danny_boy

Someone please help me, been struggling for a bit: It's a material balances question from chemical engineering:

Strawberries contain about 15% solids and 85% water. To make strawberry jam, crushed strawberries and sugar are mixed in a 45:55 ratio, and the mixture is heated to evaporate water until the residue contains one-third water by mass. Draw and label a flowchart of this process, and use it too calculate how many pounds of strawberries are needed to make a pound of jam.

Now, I can set up the flowchart, but do I assume that initially I have 100 pounds, giving me 55 pounds of sugar, and 45 pounds of strawberries. And, of those 45 pounds of strawberries, 15% are solid, and 85% are water ?

My problem is the output. It has to also be 100 pounds right, but I cannot understand how to balance the sugar, water and solids, and how to determine how man pounds of strawberries are needed for 1 pound of jam. Please help!