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Chemical Engineering vocabulary · Process Fundamentals and Balances

Feed

Meaning in chemical engineering, with examples

/fiːd/nounCore term

In chemical engineering, feed means: The material that enters a unit or a plant to be processed, such as crude oil to a refinery or the liquid stream entering a column.

In Turkish: besleme, besleme akımı, hammadde

How it is used

Used in every unit. Operators increase, cut, divert or stop the feed; engineers talk about feed composition, feed rate, feed quality and feedstock. Also a verb: 'we feed the column at tray 18'.

Example sentences

  1. Cut the feed to 70% until the compressor is back online.

  2. The feed contains about 2% water, which hurts the catalyst.

Common collocations

  • feed rate
  • feed composition
  • cut the feed
  • feed tray
  • fresh feed
  • flow rateThe amount of fluid that passes a point in a given time, given either as mass (kg/h) or as volume (m³/h).
  • throughputThe amount of material that a unit or plant processes in a given time, for example tonnes of feed per day.
  • mass balanceA calculation based on the rule that mass is not created or destroyed: everything that goes into a system must come out, react or build up inside it.
  • recycle streamA stream that takes unreacted material or a process fluid from a later point in the process and sends it back to an earlier point, so that it is not wasted.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Process Fundamentals and Balances

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