I'm a beginner in chemical engineering so apologies in advance if this question is very basic!
The Problem
You are required to measure the mass and volumetric flow rate of a slurry stream. The slurry contains only water and solids. You take a bucket and stop watch and measure the time taken to fill the bucket. From these measurements, the following information is obtained.
The stream fills a 10 litre bucket in 13.5s.
A sample of the slurry weighing 767g is filtered and dried. The dry solids weigh 148g.
The density of the solids only is known to be 3200kg/m3.
TASK: Calculate the mass flow rate of the slurry stream.
My Attempt
- I converted the rate at which the slurry filled the bucket to m3/s.
10L / 13.5s = 0.01m3/13.5s = 0.000741 m3/s
- I calculated the density of the slurry by adding together the relative densities of its dry solids and its water.
density of slurry = (ratio of dry solids:slurry stream)(density of dry solids) + (ratio of water:slurry stream)(density of water) =(0.148/0.767)(3200 kg/m3) + (0.619/0.767)(1000kg/m3) = (0.193)(3200 kg/m3) + (0.807)(1000 kg/m3) = 1424.6 kg/m3
- I plugged in the respective values into the equation mass flow rate = density * volumetric flow rate.
mass flow rate = 1424.6 kg/m3 * 0.000741 m3/s = 1.055 kg/s
Correct Answer
According to the answer key, the answer is supposed to be 0.854 kg/s.
I'm not sure where I went wrong.