MASS BALANCE
Session 1c
MATERIALS (MASS) BALANCES
Materials Balances are often referred to as Mass Balances, & are
based on the Law of Conservation of Mass
They have many applications in chemical and environmental
engineering, eg
in process design
accounting for materials consumed and waste streams
produced in production or treatment processes
checking process stream flows which are difficult to measure
directly
Fundamental basis for the analysis used for wastewater treatment
is the mass balance principle
MATERIALS BALANCES
They are based on assessment of mass flows over a given time period into
and out of (& possible mass increase or decrease within) a control volume
or system enclosed by conveniently defined boundaries
The basic concepts involves:
The system boundary is drawn to identify all of the liquid and
constituent flows into and out of the system
The control volume is used to identify the actual volume in which
change is occurring
• A convenient way of defining what occurs within treatment reactors as a
function of time
MATERIALS BALANCES
Mass flowrates may be quoted in direct units, eg, mg/s, kg/d), or
conveniently be taken as the product of volumetric flowrate (Q) x
concentration (C) (eg, L/s x mg/L = mg/s)
When there is no change of mass within the control volume over the
time period considered (or when the rate of mass change is
constant), the system is said to be in a steady state
Unsteady state conditions apply when the rate of mass change
within the system varies over the time period considered, eg, as in
the case of water draining out of a tank under decreasing head
MATERIALS BALANCES
Typical mass balance examples
(a) Mass inflow rate= mass outflow rate (ie, steady state, no mass
change within the system)
example 1: settling of solids within a tank
(if the settling zone is taken as the control volume, the mass of
sludge settling out per day can be found)
QiCi
QoCo
settling zone Ms Assume Q in L/s,
C in mg/L, & Ms
sludge zone in kg/d
Ms = (QiCi – QoCo) x (86400 / 106)
MATERIALS BALANCES
Problem 1: A settling tank is used to remove suspended solids (SS)
from wastewater. The rate of flow of wastewater into the tank is 10 L/s,
and the influent concentration of SS is 200 mg/L. The removal
efficiency of the settling tank for SS is 60%. Calculate the amount of SS
(Sludge) accumulating in the sludge zone each day.
m
MATERIALS BALANCES
example 2: dilution after effluent discharge from a wastewater
treatment plant to a river
Q could be in m3/s, C
WWTP in g/m3 (= mg/L), &
QC in g/s
effluent QwCw
river control volume river + effluent
QiCi mixing zone QoCo
In this case, C would represent the concentration of some
parameter in both the river and effluent flows, eg, suspended
solids – if Qi, Ci, Qw and Cw were known, the d/s concentration Co
could be found since Qo = Qi + Qw
MATERIALS BALANCES
Problem 2: An industry discharges its liquid waste into a river that has
a minimum flowrate of 10 m3/s. The major pollutant in the waste is a
nonreactive organic material called “P”. The waste stream has a flow
rate of 0.1 m3/s and the concentration of P in the waste stream is 3000
mg/L. Upstream pollution has caused a concentration of 20 mg/L P in
the river upstream of the industrial discharge under the minimum
flowrate conditions. The state regulatory agency has a set of maximum
limit of 100 mg/L P in the river. Assume that complete mixing occurs in
the river. Will the industry be able to discharge the waste without
treatment?
PROBLEMS
1.
2.
3. Brackish water with TDS 6,000 mg/L is pumped from a well at 100 L/s as
part of a town water supply system requiring a maximum of 500 mg/L
TDS. To achieve this, Q L/s will be diverted through a reverse osmosis
desalination process which will yield 0.8Q of water at 100 mg/L TDS,
and 0.2Q as concentrated brine. The high quality water will then be
blended with a bypass stream of untreated water from the well to
drinking water with a maximum 500 mg/L TDS. Set up a mass balance to
find the minimum value of Q, & the concentration C mg/L of the waste
brine.
