Formulating Material Balance Equations Steady-State and Continuous Operation

As you will discover in your development and education as an engineer, and later on as a professional, material balance is vital for process engineering. Material balance has broad applications that are even beyond the fields of process and bioprocess engineering (e.g., economics). 

Several applications in chemical and bioprocess engineering work in such a way that the system is designed no to gain or be depleted of materials (or molecules or electrical carriers). This is known as a system operating in steady-state condition. In that case, the material balance changes to one of considering what is required to enter the system (after the generation or transfer of materials) to obtain a desired outflow. 

In processes consisting of several units (e.g., chemical reactors, equipment for mixing/purification, autoclaves, fermenters) the analysis gets more complex, but the material balance is still a must and, as we will explain later, conducted on each unit, thus enabling the following steps in the design and specification of equipment. 

Usually the material balance is the first step in process design and engineering projects. It is present in the day-to-day monitoring and supervision of chemical and bioprocessing plants. It is by far 

6 Formulating Material Balance Equations (Steady-State and Continuous Operation) 

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