The development of a simple material balance program

In this section the development and structure of the program MASSBAL is described, and sufficient details of the program are given to enable the reader to use it as an aid to flow-sheeting. The program is listed in Appendix B. 

It is based on the theory of recycle processes published by Nagiev (1964). This method, which uses the concept of split-fractions to set up the set of simultaneous equations which define the material balance for the process, has also been used by Rosen (1962) and is described in detail by Henley and Rosen (1969). 

The flow of any component from unit i to unit j will equal the flow into unit i multiplied by the split-fraction coefficient. 

The value of the split-fraction coefficient will depend on the nature of the unit and the inlet stream composition. 

The outlet streams from a unit can feed forward to other units, or backward (recycle). 

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