Material Balance For Non-Reactive System Chapter 3

3.0 MATERIAL BALANCE FOR NON-REACTIVE SYSTEM

3.1 Introduction
3.1.1 Discuss the differences between steady state process and transient process. Give
and example for each process.
(Final Exam Sep 2011)
3.1.2 Explain briefly and give an example for each of the following processes:

i. Batch process.
ii. Continuous process.
iii. Transient process.
iv. Steady state process.
(Final Exam Oct 2012)
3.1.3 State the characteristic of the following chemical processes: batch process,
continuous processes and semi batch processes.
(Final Exam Apr 2011)
3.1.4 Explain the differences between a batch process and a semi-batch process and
give examples for each process.
(Final Exam Mar 2012)
3.1.5 Write down a general material balance for a process and then simplify the
balance for a continuous steady state process with no reaction.
(Final Exam Sep 2011)
3.1.6 List four (4) independent equations that could be used to analyze the degree of
freedom (DOF) in solving the material balance problems.
(Final Exam Mar 2012)
3.1.7 A young engineer works in a factory which produces sulfuric acid using several
mixing tanks. He does some quick material balance calculation to determine
whether the total mole is conserved or not for these mixing tanks that is total
mole in = total mole out. Surprisingly, the total mole is not balance. Suggest four
(4) reasons for the imbalance.
(Final Exam Mar 2012)

3.2 Balance On Single Unit Process

3.2.1 A stream containing 25 wt% methanol in water is to be diluted with a second
stream containing 10 wt% methanol to form a product containing 17 wt%
methanol.

i. Choose a convenient basis of calculation, draw and label a flowchart of

this process and calculate the ratio (kg 17 wt%/kg 25 wt% solution)
ii. What feed rate of 10% solution would be required to produce 1250 kg/h
of product.

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 Material Balance For Non-Reactive System Chapter 3

Ans: Basis 100 kg/h at feed stream (i) F2 = 114.29 kg/h, F3 = 214.29 kg/h, 2.143 kg F3/kg F1
(ii) F2 = 666.67 kg

3.2.2 A waste acid stream from a nitration process contains 35 wt% H2SO4, 32 wt%
HNO3 and 33 wt% H2O is to be concentrated to 38 wt% H2SO4, and 40 wt%
HNO3 by mixing with a stream of 98 wt% H2SO4 and a another stream of 72 wt%
HNO3. If 1000 kg of the acid product is to be produced:

i. Draw and label the flow diagram for the process.

ii. Calculate the number of degree of freedom (DOF) for the process.
iii. Calculate the mass of three acid streams to be mixed.
(Final Exam Oct 2012)
Ans: (iii) 285.6 kg, 286.1 kg, 428.3 kg

3.2.3 A paint mixture containing 25% of a pigment and the balance water sells for
RM18.00/kg, and a mixture containing 12% pigment sells for RM 10.00/kg. If a
paint retailer produces a blend containing 17% pigment. How much (RM/kg) is
the cost for the new blending?
(Final Exam Apr 2007)
Ans: RM13.08/kg

3.2.4 A cereal product containing 55 wt% water is made at rate of 500 kg/h. Then, the
product is dried so that it contains only 30 wt% water. Determine :

i. The water has to be evaporated per hour.

ii. The amount of the dried product per hour.

Ans: (i) 178.57 kg/h (ii) 321.43 kg/h

3.2.5 A slurry contains of 70 wt% water and 30 wt% solid is to be concentrated to

60 wt% solid in an evaporator.

i. Sketch a flow diagram for the process and label it completely.

ii. Take 100 kg/s of slurry feed as a basis; calculate the ratio of water
removed to the product slurry.
(Final Exam Mar 2012)
Ans: (ii) 1 kg water removed/ kg product slurry

3.2.6 A cereal product containing 55 wt% water is made at the feed rate of 500 kg/h.
To ensure its taste, this cereal is added with the sugar at 1:0.25 (kg/kg) of cereal:
sugar ratio. Then this cereal has to dry up to contain only 30 wt% water.

i. Draw and label the flow diagram completely.

ii. Determine how much water has to be vaporized and the cereal product
can be produced.

Ans: (ii) 154. 47 kg water/h, 401.78 kg cereal/h

3.2.7 Wardina Safia plans to make a jam tart cookie for raya’s day. In order to make
this cookie, she needs to prepare a pineapple jam. The 3 kg of pineapple fruit
that she bought contains 70 wt% solid and the balance is water. This pineapple is
mixed with the sugar at 1:1.5 (kg/kg) of pineapple : sugar ratio. This mixture is
fed to an evaporator. During the evaporation process, two-third of the water is

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 Material Balance For Non-Reactive System Chapter 3

boiled off.

i. Draw the flowchart (Hint: Only one process unit is involved).

ii. Determine the amount of pineapple jam that can be prepared and its
composition.

Ans: (ii) 6.9 kg, 0.9565 kg sugar/kg, 0.0435 kg water/kg

3.2.8 In a production of apricot jam, apricots of weight compositions 30% solid and
70% water are mixed with sugar where the amount of sugar is 2.5 times the
weight of apricot. After the mixing process, the mixture is concentrated in an
evaporator where 70 wt% of water is boiled off. Calculate:

i. The jam production rate if 10 kg/h apricots are fed to the process.
ii. The feed rate of apricots (kg/h) required to produce 10 kg jam/h.
(Final Exam Apr 2008)
Ans: (i) 30.1 kg/h (ii) 3.3223 kg/h

3.2.9 A liquid stream containing 50 mol% of benzene and the balance toluene is fed to
a continuous single-stage evaporator at a rate of 1320 mol/s. In this process, 48%
of benzene in the feed is evaporated. The liquid and vapor streams leaving the
evaporator containing both toluene and benzene and the liquid stream contain
42.5 mol% of benzene.

i. Draw and label a flowchart of the process.

ii. Determine the composition leaving the evaporator as vapor.
(Final Exam Oct 2010)
Ans: (ii) 0.6182 mol B/mol, 0.3818 mol T/mol

3.2.10 A mixture of 1000 kg/h containing equal parts by mass of methanol and water is
distilled. Product streams leave the top and the bottom of the distillation
column. The flow rate of the bottom stream is measured and found to be
673 kg/h and overhead stream is analyzed and found to contain
96 wt% methanol.

i. Draw and label the flow diagram completely.

ii. Express DOF (Degree of Freedom) analysis for the overall system.
iii. Calculate the mass and mole fractions of methanol and the molar flow
rates of methanol and water in the bottom product stream.
(Final Exam Apr 2010)
Ans: (iii) 0.279 kg CH3OH/kg, 0.176 kmol CH3OH/kmol, 5.8 x 103 mol CH3OH/h,
2.71 x 104 mol H2O/h

3.2.11 1250 kilograms per hour (kg/h) of a mixture containing equal parts by mass of
ethanol and water is distilled. Product streams leave the top and the bottom of
the distillation column. The flow rate of the bottom stream is measured and
found to be 747 kg/h, and the overhead stream is analyzed and found to contain
96.0 wt% of ethanol (C2H5OH).

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 Material Balance For Non-Reactive System Chapter 3

i. Draw and label a flowchart of the process and do the degree-of-freedom

analysis.
ii. Calculate the mass and mole fractions of ethanol and the molar flow rates
of ethanol and water in the bottom product stream.
(Final Exam Apr 2007)
Ans: (ii) 0.190 kg C2H5OH/kg, 0.084 mol C2H5OH/mol, 3.085 x 103 mol C2H5OH/h,
3.3.62 x 104 mol H2O/h

3.2.12 A gas stream contains 20 mole% hexane (C6H14) and the remainder nitrogen. The
stream flows to a condenser, where its temperature is reduced and some of the
hexane is liquefied. The hexane mole fraction in the gas stream leaving the
condenser is 0.05. Liquid hexane condensate is recovered at a rate of 1.5 L/min.

Data:
Molecular Weight of C = 12
Specific Gravity of C6H14 = 0.659

i. Draw and label a flowchart of the process.

ii. Determine the molar flowrate of liquid hexane condensate.
iii. Calculate the flowrate of the gas stream leaving the condenser in
mol/min.
iv. Determine the percentage of the hexane entering the condenser is
recovered as a liquid.
(Final Exam Apr 2006)
Ans: (ii) 11.49 mol/min (iii) 61.28 mol/min (iv) 78.95%

3.2.13 A gas stream contains 20 mol% hexane and the remainder nitrogen. The stream
flows to a condenser, where its temperature is reduced and some of the hexane is
liquefied. The hexane mole fraction in the gas stream leaving the condenser is
0.04. Liquid hexane condensate is removed at a rate 2 mol/min.

i. Draw and label the flowchart of the process.

ii. Determine the molar flow rate of the gas stream leaving the condenser in
mol/min.
iii. Calculate percentage of the hexane entering the condenser recovered as
liquid.
iv. If all the hexane from the feed stream is liquefied, calculate the molar flow
rate of the gas and liquid streams leaving the condenser.
v. If 35% of the feed hexane is liquefied, determine the molar flow rate and
composition of the gas and liquid streams leaving the condenser.
(Final Exam Nov 2005)
Ans: (ii) 10 mol/min, 12 mol/min (iii) 83.33% (iv) 2.4 mol liq/min, 9.6 mol gas/min
(v) 7 mol gas/min, 93 mol liq/min, 13.98 C6H14 mol%, 86.02 mol% N2

3.2.14 A gas mixture containing 15 mol% of benzene (C6H6) and the balance air is
flowing at a rate of 100 kg/h to a dilution tower. The mixture is to be diluted
with pure air to reduce the benzene concentration to 5 mol%. The diluted
mixture flows out from the dilution tower for further processes.

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 Material Balance For Non-Reactive System Chapter 3

Data:
Air consists of 21 mol% O2 and 79 mol% N2 and an average molecular weight of
Air is 29.0

i. Draw and label the flowchart of the process.

ii. Determine the average molecular weight of the initial gas mixture.
iii. Calculate the molar flow rate of the mixture, benzene and air before
dilution process.
iv. Determine the required amount of pure air in mol/h for the dilution
process.
v. Calculate the mass of the diluted mixture stream in kg.
(Final Exam Apr 2005)
3.2.15 In a production plant, 1000 kg per hour of a mixture containing 60 wt% of
methanol (CH3OH) and 40 wt% of water (H2O) is fed to the distillation column.
Product streams leave the top and the bottom of the distillation column. The
flow rate of the bottom stream is 500 kg/h and the overhead stream contains
96 wt% of methanol.

i. Draw and label a flowchart of the process.

ii. Calculate the mass flowrate of methanol and water in the bottom product
stream.
iii. Calculate the mole fraction of methanol and water in the feed stream.
iv. Calculate the molar flowrate of methanol and water in the bottom
product stream.

Data: Molecular weight C = 12, O = 16 and H = 1

(Final Exam Mar 2005)
Ans: (ii) 120 kg M/h, 380 kg W/h (iii) 0.4576 kmol M/kmol, 0.5424 kmol W/kmol
(iv) 3.75 kmol M/h, 21.11 kmol W/h

3.2.16 In a production plant, 5000 kg per hour of a mixture containing 50 wt% of

benzene (C6H6) and 50 wt% of toluene (C7H8) is fed to the distillation column.
The gas product goes to the top stream and the liquid product goes to the
bottom stream of the distillation column. The flow rate of the overhead stream is
3500 kg/h and the bottom stream contains 5 wt% of benzene.

i. Draw and label a flowchart of the process.

ii. Calculate the mass flow rate of the bottom product stream in kg/h.
iii. Calculate the mass flow rate of benzene and toluene in the bottom
product stream.
iv. Calculate the mole fraction of benzene and toluene in the feed stream.
v. Calculate the molar flow rate of benzene and toluene in the bottom
product stream.
vi. Calculate the weight composition of benzene and toluene in the top
stream.

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 Material Balance For Non-Reactive System Chapter 3

Data: Molecular weight C = 12 and H = 1

(Final Exam Nov 2005)
Ans: (ii) 1500 kg/h (iii) 75 kg/h, 1425 kg/h (iv) 0.54 kmol C6H6/kmol, 0.46 kmol C7H8/kmol
(v) 0.96 kmol C6H6/h, 15.49 kmol C7H8/h (vi) 69.29 wt% C6H6, 30.071 wt% C7H8

3.2.17 Benzene, C6H6 an organic chemical compound which is colourless and highly
flammable has flammable limit of 4 mol %. A mixture of 10 mol % benzene and
air is flowing at a rate of 500 kg/hr is to be diluted with pure air to reduce
benzene concentration to the lower flammability limit. Note that air containing
21 mol% O2 and 79 mol% N2 and to have average molecular weight of 29.

i. Draw and label a flow chart of the process.

ii. Calculate the average molecular weight of the inlet mixture.
iii. Determine the required flow rate of air to dilute benzene.
iv. Calculate the percent by mass of oxygen in the product gas.

(Final Exam Oct 2006)

Ans: (ii) 33.9 kg/kmol (iii) 22.1238 kmol/h (iv) 76.7% N2, 23.3 % O2

3.2.18 A total of 4800 kg/h of fresh feed contains 35.0 wt% of crystalline sodium
carbonate (Na2CO3) and the balance is H2O is combined with a recycle stream
and fed into an evaporator. The concentrated streams leaves the evaporators
contains 80.0 wt% Na2CO3 is fed into crystallizer. The product crystal from the
crystallizer contains 98.2 wt% Na2CO3 and is collected as the final products. In
this system. The recycle ratio (mass of recycle/ mass of fresh feed) is 0.1.

i. Draw and label the process flow diagram.

ii. Express the DOF analysis for overall system and crystallizer.
iii. Calculate the amount of water removed in the evaporator and mass
flowrate of crystalline Na2CO3 product.
i. Calculate the feed flowrates to the evaporator and crystallizer.
ii. Calculate the composition for all components in the recycle stream and
the stream feeds into the evaporators (after mixing with the recycle
stream).
(Final Exam Apr 2009)
Ans: (ii) 3089.21 kg/h, 17110.79 kg/h (iii) 5280 kg/h, 2190.79 kg/h (iv) R − 0.1513 kg Na2CO3/kg,
0.8486 kg H2O/kg, E – 0.3319 kg Na2CO3 /kg, 0.6681 kg H2O/kg

3.3 Balance On Multiple Unit Processes

3.3.1 Fresh orange juice contains 10 wt% solids and the balance is water, and
concentrated orange juice contains 42 wt% solids. Initially a single evaporation
stage was used for the concentration, but volatile constituents of the juice
escaped with water, leaving the concentrated juice with a flat taste. This problem
is overcome by bypassing the evaporator with a fraction of the fresh juice. The
juice that enters the evaporator is concentrated to 55 wt% solid, and the
evaporator product stream is mixed with the bypassed fresh juice to obtain the
desired final concentration.

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 Material Balance For Non-Reactive System Chapter 3

i. Draw and label a flowchart for the process.

ii. Determine the amount of product (42% concentrate) produced per 100 lbm
of fresh juice fed to the process.

iii. Determine the fraction of the feed that bypasses the evaporator.
iv. Most of the volatile ingredients that provide the taste of the concentrate
are contained in the fresh juice that bypasses the evaporator. You could
get more of these ingredients by evaporating to 90% solid (for example)
instead of 55% and then bypass a greater portion of the fresh juice to
obtain an even better tasting product. Criticize this proposal by giving
possible drawbacks.
(Final Exam Sep 2011)
Ans: (ii) 23.8 lbm, 76.2 Ibm (iii) 0.07

3.3.2 A liquid mixture containing 30 mole% benzene (B), 25 mole% toluene (T) and
45 mole% xylene (X) is fed at a rate of 1275 kmol/h to a distillation system which
consists of 2 distillation columns. The bottom product from the first column is to
contain 99 mole% X and no B and 98% of the X is to recover in this stream. The
overhead product from the first column is fed to a second column. The overhead
product from the second column contains 99 mole% B and no X. The benzene
recovered in this stream represents 96% of the B in the feed of this column.

i. Do degree of freedom analysis.

ii. The molar flowrate (kmol/h) in each product stream from both columns.
iii. The mole fractions of each component in each product stream.

3.3.3 In a factory, fresh orange juice which contains 12.0 wt% solids and the balance
water is fed to a two-stages (E1 and E2) evaporation unit where it is heated until
it is concentrated to 58 wt% solid. A portion of the fresh juice bypasses the
evaporator and combines with the concentrated juice to achieve the desired juice
composition of 42 wt% solid as shown in the figure below.

i. If the value of V is twice of W, B is quarter of F and the fresh juice feed

enters at 2000 kg/h, redraw and label the flowchart completely.
ii. Determine the DOF analyses for overall system, mixing point, E1 and E2.
iii. Determine the values of P, C, Q, B, M in kg/h and composition at M
stream.

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 Material Balance For Non-Reactive System Chapter 3

Ans: (iii) P = 571.43 kg/h, C = 372.67 kg/h, Q = 1801.24 kg/h, B = 108.76 kg/h, M = 1325.05 kg/h,
0.1631 kg solid/kg, 0.8369 kg water/kg

3.3.4 Air consists of approximately 21 mol% oxygen and 79 mol% nitrogen. Liquid
nitrogen is produced by liquefying air and distilling it at low temperature. The
process uses two distillation columns as shown in Figure 1. All compositions are
reported in mole percent. On a basis of 150 kmol/h of liquid nitrogen produced,
calculate:

i. The molar flow rate of feed.

ii. The molar flow rate of stream 1.
iii. The percent recovery of nitrogen in the nitrogen-rich product stream.

(Final Exam Apr 2008)

Ans: (i) 193.93 kmol/h (ii) 116.36 kmol/h, 77.58 kmol/h (iii) 97.4%

3.3.5 Seawater is to be desalinized by reverse osmosis using the scheme as indicated

in the figure below.

i. Express DOF (Degree of Freedom) analysis for the overall system and the
mixing point.
ii. Calculate the waste brine removal (W) and desalinized water production
(D).
iii. If the ratio of brine recycle (R) to cell feed (M) is 1:4, determine the brine
recycle (R)and the NaCI composition, x for this stream.

(Final Exam Oct 2008)

Ans: (i) 45.45 kg/h, 54.55 kg/h (ii) 33.33 kg/h, 133.32 kg/h, 0.1099 kg NaCl/kg

3.3.6 100 kg fresh feed strawberry juice contains 15.0 wt% solids and the balance is

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 Material Balance For Non-Reactive System Chapter 3

water. At the end of the process, the product which is concentrated strawberry
juice contains 45.0 wt% solids. Initially a single evaporation process was used for
the concentration, but volatile constituents of the juice escaped with the water,
leaving the concentrate with a flat taste. In order to overcome the flat taste
problem, a new process has been developed which is by bypassing the
evaporator with a fraction of the fresh juice. The juice that enters the evaporator
is concentrated to 58 wt% solids. The evaporator product stream is mixed with
the bypassed fresh juice to achieve the desired final concentration. The flowchart
of the process is shown in the figure below.

i. Label the known and unknown values of this process.

ii. Perform the degree-of-freedom analysis for the overall system, the
evaporator, and the bypass-evaporator product mixing point.
iii. Calculate the amount of concentrated product produced per 100 kg fresh
juice fed to the process.
iv. Calculate the fraction of the feed that bypass the evaporator.
v. Calculate the amount of water evaporated from the evaporator.
vi. Calculate the ratio of water evaporated from the evaporator to water in
the feed entering the evaporator.
(Final Exam Apr 2007)
And: (iii) 33.33 kg (iv) 0.1008 (v) 66.67 kh/h (vi) 0.87

3.3.7 A process for the separation of a propelyne-propane mixture to produce

99 mol% propylene and 95 mol% propane is shown in the figure below. A liquid
mixture containing 50 mole% propylene and 50 mole% propane is fed to a
distillation column. The mixture of overhead product leaving the DC-1 is fed to
the column DC-2. The overhead product from the second column contains 97%
of propylene in the feed to this column. The bottom product come out from DC-2
is consisting of pure propylene and recycles back to DC-1.

i. Redraw and label a flowchart of this process.

ii. Assuming basis of calculation is 100 mol/h mixture fed to the DC-1,
calculate the amount of propylene recycles to DC-1.

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 Material Balance For Non-Reactive System Chapter 3

(Final Exam Apr 2007)

Ans: (ii) 1.4658 mol

3.3.8 In the production of coconut oil, coconuts containing 15 wt% oil and 85 wt%
solids are crushed and fed to the extractor along with a recycled stream of liquid
solvent. The feed ratio is 5 kg solvent per 1 kg coconuts. The crushed coconuts
are suspended in the liquid, and essentially all of the oil in the coconuts is
extracted into the solvent. The extractor effluent passes to a filter. The filter cake
contains 65.0 wt% solids and the balance oil and solvent, the latter two in the
same ratio in which they emerge from the extractor. The filter cake is discarded
and the liquid filtrate is fed to a heated evaporator in which the solvent is
vaporized and the oil remains as a liquid. The oil is stored in drums and
shipped. The solvent vapor is subsequently cooled and condensed, and the
liquid solvent condensate is recycled to the extractor. A below figure illustrates
process flow of the production of coconuts oil.

i. Draw and label each component in every streams of the process

flowchart.
ii. Calculate the mass flow rate of each stream in the process.
iii. Calculate the yield of coconut oil product (kg oil produced/kg coconuts
fed).
iv. Calculate the ratio of recycle solvent to fresh solvent feed (kg solvent
recycled/kg fresh feed).

(Final Exam Apr 2006)

Ans: (ii) If Basis 100 kg coconut fed/h - 600 kg/h, 129.23 kg/min, 470.77 kg/h14.12 kg/h, 456.65
kg/h, 43.45 kg/h (iii) 0.14 (iv) 10.53

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 Material Balance For Non-Reactive System Chapter 3

3.3.9 A widely employed method of gas purification is to selectively absorb

undesirable constituents of the gas into a specifically selected liquid medium.
The liquid medium is subsequently regenerated by chemical or heat treatment to
release the absorbed material. In a particular installation, the purification system
for the removal of sulfur compounds, designed to operate at a feed rate up to
820 mol/h, is temporarily subjected to a feed rate of 1000 mol/h. Since the
absorption system simply can accommodate only 82% of this flow, the overload
is bypassed and the exit H2S concentration of the absorption system is reduced
far enough so that the mixed exit stream contains only 1% H2S and 0.3% COS on
a mole basis. The feed stream consists of (mole basis) 15% CO2, 5% H2S,
1.41% COS, and the balance is CH4. The flow diagram for the process is given in
the figure below.

i. Redraw and completely label the flow diagram for the process.
ii. Make a table of Degree of Freedom Analysis for the absorption tower, the
mixing point,and the overall process. Which unit should you solve first?
Justify your answer.
iii. Determine flow rates of the streams D, E and F and their respective
compositions.
(Final Exam Oct 2007)
Ans: (iii) 51.77 mol/h D (0.783 mol D/mol) 948.23 mol/h F, 768.23 mol/h E (0.829 mol E/mol)

3.3.10 A feed of 10000 kg/h of soybean is processed in a sequence of three stages as

shown in the figure below. The soybean contains of 71.5 wt% meal, 10.5 wt%
moisture and the balance is oil. In first stage, the bean is crushed and pressed to
remove oil (assume no loss of other stream constituents with the oil stream). In
the second stage, the crushed bean contains 6.0 wt% of oil is extracted with
hexane. The oil-hexane stream is removed from the process while extracted
soybean with 0.5 wt% oil is dried in a dryer. The mixture is dried until the
residue contains 8.0% by mass.

i. Redraw the process flow diagram and label it completely.

ii. Determine the DOF (Degree of Freedom) analysis for the first stage.
iii. Calculate the flowrate of crushed bean (P kg/h) and oil (L kg/h) from the
first stage.
iv. Calculate the flowrate of extracted bean (M kg/h) from the second stage.
v. Calculate the flowrates of moisture that have been removed (W kg/h) and
final dried bean (D kg/h).

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(Final Exam Oct 2009)

Ans: (iii) 8723.4 kg P/h, 1276.6 kg L/h (iv) 8240.82 kg M/h (v) 424.32 kg D/h

3.3.11 Figure 1 shows the process of a series of two distillations. In this process, liquid
mixture containing 50 mole% benzene (B), 15.0% toluene (T), and the balance
xylene (X) is fed to a distillation column. The bottom product contains 88.0
mole% X and no B, and 90% of the X is recovered in this stream. The overhead
product is fed to a second column. The overhead product from the second
column contains 98% of the B in the feed to this column. The composition of this
stream is 95 mole% B and the balance T.

n3 mol/h

100 mol/h n1 mol/h

C1 C2

n2 mol/h n4 mol/h

Figure 1 A series of two distillations

a) Based on the above description, redraw and label the mole fraction
accordingly on the flow diagram in Figure 1.
b) Perform a degree of freedom (DOF) in column 1 and 2.
c) Calculate the molar flow rate of streams n1, n2, n3 and n4 with their molar
fractions.
(Final Exam Sept 2013)

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 Material Balance For Non-Reactive System Chapter 3

3.3.12 A gas containing 80 mole% Butane (C4H10) and 20 mole% Helium (He) is
sent through a quarts diffusion tube to recover He as shown in Figure 1. 20%
by weight of the feed gas is recovered and its composition consists of 50
mole% He.

F (Feed gas) P2 (waste gas)

P1 (recovered gas)

Figure 1: Quarts diffusion tube

a) Redraw and label the flow diagram completely.
b) Express the degree of freedom (DOF) analysis of the process.
c) Calculate the composition of the waste gas if 100 kg of gas are processed per
minute.
d) If the waste gas stream (P2) is intended to be recycled and blended with the feed
gas stream (F), justify the reasons of using recycle process.
(Final Exam Mac 2014)

30 Faculty Of Chemical Engineering, UiTM (Terengganu) Kampus Bukit Besi