EAT 153

Fundamental of
Chemical Process
EAT 153 : Fundamental of Chemical Processes

Chapter 2: Processes and Process Variables

2.1 Mass & Volume

2.2 Flow Rate
2.3 Chemical Composition
2.4 Pressure
2.5 Temperature
 Processes and Process Variables
Instructional Objectives
 Ability to draw a simple block flow diagram representing a process, showing input and
output streams, and essential process variables.

 Ability to explain the meaning of gram-mole, lb-mole, mol and kmol;

 Ability to calculate the quantities of mass (or mass flow rate), volume (or volumetric
flow rate), and moles (or molar flow rates) from a knowledge of the third quantity for
any species of known density and molar mass.

 Given the composition a mixture expressed in terms of mass fractions, ability to

calculate the composition in terms of mole fractions, and vice versa.

 Ability to determine the average molar mass of a mixture from the mass or molar
composition of the mixture.

 Convert among temperatures expressed in K, oC, oF and oR.

Process
 A process is any operation or series of operations that cause a
physical or chemical change in a substance or mixture of
substances.

Input Output
(Feed) (Product)
Process

Temperature Temperature
Process Pressure Temperature Pressure
Variables Flow rate Pressure Flow rate
Composition Composition
Process Variables
 Mass & Volume
 The density of a substance is the mass per unit volume of the substance
(kg/m3,g/cm3, lb/ft3, etc).

 Hence, a density can be written in an equation form as follows

ρ=m/V

 The specific volume of a substance is the volume occupied by a unit mass

of the substance ; it is the inverse of density.

Specific volume, v = 1/ ρ = V / m

 Densities of pure solids and liquids are essentially independent of pressure

and vary relatively slightly with temperature.

 Densities of many pure compounds, solutions and mixtures maybe found in

standard references.
 The density of a substance can be used as a conversion
factor to relate the mass and the volume of a quantity of
the substance.
 The specific gravity of a substance is the ratio of the
density ρ of the substance to the density ρref of a reference
substance at a specific condition:

SG 
 ref
 The reference most commonly used for solids and liquids
is water at 4 oC, which has the following density:
ρH2O (4oC) = 1 g/cm3
= 1000 kg/m3
= 62.43 lbm/ft3

 If you are given the specific gravity of a substance,

multiply it by the reference density in any units to get the
density of a substance in the same units.
 Flow Rate
Mass and volumetric flow rate

 Most processes involve the movement of material from

one point to another.

 The rate at which a material is transported through a

process line is the flow rate of that material.

 The flow rate of a process stream may be expressed as

a mass flow rate (mass/time) or as a volumetric flow
rate (volume/time).
Suppose a fluid (gas or liquid) flows in a cylindrical pipe shown below,
where the shaded area represents a section perpendicular to the
direction of flow.

For each second, m kg or V cubic

meters of fluid pass through the cross
section

The density of a fluid can be used to convert a known vol. flowrate of a

process stream to the mass flowrate of that stream and vice versa
Practice 5:
• Liquid benzene and liquid n-hexane are
blended to form a stream flowing at a rate
700 lbm/h. An on-line densitometer (an
instrument used to determine density)
indicates that the stream has a density of
0.85 g/mL. Estimate the mass and
volumetric feed rates of the 2 hydrocarbons
to the mixing vessel.
• Specific gravity: Benzene = 0.879; n-hexane
= 0.659
• Flow rate Measurement
- A flowmeter is a device mounted in a process line that provides
a continuous reading of the flow rate in the line.

- The rotameter is a tapered vertical tube containing a float – the

larger the float rate, the higher the float rises in the tube.
- The orifice meter is an obstruction in the flow channel with a
narrow opening through which the fluid passes. The fluid
pressure drop (decreases) from the upstream side to the down
stream side of the meter; the pressure drop varies with the
flowrate. The greater the flow rate, the larger the pressure drop.
 Chemical Composition
Moles and Molecular Weight
 The atomic weight of an element is the mass of an
atom on a scale that assigns 12C a mass of exactly 12.
 The molecular weight of a compound is the sum of the
atomic weights of the atoms that constitute a molecule of
the compound:
For example atomic oxygen (O), has an atomic weight of
approximately 16 and therefore molecular oxygen (O2)
has a molecular weight of approximately 32.
 A gram-mole (g-mole or mol in SI units) of a species is
the amount of that species whose mass in grams is
numerically equal to its molecular weight.
 Other types of moles such as kg-moles, lb-moles, and
ton-moles are similarly defined.
 For example: Carbon monoxide (CO) has a
molecular weight of 28; 1 mol of CO therefore
contains 28g, 1 lb-mole contains 28 lbm, 1 ton-
mole contains 28 tons and so on.

 If the molecular weight of a substance is M,

then there are M g/mol, M kg/kmol, M lbm/lb-mol
of this substance.
 The molecular weight can be used as conversion
factor that relates the mass and the number of
moles of a quantity of the substance.

 For example, 34 kg of NH3 (M=17) is equivalent to

34 kg NH3 1 kmol NH3 = 2 kmol NH3
17 kg NH3

And 4.0 lb-moles of NH3 is equivalent to

4 lb-moles NH3 17 lbm NH3 = 68 lbm NH3
1 lb-mole NH3
 One g-mole of any species contains
approximately 6.02x1023 (Avogadro’s number)
molecules of that species.

 The molecular weight of a species can be used

to relate the mass flow rate of a continuous
stream of this species to the corresponding
molar flow rate.
• For example:
If CO2 (M=44) flow through a pipeline at a rate of
100 kg/h, the molar flow rate of the CO2 is:
100 kg CO2 1 kmol CO2
= 2.27 kmol CO2/h
h 44 kg CO2

If the output stream from a chemical reactor

contains CO2 flowing at a rate of 850 lb-mole/min,
the corresponding mass flow rate is:
850 lb-mole 44 lbm CO2 = 37,400 lbm CO2/min
min 1 lb-mole
Mass and Mole Fractions
 Process streams occasionally contain one substance, but more
often they consist of mixtures of liquids or gases, or solutions of one
or more solutes in a liquid solvent.
 The following terms may be used to define the composition of a
mixture of substances, including a species A.
• For example, if the mass fraction of benzene in a
mixture is 0.25, then xC6H6 equal to 0.25 kg
C6H6/kg total, 0.25 g C6H6/g total, 0.25 lbm
C6H6/lbm total and so on.
• The average molecular weight (or mean molecular
weight) of a mixture M (kg/kmol, lbm/lb-mole) is the
ratio of the mass of a sample of the mixture (mt) to the
number of moles of all species (nt) in the sample.

• If yi is the mol fraction of the ith component of the

mixture and Mi is the molecular weight of this
component, then,
M = y1M1 + y2M2+….

• If xi is the mass fraction of the ith component, then,

• 1/M = x1/M1 + x2/M2 +…..
• Practice 6: Calculation of Average Molecular weight

Calculate the average molecular weight of

i) From its approximate molar composition of 79% N2,

21 % O2
ii) From its approximate composition by mass of 76.7
% N2, 23.3 % O2
Concentration
 The mass concentration of a component of a mixture or solution is
the mass of this component per unit volume of the mixture.

 The molar concentration of a component is the number of moles of

the component per unit volume of the mixture.

 The molarity of a solution is the value of the molar concentration of

the solute expressed in g-moles solute / liter solution.
• The concentration of a substance in a mixture or solution can
be used as a conversion factor to relate the mass (or mole) of a
component in a sample of the mixture to the sample volume, or
to relate the mass (or molar) flow rate of a component of a
continuous stream to the total volumetric flow rate of the
stream.

• For example, consider a 0.02 molar solution of NaOH: 5 L of

this solution contain

5 L 0.02 mol = 0.1 mol NaOH

1L

• And if a stream of this solution flow at a rate of 2L/min, the

molar flowrate of NaOH is

2 L 0.02 mol = 0.04 mol NaOH/min

min 1L
• Test yourself:
• A solution with volume V(L) contains n(mol) of a
solute A with a molecular weight MA (g A/mol). In
terms of V, n and MA :
i) What is the molar concentration?
ii) What is the mass concentration?
In terms of CA (mol A/L) and cA (g A/L):
iii) What volume of the solution contains 20 mol of A?
iv) What is the mass flow rate of A in a stream whose
volumetric flowrate is 120 L/h?
Parts per Million and Parts per Billion

 The units parts per million (ppm) and parts per billion
(ppb) are used to express the concentration of trace
species in mixtures of gases or liquids.
 The definitions may refer to mass ratios (usual for liquid)
or mole ratios (usual for gas) and signify how many parts
(grams, moles) of the species are present per million or
billion parts (grams, moles) of the mixture.
 If yi is the fraction of the component i, then by definition:
The concentrations in the forms of
“ppm” and “ppb” can be expressed in
equation forms as follows
• Test yourself:

• A liquid is almost entirely water is reported to

contain 125 ppb phenol (mass basis)
i) What is the mass fraction of phenol in the liquid?
ii) How many milligram of phenol are contained in 1 kg
of the liquid?
iii) What is the appropriate concentration of phenol in
the liquid in g/L?
 Temperature
 A measure of the average kinetic energy possessed by the
substance molecules.
As molecules take up energy, they start to move faster, and the
temperature of the substance increases. Thus we can say that
temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the
molecules of a substance.

Some temperature measuring devices:

a) Resistance thermometer (by means of electrical resistance
of a conductor)
b) Thermocouple (by voltage at the junction of two dissimilar
metals)
c) Pyrometer (by spectra of emitted radiation)
d) Thermometer (by volume of a fixed mass of fluid)
• The two most common temperature scales are the
Fahrenheit scale and the Celsius scale.

• These two scales are defined using the freezing point

and boiling of water at a pressure of 1 atm.

• Centigrade scale: Freezing point is assigned a value

of 0 oC and boiling point is assigned a value of 100 oC.
Absolute 0 on this scale falls at -273.15 oC.

• Fahreheit scale: Freezing point is assigned a value of

32 oF and boiling point is assigned a value of 212 oF.
Absolute 0 on this scale falls at -459.67 oF.

• Kelvin and Rankine scales are defined such that

absolute zero has a value of 0.
• Temperature conversion:
T(K) = T(°C) + 273.15
T(°R) = T(°F) + 459.67
T(°R) = 1.8 T(K)
T(°F) = 1.8 T(°C) + 32

• Derivation of a temperature conversion formula.

- 1st write T(oB) = aT(oA) +b
- 2nd substitute equivalent values on each scale
of 2 temperatures
• Temperature conversion factor:

1.8 oF/1 oC; 1.8 oR/1 K; 1 oF/ 1 oR; 1 oC/1 K

• To convert between the scales, first you need

to look at the size of the degrees:

• These conversion factors refer to temperature

intervals