Why can’t mass or mass fraction be used in the material balance for distillation?
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As the title suggests, in the distillation process, mole fractions are used for material balance calculations, and the corresponding quantities are molar flows. But why can’t mass and mass fractions be used instead? Please provide some guidance
The amount of substance can be determined with relative accuracy, but when it comes to mass, there are many isotopes and other factors involved, which makes it more complicated.
Of course, quality can be used. It depends on what your benchmark is.
Using mass fraction to represent relative volatility is not convenient
Thank you all**. I’ve thought it through carefully; if it only involves material balance calculations, I think using mass fraction is sufficient