EKC 122

MASS AND ENERGY BALANCE

PROF. MADYA DR. VEL MURUGAN VADIVELU

& PROF. MADYA DR. LOW SIEW CHUN
 What is Chemical Engineering?
Chemical Engineer Chemist

VS

Work with tons of materials Work with grams of materials

 What is Chemical Engineering?
Chemical Engineer Chemist

•Take chemistry developed in •Carry out lab-scale research,

the lab into practical investigation or invention of
applications for the production the products
of products VS •Design new formula
•Design plants to maximize
productivity and minimize
costs

Example of Job Scope: Example of Job Scope:

Design the method to make Invent better fertilizer
mass production of that
fertilizer possible
 Main Foundations of
Chemical Engineering

Math Physics Chemistry

 The curriculum of study for chemical engineering is similar to that for

chemistry but includes course work in engineering-related areas such as
thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, process design, and control and
electronics.
 Responsibilities of chemical engineers range from research and
design to development, production, technical sales, and, for those
with good communication skills, management.
 Chemical engineering is a problem-solving profession with a
practical bias; expect to answer the question “how” more than any
other. Much of this work is planning: theoretical “modeling” of
production processes and analysis that takes place on computer or in
preliminary reports.
 Chemical engineers work with chemists, accountants, human
resource personnel, and regulators to create efficient, safe and cost-
effective methods of reproducing valuable items.
 Chemical engineers work in teams, mostly for large corporations.
Engineers thrive on the intellectual challenge they get from their
work. Good chemical engineers are always trying to refine their
systems, improve them, and make them safer and more efficient.
 Working Conditions of Chemical Engineer

Chemical Engineer

Manufacturing Research Pilot Plant Business &

Plants Laboratories Facilities Management Offices

 Large-scale production equipment that is  Often require

housed both indoors and outdoors. visiting research and
production facilities.
 Chemical engineers are usually required to
wear safety protective equipment, such as  Interaction with
hats, goggles and steel-toe shoes other people who
are part of a team is
 Workdays may involve of moving from place
critical to the
to place within a facility.
success of projects.
 Profession of Chemical Engineer
 Chemical engineers are employed by almost all companies in the
chemical process industry.
 Petroleum refineries and the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and
service industries also employ chemical engineer
 Their work also extends to processes in nuclear energy, materials
science, food production, the development of new sources of
energy, and even medicine.
 In addition to process and product development and design,
chemical engineers work in areas such as production, research,
environmental studies, market analysis, data processing, sales,
and management.
 They affect or control at some stage the materials or production of
almost every article manufactured on an industrial scale.
 Personal Characteristics of Chemical Engineer
Thinking Analytically, Solving Problems & Being Creative
Apply lab processes to large-scale production and monitor processes

Strong Interest
in Chemistry, Personal
Math & Physic Characteristics
Main three
disciplines

Good Interpersonal, oral &

written communication Skills
Projects often involve complex processes
and problems that require teamwork and the
preparation of reports
Education & Training for Chemical Engineer

 The professionals must have at least a four-year bachelor’s

degree in chemical engineering that includes course work
in physics, math (through differential equations), computers
and engineering-related areas such as heat and mass transfer,
thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, process design and
control, and electronics.
 Economics, psychology, and political science help
chemical engineers to understand the impact of technology
on society.

 Chemical engineers say that although they learn a lot of

theory in the classroom, most of their knowledge of real-
world applications is derived from on-the-job training.
Example of Chemical Engineering Application

Chemistry Part:
A chemist in your company’s research and development
division has discovered that if he mixes two reactants in a
certain proportion at an elevated temperature, he obtains a
product significantly more valuable than both reactants.

Chemical Engineering Part:

The company contemplates manufacturing the product using a
process based on this reaction. Now, can you please think of
what are the engineering problems???
 Example (Cont.)
There are numbers of engineering questions to be addressed, i.e…
 What type of reactor should be used?

 Where should the reactants be obtained?

 Is separation required for the reactor effluent, which contains the product and
unconsumed reactants? Should the separated unconsumed reactants be recycled back to
the reactor?

 How should the reactant and product streams be moved to and from the reactor? Any
heating or cooling equipment needed in the process?

 What can possibly go wrong with the process? What can be done if and when it does?

 How much will all this cost? For how much can the product be sold, and to whom?

 Once the plant has been built, what procedure should be followed for startup?

 When there is need to change the product specifications after the process start working
perfectly, how can it be done without redesigning the entire process?
 Introduction to Chemical Plant

 Chemical plant – industrial process plant that manufactures

(or otherwise processes) chemicals, usually on a large scale.

 Objective - to create new material wealth via the chemical or

biological transformation and or separation of materials.

 Chemical plants use special equipment, units, and technology

in the processes. Other kinds of plants, such as polymer,
pharmaceutical, food, and some beverage production facilities,
power plants, water and wastewater treatment plants use many
technologies that have similarities to chemical plant
technology such as fluid systems.
Introduction to Chemical Plant
Introduction to Chemical Plant
 Introduction to Chemical Plant

Various kinds of unit operations are conducted in

various kinds of units, i.e. vessel, reactor, distillation
column, heat exchanger, mixer, adsorption column, etc.

Different units operation are used for different application

in different chemical plants.

 However, similar type of chemical plant may involve

combination of different units operation, depending on the
process requirement, i.e. the sulfuric acid plants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah6_GJqD048
 The Acid Process
Three Steps to the Production of Sulfuric Acid

1. Gas Preparation
SO 2

2. Conversion
1
SO 2  O 2  SO 3
2

3. SO3 Absorption
SO 3  H 2 O  H 2SO 4
 The Acid Process
Typical H2SO4 Plant Process Flow Diagram – Sulfur Burning

1. Gas Preparation

2. Conversion 3. SO3 Absorption

Unit Operations

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 Distillation
• What is distillation?

Separation of liquid or vapor mixture of 2 or more

substance into its component fractions, based on
difference in boiling point of components.

It is a common separation technique in chemical plant.

It only works if there is significant difference of boiling

points between components in the mixture

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General size: column diameter: 0.3-10m
column height: 3-75m 21
 Gas Absorption
• Gas absorption is a unit operation in which soluble
components of a gas mixture are dissolved in a
liquid.
• Volatile component of a liquid could be stripped or
desorbed into a gas. Stripping or desorption.
• Both operations are usually carried out in vertical,
cylindrical columns or towers. Packings will be used
inside the gas absorbers. It increases the contact
area between liquid and gas.
• Gas absorbers works on the principle of mass
transfer and solubility.

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 b)
a)

c)
a) Industrial scale gas absorber
b) Schematic diagram of gas
absorber
c) Different types of packing in gas
absorbers
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 Evaporator

• An evaporator is a device used to turn the liquid form of a chemical into its gaseous form. The liquid is
evaporated, or vaporized, into a gas.

• Liquid is flashed into vapor after absorbing heat

• Highly viscous fluid will be generated as final product.

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 Reactor
• An equipment to transform a raw material to desired product
via chemical reaction.
• Many chemical principles such as mass transfer, heat
transfer and diffusion are responsible for a reaction in reactor.
• Kinetics of the reaction is important for optimization purpose,
to determine the optimum operating condition so that the
desired product can be produced at maximum quantity.

A+B C+D

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Continuous Stirred
Plug Flow Reactor
Tank Reactor 27
 Membrane Reactor

Fluidized Bed Reactor

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substance A, B

Recycled A, B

Desired
product (C)
desired product (C), side
products (D, E), unreacted Waste
substances (A, B) (D,E)
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 Chemical Engineering – Mass Balance
Any of the plant design may include some or all of the following components.
The items included and level of detail will vary depending on clients desires or
on which phase the project is in. The more mature the process design, the more
of these components will be included.
Process design basis development
Regulatory basis development
Process computer simulation
Advanced spreadsheet-simulation-spreadsheet user interfacing
Mass balances
Energy balances
Technical and economic process alternatives evaluation
Conceptual process design
Detail process design
Process control system design

Mass balance is vital in designing the chemical plant !!!

 Chemical Engineering – Mass Balance
Mass balance - an application of conversion of mass to the analysis of
physical systems.

By accounting for material entering and leaving a system, mass flow can be
identified which might have been unknown, or difficult to measure without
this technique.

The exact conservation law used in the analysis of the system depends on
the context of the problem but all revolve around mass conservation, i.e. that
matter cannot disappear or be created spontaneously.

Therefore, mass balances are used widely in engineering analyses. For

example mass balance theory is used to design chemical reactors, analyse
alternative processes to produce chemicals as well as in pollution dispersion
models and other models of physical systems.
• Mass and Energy Balance?

• Why?
• for monitoring operating efficiency of process
• making calculations for design and development of a
process i.e. quantities required, sizing equipment,
number of items of equipment

Input + generation – output – consumption =

accumulation

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•All mass balance calculations are variations of a
single theme:

•Solving the equations is a matter of simple algebra,

however, you first need to:
• derive the necessary equations from a description of
the process and a collection of process data, and
• determine what is known and what is required.
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