A HIGH AIRFLOW DRYING EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP TO STUDY DRYING BEHAVIOR OF POLYMER SOLVENT COATINGS

A High Airflow Drying Experimental Set-up (HADES) has been constructed to simulate conditions encountered in industrial dryers. In this experiment the drying gas flows parallel to the coating in a narrow gap (6 × 10^?3 cm). Measured heat transfer coefficients (HTCs) on HADES range from 7 W/m² K at 0.072 m/s to 26 W/m² K at 0.72 m/s. The range of HTCs could easily be extended by using higher gas flow rates or narrower gap. The drying results obtained in HADES compare well with model predictions for poly (vinyl acetate)/toluene and show expected trends for changes in drying temperature and flow rate. Experimental drying results for poly (methyl methacrylate)/acetone show an anomalous drying behavior where residual solvent content is minimized at intermediate drying gas flow rate. This phenomenon is likely due to formation of a glassy skin at the surface of the drying coating.     

SIMULATION OF RF-ASSISTED CONVECTCVE DRYING FOR SEED QUALITY BROAD BEAN

Based on experimental data and analysis of the heat and mass transfer mechanism, a semi-empirical model for dielectrically-assisted convective drying of shrinkable and hygroscopic materials with internal resistance to mass flow has been derived and used to simulate radio-frequency drying of the seed quality broad bean (Vicia Faba)¹.     

Drying Process on Inert Particles in Mechanically Spouted Bed Dryer

ABSTRACT

Suspensions, slurries and paste-like materials can be dried in the Mechanically Spouted Bed ( MSB) dryer with men packing. The circulation of the men particles characteristic of classical spouted beds is provided with a houseless conveyor screw mounted in the vertical axis of the bed. Radioactive isotopic tracer technique was used for measurement of the cycle time distribution ( CTD) of the spherical inert particles as a function of the operational parameters of drying. The variances ( σ²) of the CTDs and the particle velocity m the various zones of the MSB dryer were calculated. The circulation of the mert particles can be characterised by nearly plug flow. According to the physical model of drying on inert packing the heat and mass transfer coefficients were calculated. Que to the relativeiy uniform film-like, wet coating formed on the surface of the spheical inert particles, the drying process may be characterised with the constant rate of drying. A method has been elaborated for calculation of drying time, hereby the partial processes of drying on inert particles can be synchronised.     

Simplification and Energy Saving of Drying Process Based on Self-Heat Recuperation Technology

A simplified drying process based on self-heat recuperation (SHR), which can further reduce energy consumption compared to previous SHR drying processes, is proposed. The specific energy consumption (SEC) of the SHR drying process was evaluated at various air flow rates and compared with a mechanical vapor recompression (MVR) drying process with superheated steam. The results show that the SEC of SHR can be reduced from 474 to 147 kJ (kg-H₂O evaporated)^?1 by removing heat exchangers for preheating. The SEC of the simplified SHR process was only 1/16 of a conventional drying process with heat recovery and 3/5 of an MVR process. Exergy transfer of the process was also analyzed and summarized as exergy flow diagrams.     

Three-dimensional simulation of humid-air dryer using computational fluid dynamics

A three-dimensional (3-D), mathematical model for the analysis of the flow distribution in a humid-air dryer was developed employing a computational fluid dynamics package, FLUENT^®. A thin-layer drying approach for a sphere-shaped object was coupled with 3-D modeling framework. The model was validated by comparing the simulated moisture content (MC) of red pepper with experimentally measured MC with drying time. The present model was employed to obtain optimized dryer design with the most homogeneous flow distribution inside the drying trays. Consequently, two parametric studies are presented and discussed: (i) varying inner structure, and (ii) varying drying objects in the dryer.     

ENHANCEMENT OF DRYING RATES FOR SLAB-LIKE MATERIALS IN A FLUIDIZED DESICCANT DRYING MEDIUM

The kinetics of drying of slab-like materials in- mersed in a fluidized bed of silica gel particles at a relatively low temperature, 30 °C, is studied. As a re- sult of desiccant particle action large surface-to-bed moisture fluxes and, consequently, large drying rates are attained. For all examined materials (cardboard, veneer, asbestos and ceramic plates) the drying times in the desiccant fluidized bed are much shorter than those in the empty apparatus with the same air flow, temperature and humidity. A simple, diffusional model of the drying based upon a mean mass capacity concept is developed. The drying curves calculated from the model are in good agreement with the experimental ones.     

HIGH-TEMPERATURE SPRAY DRYING

This paper summarizes the results of long-term studies on high-temperature spray drying performed at the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics in Kiev. Two-stage processing involving evaporation followed by drying is proposed to dewater very dilute and temperature-sensitive materials. A new calculation procedure, which accounts for the gas-particle flow pattern and process kinetics, is given along with the performance data for selected drying plants designed according to the procedure developed.     

Drying Of Pastes In Spouted Beds Of Inert Particles: Design Criteria And Modeling

ABSTRACT

The drying of pastelike materials can be performed well in spouted beds (SB) of inert particles. In this work the drying performance of pastes in conical pastes in conical spouted beds is analyzed as a function of column dimensions, fluid flow characteristics and paste properties. imulated data on fluid flow together with the experimental results on drying of different pastelike materials are presented and discussed to provide criteria for the design of a conical spouted bed dryer for suspensions.     

The drying kinetics of seeded grape in solar dryer with PCM-based solar integrated collector

This paper presents a novel type of dryer for experimentally evaluating the drying kinetics of seeded grapes. In the developed drying system, it has been particularly included an expanded-surface solar air collector, a solar air collector with phase-change material (PCM) and drying room with swirl element. An expanded-surface solar air collector has been used to achieve high heat transfer and turbulence effect whiles a solar air collector with PCM has been used to perform the drying process even after the sunset. On the other hand, the swirl elements have been located to give the swirl effect to air flow in drying room. These advantages make the proposed novel system a promising dryer in that lower moisture value and less drying time. The drying experiments have been carried out simultaneously both under natural conditions and by the dryer with swirl flow and without swirl flow at three different air velocities. The obtained moisture ratio values have been applied to six different moisture ratio models in the literature. The model having the highest correlation coefficient (R) and the lowest Chi-square (χ²) value has been determined as the most relevant one for each seeded grape drying status.     

Soybean drying characteristics in microwave rotary dryer with forced convection

A new hybrid drying technique by combining microwave and forced convection drying within a rotary drum, i.e., microwave rotary drying, was developed with the purpose to improve the uniformity of microwave drying. In a laboratory microwave rotary dryer, rewetted soybean was utilized as experimental material to study the effects of drum rotating speed, ventilation flow rate, and specific microwave power on the drying kinetics and cracking ratio of soybean. It was found that, with rotation, the cracking ratio can be lowered but without distinct improvement in the drying rate. Increasing ventilation flow rate and specific microwave power can improve the drying rate, but the cracking ratio also increases as a negative result. The cracking ratio lower than 10% can be attained for ventilation flow rate lower than 2.0 m³·h⁻¹ or specific microwave energy lower than 0.4 kW·kg⁻¹ in the present experiments.     

Effects of CDS and Drying Temperature Levels on the Flowability Behavior of DDGS

Due to increasing demand for alternative fuels and theneed to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, the growth of bioethanol production has been rising. One of the problems facing this industry is transportation of the coproduct dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) over long distances, because caking and agglomeration between particles can lead to bulk flow problems. In this study, DDGS was prepared by combining condensed distillers solubles (CDS) and distillers wet grains (DWG) and then oven drying to achieve 8% (db) moisture content. The effects of drying temperature (100, 200, and 300°C) and CDS (10, 15, and 20%wb ) level on the resulting flowability behavior of the DDGS particles were investigated. Statistical analyses indicated significant differences (α = 0.05, 95% confidence level) due to drying temperature and CDS main effects and significant interaction effects between CDS level and drying temperature for many of the flow parameters. Surface regression analysis of the ratio of total flow index/Jenike flow function as a function of CDS and drying temperature resulted in an R ² value of 0.94. Partial least squares (PLS) regression yielded an R ² of 0.90 for the Jenike flow function index as a function of all flow and physical properties using only two multivariate components. Understanding the effects of varying drying temperatures and CDS levels can help guide efforts to overcome DDGS flowability problems.     

Simulating Industrial Spray-Drying Operations Using a Reaction Engineering Approach and a Modified Desorption Method

A predictive tool using a thermodynamic approach has recently been developed to determine several important gas-feed parameters for industrial spray-drying processes. In this approach, a desorption behavior of materials was evaluated and the behavior was linked with overall heat and mass balances over the dryer. Using the desorption behavior of materials and the overall heat and mass balances, a spray-drying software SD²P® was designed at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) in France. The SD²P® software allows the prediction of optimal inlet drying air temperatures with acceptable accuracy (95–99% accuracy) for spray drying of dairy products. In order to predict detailed quality parameters and stickiness behavior of a product during processing, the reaction engineering approach (REA) was combined with a modified desorption method. A traditional experimental setup is replaced with a new setup, which is described in this article. Drying kinetics parameters were predicted using this new setup. Important gas-feed parameters were predicted using the 1D simulation-based software and compared with SD²P® predictions and are reported here.     

Sauergasbasierte stoff- und energieautarke Trocknung von Klärschlamm und Gärresten

During the processing of biomass as well as during waste water treatment, residual materials with a high water content are produced. They must therefore be dried prior to thermal utilization. Classical drying processes often use fossil raw materials to generate the necessary energy. With sour gas-based drying based on carbon dioxide-air mixtures, an alternative is presented that considers CO₂ as a valuable raw material (second life) and uses it in the process for drying sewage sludge and fermentation residues. Especially in the drying of fermentation residues, significant differences in dry substance content (DS) were measured, which in individual cases amounted to up to 35 % DS with the same drying time. This is expressed, among other things, in a higher carbon content of 0.42 wt % (wf) in the dry material, accompanied by a heating and calorific value that is more than 1 MJ kg⁻¹ higher.     

An experimental study on the performance of a condensing tumbler dryer with an air-to-air heat exchanger

The performance of energy consumption in the closed-loop tumbler dryer with a condenser for clothes drying is evaluated as a function of the heater capacity, the drying air flow rate inside the dryer, and the cooling air flow rate. The clothes dryer in laundries used in this study consists of a tumbling drum, condenser for condensing the humid and hot air flowing out the rotating drums, and electric heater for heating the circulating drying air. Tests were performed at the heating capacity of 1.9 kW to 2.7 kW, the drying air flow rate of 60 m³/h to 140 m³/h, and the cooling air flow rate of 100 m³/h to 240 m³/h. The total energy consumption, the drying time, and the condensate water rate were also investigated. Parametric results showed that a larger heater power resulted in shorter drying time. With increasing heater power, the air temperature and the condensate rate increased due to the higher humidity ratio in the air. The drying air flow rate and the cooling air flow rate did not have a significant effect on drying performance.     

Mass Transfer Coefficients and Drying Rates in Through Air Drying: Part II

In this study experimental results and analysis are given of convective heat and mass transfer in the drying of tissue and towel products (25 and 50 g/m² basis weight) under commercially realistic conditions under through flow. Parameter effects on drying rate include process variables such as refining, shaping, commercial forming, initial moisture content, and drying temperature. Drying rate curves display initial increase, plateau, and final decrease as the paper dries. Nondimensional Sherwood numbers (versus Peclet number) generally agreed with and augment the available dataset on through drying.     

Drying Of Pastes In Spouted Beds Of Inert Particles: Design Criteria And Modeling

The drying of pastelike materials can be performed well in spouted beds (SB) of inert particles. In this work the drying performance of pastes in conical pastes in conical spouted beds is analyzed as a function of column dimensions, fluid flow characteristics and paste properties. imulated data on fluid flow together with the experimental results on drying of different pastelike materials are presented and discussed to provide criteria for the design of a conical spouted bed dryer for suspensions.     

Processing fibre-forming polymers in helical flow

A model is proposed and the helical motion of polymer particles in a vortex unit is analyzed. The characteristics of the residence time and degree of mixing required for drying fibre-forming polymers of medium dispersion in swirl flow were established. It was shown that the use of helical flow of small length ensures sequential processing of the material. The equations required for calculating the real residence time of the materials in drying in helical flow were obtained. __________ Translated from Khimicheskie Volokna, No. 4, pp. 21–24, July–August, 2007.     

Improvement in the Efficiency and Capacity of Chopped Spring Onion Drying

ABSTRACT

Appropriate strategy for drying chopped spring onion with a batchwise flat bed was investigated. Both experimental and simulated results such as product quality, drying capacity and energy consumption were taken into consideration. For simulation work, equations of drying parameters such as specific heat, equilibrium moisture content and thin layer drying were first developed from the lab-scale experimental results. Then a mathematical model including shrinkage for a batchwix flat bed drying was developed. The model was lested with the results obtained from a food processing plant with an acceptable accuracy. Appropriate drying strategy war then investigated. The approximate conclusion was that the drying should be devided into 3 stages. In the 1^st stage, drying air temperature was 80°C, specific air flow rate was 33.9 m³/min -kg dry matter and drying time was 0.5 h. In the 2nd stage, drying air temperature and drying time were kept unchanged but specific air flow rate was decreased to 13.5 m³/min - kg dry matter. In the final stage, drying air temperature was decreased to 67°C, specific air flow rate was also decreased to 6.8 m³/min - kg dry matter and drying time was approximately 1.7 h. Following the suggested strategy, specific primary energy cornsumption was 6.2 MJ/kg H₂O, drying time was 2.7 h and product quality was maintained. It was proven that energy consumption was approximalcly 70% of that of the present practice in the plant.     

An Experimental Test of the Concept of the Characteristic Drying Curve Using the Thin-Layer Method

ABSTRACT

The drying behaviour of paticles ( purolit and silica gel) was studied using the thin-layer method described by Langrish et al ( 1). The experiments covered inlet air temperatures between 100 and 150°C, inlet air humidities from 0.02 to 0.052 kgkg¹ superficial air velocities between 3.8 and 10.8 ms^-1, with layer thicknem of 2 – 10mm. No constant mle period war observed. Characteristic drying curves were found to fall within a narrow band fur these ranges of process variables, for material of uniform size and shape and with relative moisture content defined in terms of the end of the induction period. Small changes in panicle shape, particle size distribution and uniformity of particle layers had negligible infuence on the drying kinetics. However, reduction in particle size from 5.2mm diameter to 0.86mm had a marked effect: the normalised drying rate at a given relative moisture content became larger as the particle size became smaller. This phenomenon is attributed to an increase in available contact area per unit volume with diminishing particle size. The thin-layer technique thus appears to be a useful and robust way of obtaining a general characteristic drying curve for a given particulate material. A review of various works ( Keey, 2) has shown that the concept ofa characteristic drying curve may be used to describe the drying kinetics of paniculate materials below 20mm in size for modest changes in process variables ( air temperature, humidity and velocity). This concept has found to be very useful to help model drying processes of a wide variety of particulates, cross-circulated slabs, heaped loaw fabric fibres, hygroscopic ceramic cylinders and discrete vermiculite particles. The drying of a single particle has been related lo the drying kinetics of a fluidized bed by the use of this ida. ( Tsotsas, 7). A grater understanding of the properties of the characteristic drying curve will provide a greater confidence in applying thir concept more generally to process design and the analysis of industrial drying equipment. The goal of this study was to examine further the experimental and theoretical foundations of the characteristic drying curve, using thin-layer methods.