CHAPTER 1
Process Analysis – The Importance of
Mass and Energy Balances
ERIC S. FRAGA
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Process engineering includes the generation, study and analysis of
process designs. All processes must obey some fundamental laws of
conservation. We can group these into conservation of matter and
conservation of energy.w Given a set of operations, if we draw a box
around this set, the amount of mass going in must equal the amount
going out; the same applies to the energy. Mass and energy balance
operations are fundamental operations in the analysis of any process.
This chapter describes some of the basic principles of mass and energy
balances.
1.1.1 Nomenclature and Units of Measurement
In carrying out any analysis, it is important to ensure that all units of
measurement used are consistent. For example, mass may be given in kg
(kilogrammes), in lb (pounds) or in any other units. If two quantities are
given in different units, one quantity must be converted to the same unit
as the other quantity. Any book on chemical engineering (or physics and
chemistry) will have conversion tables for standard units.
There are seven fundamental quantities that are typically used to
describe chemical processes, mass, length, volume, force, pressure,
energy and power, although some of these can be described in terms
w
These two laws are separate in non-nuclear processes. For nuclear processes, we of course have the
well-known equation, E ¼ mc2, which relates mass and energy. For this lecture, we will consider
only non-nuclear processes but the same fundamental principles apply to all processes.
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Table 1 Some of the quantities encountered in process analysis with typical
notation and units of measure
Quantity Notation Dimension Units
Time t T s
Mass m M kg
Mass flow m_ M T1 kg s1
Mole n M mol
Molar flow n_ M T1 mol s1
Pressure P M (T2L2)1 bar
Energy H,Q,W ML2 T2 Joule
of others in the list. For example, volume is length raised to the power 3;
power is energy per unit time, pressure is force per area or force per
length squared, and so on.
Chemical engineering uses some standard notation for many of the
quantities we will encounter in process analysis. These are summarised
in Table 1 where T is time, M is mass and L is length.
In describing processes, the variables that describe the condition of a
process fall into two categories:
(i) extensive variables, which depend on (are proportional to) the size
of the system, such as mass and volume, and
(ii) intensive variables, which do not depend on the size of the system,
such as temperature, pressure, density and specific volume, and
mass and mole fractions of individual system components.
The number of intensive variables that can be specified independently
for a system at equilibrium is known as the degrees of freedom of the
system.
Finally, it is important to note that the precision of quantities is often
not arbitrary. Measuring tools have limits on the precision of measure-
ment. Such measures will have a particular number of significant figures.
Calculations with measurements may not result in an increase in the
number of significant figures. There are two rules to follow to determine
the number of significant figures in the result of calculations:
(i) When two or more quantities are combined by multiplication
and/or division, the number of significant figures in the result
should equal the lowest number of significant figures of any of the
multiplicands or divisors. In the following example, one multi-
plicand has three significant figures and the other, four. There-
fore, the result must have no more than three significant figures
Process Analysis – The Importance of Mass and Energy Balances 3
regardless of the number of figures that are generated by the
calculation:
3:57 4:286 ¼ 15:30102 ) 15:3
(ii) When two or more numbers are either added or subtracted, the
positions of the last significant figure of each number relative to
the decimal point should be compared. Of these positions, the one
farthest to the left is the position of the last permissible significant
figure of the sum or difference. It is important to make sure that
all the numbers are represented with the same exponent if
scientific notation is used:
1:53 103 2:56 ¼ ð1:53 103 Þ ð0:00256 103 Þ
¼ ð1:53 0:00256Þ 103
¼ 1:52744 103
) 1:53 103
1.2 MASS BALANCES
Chemical processes may be classified as batch, continuous or semi-batch
and as either steady-state or transient. Although the procedure required
for performing mass, or material, balances depends on the type of
process, most of the concepts translate directly to all types.
The general rule for mass balance in a system box (a box drawn
around the complete process or the part of the process of interest) is:
input þ generation output consumption ¼ accumulation ð1Þ
where,
(i) input is the material entering through the system box. This will
include feed and makeup streams;
(ii) generation is the material produced within the system, such as the
reaction products in a reactor;
(iii) output is the material that leaves through the system boundaries.
These will typically be the product streams of the process;
(iv) consumption is the material consumed within the system, such as
the reactants in a reactor;
(v) accumulation is the amount of material that builds up within the
system.
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In a steady-state continuous process, the accumulation should always be
zero, which leads to a more simple mass balance equation:
input þ generation ¼ output þ consumption ð2Þ
In the case of systems with no reaction, where mass is neither generated
nor consumed, the result is even simpler:
input ¼ output ð3Þ
1.2.1 Process Analysis Procedure
The analysis of the mass balance of a process typically follows a number
of steps:
(i) Draw and label a diagram for the process, clearly indicating the
information given by the problem definition and the values that
have been requested.
(ii) Choose a basis of calculation if required. If no extensive variables
(e.g. amount or flow rate of a stream) have been defined, a basis
of calculation is required and this must be an extensive variable.
(iii) Write down appropriate equations until zero degrees of freedom
are achieved. In other words, write down enough equations so that
the number of equations equals the number of unknown variables
and such that all the unknown variables are referred to in the
equations. Possible sources of equations include the following:
(a) Mass balances. For a system with n species, n mass balance
equations may be written down. These mass balance equa-
tions may be drawn from a total mass balance and from
individual species mass balances.
(b) Process specifications and conditions such as, for example,
the separation achieved by a distillation unit or the conver-
sion in a reactor.
(c) Definitions such as the relationship between density, mass
and volume or the relationship between mole fraction and
total mass.
(iv) Identify the order in which the equations should be solved.
(v) Solve the equations for the unknown values.
These steps are illustrated by the following example in Section 1.2.2.
