Steam Drying — History and Future

The concept of steam drying originates from the mid of the last century. However, a broad industrial acceptance of the technique has so far not taken place. The paper deals with applications of steam drying within certain industrial sectors where the technique has been deemed to have special opportunities. The applications discussed involve drying of fuels with high moisture contents, cattle feed exemplified by sugar beet pulp, lumber, paper pulp, paper and sludges.

Steam drying is compared to flue gas drying of biofuels prior to combustion in a boiler. With reference to a current installation in Sweden, the energy losscs, as manifested by loss of co-generation capacity, are discussed. The energy saving potential when using steam drying of sugar beet pulp as compared to other possible plant configurations is demonstrated. Mechanical vapour recompression applied to steam drying is analysed with reference to reported data from industrial plants. Finally, environmental advantages when using steam drying are presented.     

Steam Drying - Modelling and Applications

ABSTRACT

The concept of steam drying originates from the mid of the last century. However, a broad industrial acceptance of the technique has so far not taken place. The paper deals with modelling the steam drying process and applications of steam drying with in certain industrial sectors where the technique has been deemed to hove special opponunities.

In the modelling scction the mass and heat transfer proceases are described along with equilibrium, capillarity and sorption phenomena occurring in porous materials during the steam drying process. In addition existing models in the literslure are presented.

The applications discussed involve drying of fuels with high moisture contcna, cattle feed exemplified by sugar beet pulp. lumber. paper pulp. paper and sludges.

Steam drying is compared to flue gas drying of biofuels prior to combustion in a boiler. With reference to a current insrallation in Sweden. the exergy losses. as manifested by loss of co-generation cupacity. are discussed. The energy saving potentid when using steam drying of sugar beet pulp as compared to other possible plant configurations is demonstrated.

Mechanical vapour recompression applied to steam drying is analysed with reference to reponed dau from industriul plsnts. Finally. environmcntul advantages when using steam drying are presented.     

Steam Drying — History and Future

ABSTRACT

The concept of steam drying originates from the mid of the last century. However, a broad industrial acceptance of the technique has so far not taken place. The paper deals with applications of steam drying within certain industrial sectors where the technique has been deemed to have special opportunities. The applications discussed involve drying of fuels with high moisture contents, cattle feed exemplified by sugar beet pulp, lumber, paper pulp, paper and sludges.

Steam drying is compared to flue gas drying of biofuels prior to combustion in a boiler. With reference to a current installation in Sweden, the energy losscs, as manifested by loss of co-generation capacity, are discussed. The energy saving potential when using steam drying of sugar beet pulp as compared to other possible plant configurations is demonstrated. Mechanical vapour recompression applied to steam drying is analysed with reference to reported data from industrial plants. Finally, environmental advantages when using steam drying are presented.     

HIGH TEMPERATURE DRYING OF WOOD SEMI-INDUSTRIAL KILN EXPERIMENTS

We briefly introduce the main results obtained in our laboratory about high temperature drying kinetic of softwood and hardwood. We point out during drying the acceleration effect of pressure gradient in vapour phase which develops in the wood.

Then we give the main experimental results carried out on a small industrial kiln which can dry wood boards with moist air and superheated steam at high temperature till 180°C and velocity above to 6 m/s. The drying process is completely automated. Tested species are : beech, poplar, fir and maritime pine.

We show that the drying kinetics are almost the same using the industrial kiln or the wind tunnel and we define for different board thicknesses, temperatures and velocities the optimal sequences of the process. The influence on the quality of the pretreatment, the various drying periods and the post-steaming is of importance.     

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF BEET PULP DRYING IN SUPERHEATED STEAM UNDER PRESSURE

ABSTRACT

Beet pulp drying in superheated steam under pressure makes it possible to save energy in sugar factories. A new concept of a two-stage convective steam drier is presented. To obtain kinetic data on beet pulp drying, an experimental setup was built. Beet pulp samples were dried at steam pressure up to 4 bar and temperature up to 220° C.     

DEEP LAYER MALT DRYING MODELLING

In malt production drying operation plays an important role in the total processing cost, however there are not many studies on malt drying modeling and optimization.

In this paper a deep layer malt drying mathematical model in the form of four partial differential equations is presented.

To determine drying constants, malt thin layer drying experiments at several air temperatures and relative humidities were made.

The model were validated at industrial scale. The greatest energy savings, approximately 5 5% in fuel and 7.5% in electric energy, were obtained by an additional (and increased) air recirculation, which is carried out during the last 6 hours of the drying process and a significant decrease of air flow-rate during the last 6 hours of the drying process.     

Food Drying and Dewatering

Food drying and dewatering raises a growing interest because of increasing requirements in quality, specially in the production of ingredients and additives for food formulation. Heat and mass transfers, as well as mechanical phenomena and reactions kinetics induced by these transfers must be more and more carefully controlled during drying and storage.

This chapter relates recent advances in

- drying of solids

- spray-drying

- drum-dryine

- superheateded steam drying

- osmotice dehydration

- hot oil immersion drying     

DRYING OF SHRINKING MATERIALS : MODELLINGS WITH SHRINKAGE VELOCITY

An attempt is proposed to modelize the coupling effects between heat transport, mass transport and solid shrinkage during the drying of like gels products.

A special attention is laid upon the different ways to determine the solid displacement.

Some experimental results are presented to validate the modelling approach.     

OVERVIEW AND SYSTEM ANALYSIS OF VARIOUS SEWAGE SLUDGE DRYING PROCESSES

An incineration process is routinely used in Japan to treat nearly all the generated sewage sludge. The drying process now is recognized to play an important role as a pretreatment process of a incineration process.

This paper provides a brief introduction to the conventionally utilized drying methods/equipment (i.e, hot gas drying, fluidized bed drying, pneumatic conveyor drying, and steam drying( for treating dewatered sludge cakes.     

COMPARISON OF SUPERHEATED STEAM AND AIR OPERATED SPRAY DRYERS USING COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS.

In this paper a numerical simulation of a spray dryer using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code Fluent is described. This simulation is based on a discrete droplet model and solve the partial differential equations of momentum, heat and mass conservation for both gas and dispersed phase.

The model is used to simulate the behaviour of a pilot scale spray dryer operated with two drying media : superheated steam and air Considering that there is no risk of powder ignition in superheated steam, we choosed a rather high inlet temperature (973 K). For the simulation, drop size spectrum is represented by 6 discrete droplets diameters, fitting to an experimental droplets size distribution and all droplets are injected at the same velocity, equal to the calculated velocity of the liquid sheet at the nozzle orifice.

It is showed that the model can evaluate the most important features of a spray dryer : temperature distribution inside the chamber, velocity of gas, droplets trajectories as well as deposits on the walls. The model predicts a fast down flowing core jet surrounded by a large recirculation zone. Using superheated steam or air as a drying medium shows only slight differences in flow patterns. Except for the recirculation which is tighter in steam.

The general behaviour of droplets in air or steam are quite the same : smallest droplets are entrained by the central core and largest ones are taken into the recirculation zone. In superheated steam, the droplets penetrate to a greater extent in the recirculation zone. Also, they evaporate faster. The contours of gas temperature reflect these differences as these two aspects are strongly coupled. In both air and steam there is a “cool” zone which is narrower in steam than in air. Finally, the panicle deposit problem seems to be more pronounced in air than in steam.

Adding to the inherent interest in using superheated steam as a drying medium, the model predicts attractive behaviour for spray drying with superheated steam. In particular. under the conditions tested with the model, a higher volumetric drying rate is obtained in superheated steam.     

Superheated Steam Drying: An Overview of Pilot and Industrial Dryers with a Focus on Energy Efficiency

According to the principle of sustainability, modern industry should preserve nonrenewable energy sources and develop more efficient processes, especially in terms of energy consumption. The depletion of fossil energy reserves, the environmental impact of greenhouse gases, and the possible threats of environmental taxes are the main reasons to develop new processes in general, and new drying processes in particular, for the existing industries. Using superheated steam as a drying medium instead of hot air can improve the energy efficiency by reusing the energy from exhausted steam and prevent gas emission into the atmosphere by condensation. The present review is focused on both lab-scale pilots—including impingement jet, fluid bed, kiln, fixed bed, and flash drying—described in the literature and existing industrial facilities, with a specific analysis focused on energy efficiency. The usefulness of superheated steam drying pilots for experimental research and for the design of industrial dryers is analyzed. The impact on quality specifications of the dried product for different operating conditions is also presented. Documentation on industrial superheated steam dryers is very rare. Nevertheless, this work presents and analyses the key data available for superheated steam drying of beet, alfalfa, industrial pulp, and paint sludge. Energy recovery and process integration, with a focus on specific technological challenges for industrial dryer implementation, are also presented. This document will result in a discussion of some new ideas for possible R&D in superheated steam drying.     

Drying of Transformer Board

The internal insulation in shell type power transforms is usually ensured by the stacking of plates of board impregnated with oil. A board is in equilibrium with the atmosphere at a moisture content varying from seven to eight percent by weight, but, when the insulating function is required, the water content must be lower than 0.5 %. The aim of the present work is the understanding and the modelling of transformer boards drying.

The first part of this work presents experimental studies showing that the drying of transform board follows two regimes :

- a fast regime in the fim period

- a slow regime, up to 99 percent of dryness.

The effect of heating and the influence of the board thickness on the drying rate also studied. In the second part of this paper, we presnt a model capable to represent the observed kinetics of transformer board drying. This model is based on the diffusion of water vapour in the gaseous phases combined with the transfer of water vapor from the fibres to the -us phase. The due of the average global transfer coefficient can be deduced from the slope of the curve 1 f(drying time), where x     

High Intensity Drying of M.G. Paper

The technological properties of paper are strongly influenced by the drying conditions. This is the case in particular with M.G. paper and machine performance is limited largely for quality reasons. Therefore, the question as to which extent the drying conditions influence the process of drying and the paper quality is of major importance for industry.

Unlike the results already published, tests were carried out with a laboratory machine operating on a continuous basis, with high drying rates, short retention time and application of combined contact/ convectional drying. The kinds of stock used were waste paper containing wood, bleached long-fiber magnefite pulp and unbleached long-fiber sulphate pulp with a basis weight ranging between 37 and 75 g/m2.     

Uneven Ink Absorption and Its Relation to Drying of Coated Papers

The aim of this work was to study mottling in offset printing. The papers studied were coated and princed LWC-papers.The base paper was obtained from a commercial source. Both macroscopic and microscopic analyses were performed.The conventional macroscopic methods take into account variations in nm-cm scale while the microscopic methods consider the nm-pm scale.

The used conventional methods could not emplain mottling. Microscopic studies, however, revealed that mottling could be a problem caused by varying coat weight and surface structure.

The influence of different drying strategies was also studied. The beet print result was obtained on paper where the drying was relativeiy intense in the beginning of the process and mild during the coating color immobilization stage. Uneven binder migration was not found in these samples.     

KINETICS OF DRYING IN CYCLICALLY SHIFTED SPOUTED BED

This paper presents kinetics of batchwise drying in a spouted bed apparatus with cyclically shifted gas stream, i.e. drying medium flowrate is changed cyclically along inlet cross-section of a bed during operation time.

Such an apparatus provides advantages of both spouted and oscillating beds which include: good hydrodynamic conditions within the bed and energy savings. Two types of particulate materials, i.e. beet and wheat seeds, which differ largely in physical properties were used in experiments.

Based on the results of this investigation formulae for reduced moisture content (X^red) in dependence on drying time and air temperature were developed.     

DRYING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

A summary is given of papers published in the GDR in the field of drying including drying theory, dryer models, sensor development, and analysis of industrial dryers.

Today in the GDR more than 10 000 dryers using 280 000 TJ/a are operated. So drying research and development mainly is driven by practical considerations, but there are pure theoretical approaches to dryer modelling and development of sophisticated drying sensors of general intereet too.     

A DISTRIBUTED PARAMETER APPROACH TO THE DYNAMICS OF ROTARY DRYING PROCESSES

A nonequilibrium distributed parameter model for rotary drying and cooling processes described by a set of partial differitial equations with nonlinear algebraic constraints is developed in this work. These equations arise from the multi-phase heat and mass balances on a typical rotary dryer. A computational algorithm is devekped by employing a polynonial approximation ( orthogonal collocation) with a glotal splinc technique leading to a differential-algebraic equation ( DAE) system. The numerical solution is carried out by using a standard DAE solver.

The two- phase-flow heat transfer coelficient is computed by introducing a correction factor to the commonly accepted correlations. Since interaction between the falling particles are considered in the correction factor,the results are more reliable than those computed by assuming that heat transfer between a single falling particle and the drying air is unaffected by other particles. The heat transfer computations can be further justified via a study on the analogies between heat and mass transfer.

The general model devloped in this work is mathematically more ritorous yet more flexible that the lumped parameter models established by one of the authors (Douglas et al., (1993)). The three major assumptions of an equilibrium operation, perfect mixing and constant drying raic, are removed in the distributed parameter model.

The simulation results are compared with the operational data from an industrial sugar dryer and predictions from earlier models. The model and algorithm successfully predict the steady state behaviour of rotary dryers and collers. The generalized model can be applied to fertilizer drying processes in which the assumption of constant drying rate is no longer valid and the existing dynamic models are not applicable.     

EFFECT OF DRYING ON PULP & PAPER PROPERTIES: A BIBLIOGRAPHY

Papermaking is a massive dehydration operation. Thermal removal of moisture which can not be removed mechanically is a key process stage in papermaking. It is well known that it is a highly energy intensive step. However, it is less readily recognized that it also influences some of the most important physical, optical or functional properties of the product. With the advent of new drying technologies- some already commercialized while some still at pilot or laboratory stage - it is increasingly important to devote attention to the interaction between the drying conditions and the final product quality as measured by generally accepted standard test results. Aside from the drying parameters one must also examine paper/pulp parameters in the hope of achieving in the long term some predictive capability as well as drying-quality effects. This bibliography is selective in coverage and is compiled to ease the task of the interested reader in locating appropriate references covering his/her areas of interest.. Some general observations are made on the basis of the literature cited.

important problem.This is influenced by the composition and characteristics of the coating colour and raw stock and also by the type and rate of drying.

The following selected bibliography covers the effect of drying on pulp, paper and paperboard properties. Some available literature on coated paper drying is also included. It is encouraging to note a trend towards considering the effect of drying on the product quality as an integral part of drying R&D projects. Earlier, the drying work was confined to optimising only the heat and mass transfer parameters. It should be noted also that this bibliography includes a substantial number of publications which are not in english. The availability of their translations into english is not known to the authors.

It is noteworthy that an international symposium - The Helsinki Symposium on Alternate Drying Technologies will be held in Helsinki in June 1991 to discuss the competing new drying technologies from the papermakers viewpoint.     

A New Approach to Contact Drying Modelling

This paper deals with contact drying modelling. The more general models of granular material contact dryers are based on assumptions proposed by Schlunder and al. (1.21. In this paper, a sensitivity study of the models is presented in order to find and to explain the influence of the different arameters.

A new approach, based on the same Schlunder's assumptions, but with less restrictive hypothesis, which can be applied to drying in the presence of an inert gas as well as vacuum drying and which take into account phenomena which were ignored untill now such as the local grain dehydration kinetics or the vapour diffusion inside the bed has been developped.

This new model has been compared uith some experimental results found in the litterature. A good agreement between the calculated and the experimental results has been observed. Moreover, this model is able to justify some assumptions made by Schlunder, which have not been so untill now.     

DRYING R D IN THE F.R. GERMANY

This paper summarizes the developments in the field of drying within the Federal Republic of Germany. The main areas on the scientific side (software) as well as those on the manufacturing'side (hardware) are discussed. This survey covers the period, 1976-1986.

On the theoretical side, research and development activities have focussed on convective and contact drying, modelling of contact dryers, selective drying of products with solvents, drying of mixtures and relevant topics in the field of ad-and desorption. On the hardware side, design to fit a changing framework (environment, energy, legislation, etc.), integration of up-and downstream equipment, detail improvements and new types of dryers (as well as applications of otherwise known equipment to drying) have been the major developments. A list of West German manufacturers of drying equipment is also in-cluded as an Appendix.