ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned solely with material balances and chemical equilibrium. Reaction stoichiometry is concerned with the relative amounts of each of the components participating in a chemical reaction and with mass balance calculations based on information. At the equilibrium point the rate of the forward reaction is balanced by the rate of the backward reaction. If the kinetics of the reaction are simple, it leads to useful expressions for the relative concentrations of the reactants and products at the equilibrium point. The kinetic approach provides a valuable 'lead in' to the concept of equilibrium constant and to the use of equilibrium constants for calculating equilibrium conversions. The thermodynamic approach is found based on the tendency of systems to minimise their Gibbs free energy at given temperature and pressure so that at equilibrium the Gibbs free energy is at its lowest value.
