Lesson 3
Lesson 3
➢Two very important laws, which all unit operations obey, are the
laws of conservation of mass and energy
➢Law of Conservation of Mass: states that mass can neither be
created nor destroyed.
➢Thus in a processing plant:
(the total mass of material entering the plant) = (the total mass of
material leaving the plant - any accumulation left in the plant)
➢No accumulation: what goes in must come out
➢All material entering a unit operation must in due course
leave
Ex. Milk being fed into a centrifuge to separate it into skim
milk and cream
Total No. of Kg of Milk entering the centrifuge per minute =
Total No. of kg of Skim milk and cream that leave the
centrifuge per minute
Conservation of Mass and Energy
➢Law of Conservation of Energy: states that energy can neither
be created nor destroyed
(Total energy in the material entering the plant + Energy added) =
(Total energy leaving the plant)
➢More complex, since energy can transform into other forms such
as kinetic energy, potential energy, heat energy, chemical energy,
electrical energy etc.
Conservation of Mass and Energy
➢Law of Conservation of Energy: states that energy can neither be created
nor destroyed
(Total energy in the material entering the plant + Energy added) = (Total
energy leaving the plant)
➢More complex, since energy can transform into other forms such as kinetic
energy, potential energy, heat energy, chemical energy, electrical energy etc.
➢During processing, some of these forms of energy can be converted from
one form to another.
Ex. Mechanical energy in a fluid →converted thru friction into heat energy
Chemical energy in food →converted by the human body into mechanical
energy
➢The law of conservation of
energy can also apply to part of a
process.
Ex. Heating section of the heat
exchanger in the pasteurizer
The heat lost by the hot water
must be equal to the sum of the
heat gained by the milk and the Material balances and energy balances
→balance sheet for materials and energy for a
heat lost from the heat exchanger unit operation applying the laws of
to its surroundings conservation of mass and energy
Overview of an Engineering Process
➢Using a material and energy balance, food engineering
process →series of unit operations
Dimensions and Units
➢All engineering deals with definite and measured quantities, and so depends on the
making of measurements.
➢We must be clear and precise (exact and accurate) in making
➢To make a measurement is to compare the unknown with the known
Ex. Weighing a material compares it with a standard weight of one kilogram
-the result of the comparison is expressed in terms of multiples of the known quantity, that is,
as so many kilograms
-thus, the record of a measurement consists of three parts:
a. the dimension of the quantity
b. the unit which represents a known or standard quantity
c. a number which is the ratio of the measured quantity to the standard quantity
Dimensions and Units
➢Length
➢Mass
➢Time
➢Temperature
➢Force
Units