Put Your Intuition to Rest: Write Mole Balances Systematically
Abstract
A systemic method for writing stoichiometric mole balances for complex reaction systems is developed, based on the concept of reaction invariants. This methodology also identifies the degrees of freedom for solving the balances. The methodology is useful in checking the consistency of experimental data and greatly simplifies the task of writing material balances for complex reaction chemistries essential in the conceptual design of chemical processes. We apply the method to a reaction system producing acetonitrile and to a system with multiple reactors producing bisphenol-A. The procedure can be implemented easily using widely available spreadsheet programs or mathematical computation program.