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Chemical Engineering vocabulary · Process Fundamentals and Balances

Mass balance

Meaning in chemical engineering, with examples

/ˈmæs ˌbæləns/nounCore term

In chemical engineering, mass balance means: A 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.

In Turkish: kütle denkliği, madde denkliği, kütle dengesi

How it is used

The first calculation in almost every design, troubleshooting or lab report. Engineers do, close, check or set up a mass balance around a unit or the whole plant. 'The balance doesn't close' means the numbers in and out do not match.

Example sentences

  1. Our mass balance around the dryer doesn't close; we are missing about 4% of the water.

  2. Start with an overall mass balance, then write a component balance for ethanol.

Common collocations

  • overall mass balance
  • component mass balance
  • close the mass balance
  • mass balance around
  • energy balanceA calculation that tracks all the energy entering and leaving a system as heat, work and the enthalpy of the streams, so that heating and cooling needs can be found.
  • steady stateThe condition in which temperatures, pressures, flows and compositions at every point in a process stay constant over time.
  • flow rateThe amount of fluid that passes a point in a given time, given either as mass (kg/h) or as volume (m³/h).
  • 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.
  • unit operationA basic physical step that appears in many different processes, such as distillation, filtration, drying or heat exchange. Any plant can be described as a chain of these steps.

More terms: Process Fundamentals and Balances

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