and thus establish quantities of
components of the whole process stream.
 The procedures are useful in formulating products to specified
compositions from available raw materials, evaluating final
compositions after blending, evaluating processing yields and evaluating
separation efficiencies in mechanical separation systems.
 Importance
 Useful in evaluating individual pieces of equipment, such as a
pump or a homogenizer, as well as overall plant operations
consisting of several processing units
 Ex. Tomato paste manufacturing line
-compositions of raw materials, product streams, and by-product
streams can be evaluated by using material balances
 Steps in Conducting a Material Balance

1. Collect all known data on mass and composition of all inlet

and exit streams from the statement of the problem
2. Draw a block diagram, indicating the process, with inlet and
exit streams properly identified. Draw the system boundary.
3. Write all available data on the block diagram.
4. Select a suitable basis (such as mass or time) for calculations.
The selection of basis depends on the convenience of
computations.
 Steps in Conducting a Material Balance

5. Using eq’n

 Write material balances in terms of the selected basis for

calculating unknowns. For each unknown, an independent
material balance is required.
6. Solve material balances to determine the unknowns.
 PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM

 Before formulating a material balance equation, visualize the

process and determine the boundary of the system for which the
material balance is to be made.
 It is essential that everything about the process that affects the
distribution of components is known. The problem statement
should be adequate to enable the reader to draw a flow diagram.
 PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM
 However, in some cases, basic physical principles associated with a
process may affect the distribution of components in the system but
may not be stated in the problem.
 It is essential that a student remembers the physical principles applied
in the processes used as examples.
 Knowing these principles not only allows the student to solve similar
material balance problems but also provides information that may be
used later as a basis for the design of a new process or for evaluation
of parameters affecting efficiency of a process.
 PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM EXAMPLE

 Determine the amount of sugar (water-free

basis) that can be produced from 100 kg of
sugar solution that contains 20% by weight
of sugar and 1% of a water-soluble
uncrystallizable impurity. The solution is
concentrated to 75% sugar, cooled to 20 C,
centrifuged, and the crystals dried.
 Figure 2.2 is a flow diagram of the same process, but after taking into consideration
how components partition in various steps in the process, additional streams leaving
the system are drawn in the diagram.
 To concentrate a 20% solution to 75% requires the removal of water. Thus, water
leaves the system at the evaporator.
 The process of cooling does not alter the mass; therefore, the same process stream
enters and leaves the crystallizer.
 Centrifugation separates most of the liquid phase from the solid
phase, and the crystals, the solid phase containing a small amount of
retained solution, enter the drier.
 A liquid phase leaves the system at the centrifuge.
 Water leaves the system at the drier.
 SYSTEM BOUNDARIES

 Figure 2.2 shows how the boundaries of the system can be moved to
facilitate solving the problem. If the boundary completely encloses the
whole process, there will be one stream entering and four streams
leaving the system.
 SYSTEM BOUNDARIES

 The boundary can also be set just around the evaporator in which case
there is one stream entering and two leaving.
 The boundary can also be set around the centrifuge or around the
drier.
 A material balance can be carried out around any of these
subsystems or around the whole system. The material balance
equation may be a total mass balance or a component balance.
 TOTAL MASS BALANCE

 The equation in section “Law of Conservation of Mass,” when

used on the total weight of each stream entering or leaving a
system, represents a total mass balance. The following examples
illustrate how total mass balance equations are formulated for
systems and subsystems.
 TOTAL MASS BALANCE EXAMPLE 1

 In an evaporator, dilute material enters and concentrated material

leaves the system. Water is evaporated during the process. If I is the
weight of the dilute material entering the system, W is the weight of
water vaporized, and C is the weight of the concentrate, write an
equation that represents the total mass balance for the system.
Assume that a steady state exists.
 The problem statement describes a system depicted in Fig.
2.3.
The total mass balance is:
Inflow = Outflow + Accumulation
Accumulation = 0 in a steady state system
I=W+C
 TOTAL MASS BALANCE EXAMPLE 2

 Construct a diagram and set up a total mass balance for a

dehydrator. Air enters at the rate of A lb/min, and wet material enters
at W lb/min. Dry material leaves the system at D lb/min. Assume
steady state.
 The problem statement describes a system (dehydrator) where
air and wet material enters and dry material leaves. Obviously,
air must leave the system also, and water must leave the system.
 A characteristic of a dehydrator not written into the problem
statement is that water removed from the solids is transferred to
air and leaves the system with the air stream.
 Figure 2.4 shows the dehydrator system and its boundaries. Also
shown are two separate subsystems—one for the solids and the
other for air—with their corresponding boundaries.
 Considering the whole dehydrator system, the total mass balance is:
W + A = wet air + D
Considering the air subsystem:
A + water = wet air
The mass balance for the solids subsystem is:
W = water + D
 TOTAL MASS BALANCE EXAMPLE 3

 Orange juice concentrate is made by concentrating single-strength

juice to 65% solids followed by dilution of the concentrate to 45%
solids using single-strength juice. Draw a diagram for the system
and set up mass balances for the whole system and for as many
subsystems as possible.
 The problem statement describes a process depicted in Fig. 2.5.
Consider a hypothetical proportionator that separates the original
juice (S) to that which is fed to the evaporator (F) and that (A)
which is used to dilute the 65% concentrate. Also, introduce a
blender to indicate that part of the process where the 65%
concentrate (C65) and the single-strength juice are mixed
toproduce the 45% concentrate (C45).
 The material balance equations for the whole system and the various subsystems
are:
Overall : S = W + C45
Proportionator : S = F + A
Evaporator : F = W + C65
Blender : C65 + A = C45