Chapter 5: Energy Balance

In process design, energy balances are made to determine the energy requirements of the
process: the heating, cooling, and power required. In plant operation, an energy balance (energy
audit) on the plant will show the pattern of energy use and suggest areas for conservation and
savings. The basic principle of energy balance is the conservation of energy which states that the
energy can neither be created or destroyed. Alternatively, the law is termed as the first law of
thermodynamics. The first law of thermodynamics states that the total energy of an isolated
system is constant; energy can be transformed from one form to another but can be neither
created nor destroyed.

For an open system as is the case for this design process, the first law of thermodynamics can be
written as:

Energy input = Energy output

Considering kinetic energy, potential energy and work done, the total energy balance is
expressed as below:

∆𝐾𝐸 + ∆𝑃𝐸 + ∆𝐻 = 𝑄 − 𝑊

For, design several assumptions are made to simplify the expression. Following are some
assumptions made for energy balance calculations.

1) The operations are at steady state.

2) The components behave ideally.
3) Negligible kinetic and potential energy.
4) No work done on or by the system.

Thus, in energy requirement calculation, the difference in enthalpy is determined as followed

Q = ∆𝐻 = ∑𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑚̇ 𝐻 − ∑𝑖𝑛 𝑚̇𝐻

5.1 Heat Exchangers

A heat exchanger is a device designed to efficiently transfer heat from one matter to another. In
heat exchanger, there is no shaft work involved. A simple approach for the energy balance of
heat exchanger is shown below.

𝑄̇ = 𝐻
̂𝑜𝑢𝑡 − 𝐻
̂𝑖𝑛 = 𝑚̇𝐶𝑝 (𝑇𝑜𝑢𝑡 − 𝑇𝑖𝑛 )

Where,

𝑄̇ : Heat transferred into or out of the system

𝑚̇: Mass flowrate

𝐶𝑝 : Specific Heat Capacity

̂𝑖𝑛 : Specific enthalpy of inlet stream

𝐻

̂𝑜𝑢𝑡 : Specific enthalpy of outlet stream

𝐻

5.2 Pumps and Compressors

Pumps are designed for liquid phase fluids and are used to increase the pressure of a fluid. For
pump, work done by pressure change can be represented by following equation:

∆𝐻 = 𝑄̇ + 𝑊

Since adiabatic pumps are used in design, 𝑄̇ = 0 and the formula is reduced to

∆𝑃
∆𝐻 = 𝑊 = 𝑉∆𝑃 = 𝑚̇
𝜌

Where,

∆𝑃 = 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒

𝜌 = 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑
5.3 Splitting Column
To produce crude fatty acids and glycerin the triglycerides are hydrolyzed in a process of
splitting. Reaction present will affect the enthalpy change. Hence, for calculation of energy
balance around splitting column, heat of reaction is taken into consideration. The equation is
given by

Q =∑ 𝑚̇ 𝐻 − ∑ 𝑚̇𝐻 + 𝜁𝐻𝑟𝑥𝑛
𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑛

Where,

𝜁 = 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

𝐻𝑟𝑥𝑛 = ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

The heat of reaction can be calculated using the heat of formation method whereby the heat of
reaction for a simple reaction aA + bB → cC +dD is given by:

𝐻𝑟𝑜 = 𝑑𝐻𝑓.𝐷 + 𝑐𝐻𝑓.𝐶 − 𝑎𝐻𝑓.𝐴 − 𝑏𝐻𝑓.𝐵

Where:

𝐻𝑓,𝑖 : Heat of formation of species i at standard temperature and pressure.

5.4 Flash Vessel

In a flash vessel, partial vapor occurs when a saturated liquid stream undergoes a reduction in
pressure by passing through a throttling valve or other throttling device. This process is one of
the simplest unit operations. The process unit contains liquid stream and vapor stream. The
energy balance for flash vessel is given as follows.

𝑄̇ = ∆𝐻
̇ =0
𝑇𝑜𝑢𝑡
𝑄̇ = 𝛴𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑡
̇ 𝐻𝑜𝑢𝑡 − 𝛴𝑛𝑖𝑛̇ 𝐻𝑖𝑛 = 𝑛 ∫ 𝐶𝑝 𝑑𝑇 = 0
𝑇𝑖𝑛

Where:

𝑄̇ : Heat transferred into or out of the system

𝑛𝑖𝑛̇ : Flow rate into the system
𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑡̇ : Flow rate out of the system
𝐻𝑖𝑛 : Specific enthalpy of inlet stream
 𝐻𝑜𝑢𝑡 : Specific enthalpy of outlet stream

5.5 Distillation Column

A fractionating column is an essential item used in distillation of liquid mixtures to separate the
mixture into its component parts, or fractions, based on the differences in volatilities. As the
distillation column consists of a condenser and reboiler, calculation of energy balance for
distillation column is divided into two parts, condenser heat duty and reboiler heat duty.
The equation used to calculate the condenser heat duty, Qc is:

𝑄𝑐 = 𝐷(𝑅 + 1)𝜆
Where:
𝑄𝑐 : Condenser heat duty
𝐷 : Distillate flow
𝑅 : Reflux ratio
𝜆 : Latent heat of vaporization of components

The equation used to calculate the heat duty of the reboiler, QR is:

𝑄𝑅 = 𝐷𝐻𝐷̇ + 𝐵𝐻𝐵̇ − 𝐹𝐻𝐹̇ + 𝑄𝑐

Where:
𝑄𝑅 : Reboiler heat duty
𝐷 : Distillate flow
𝐵 : Bottom flow
𝐹 : Feed flow
𝐻𝐷̇ : Enthalpy of distillate
𝐻𝐵̇ : Enthalpy of bottom
𝐻𝐹̇ : Enthalpy of feed

5.6 Autoclave