A GRAPHICAL DESIGN METHOD FOR A PARTIAL SOLAR DRYER FOR CORN

This paper presents the application of a design method for a partial solar heating system of polyvalent modular dryers called “GJ-ABAQUE” to the drying of thick layers of grains.

This method is based on the use of charts or polynomial correlations. In the actual case where the drying air is not recycled, we only need one chart which allows one to determine the fraction of the monthly heating load supply by solar energy as a function of two dimensionless parameters. The latter implies the use of monthly average radiation data, the collector surface and estimates of drying loads.

The “GJ-ABAQUE” method was applied for drying 777 kg of corn, corresponding to 1 m³ of fresh product, in a thick layer in each modular dryer.     

Analysis of Moisture Content and Density of Pears During Drying

Abstract

Solar dried pears of the “S. Bartolomeu” variety are a very much appreciated and preferred dried food product in Portugal. Nevertheless, the traditional solar drying is carried out at open air during the months of 07 and 08, and this nowadays is a disadvantage for larger productions. This work is to evaluate the possibility of producing dried pears from this and other varieties, maintaining the characteristics of the traditional dried pears. In this study four different types of pears were studied, including “S. Bartolomeu” as a basis for comparison and the drying method employed was the traditional one. From the results it was concluded that, although the behaviour of the four varieties do not vary significantly, one particular variety (“D. Joaquina”) is a good alternative to the “S. Bartolomeu” pear.     

A New Type of Modular Dryer Combining Solar Energy and Producer Gas

ABSTRACT

The main concept oithis research is to develop a flexible modular dryer that combines two different sources of non-conventional energy. In this study, solar energy and producer gas generated by an up-flow charcoal gasifier were considered.

The drying system was set out by using a 0.6 m3 modular cabinet supporting a solar collector of 2.5 m2 surface area. 16 kg of chatcoal was used in each bateb to feed the gasifier.

The experiment was performed for drying beef that required two different stages of drying temperture: the first. which used producer gas requires approximatly 60°C for four hours and the second used solar energy at 40° for six hours. The energy consumed for drying 16 kg of beef was 7.57 MJ7sol;kg H2o     

THERMAL PERFORMANCE AND EVALUATION OF SIPERHEATED STEM DRYING SYSTEM USING SOLAR-ASSISTED ABSORPTION HEAT TRANSFORMER

ABSTRACT

This paper summarizes the main results of our study carried out under the priority-area research “Energy Conversion and Utilization with High Efficiency” supported by the grant-in-aid of scientific research from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan. In the research we focused on applications of solar energy utilization for industrial drying systems. In this paper a new concept of a closed drying system with superheated steam provided from a temperature boosting type heat pump (absorption type heat transformer) was proposed. The heat transformer is driven directly by heat from a solar collector. The performance for different three drying periods and a number of factors affecting it were predicted by a computer simulation. Furthermore the heat and mass transfer characteristics of water evaporation into superheated steam stream by radiative and convective heating were indicated experimentally. It was concluded that the system would be useful for industries where high temperature (over 100°C) drying is required.     

ANALYSIS AND MODELING OF BROWNING OF THE GRANNY SMITH APPLE DURING DRYING

ABSTRACT

After proposing simple empirical models for drying kinetics and for sorption isotherms, the authors show that browning during drying of Granny-Smith apple samples can be calculated from models developped in static conditions. The time at which the browning begins (t_B) is similar to the induction time deduced from the static conditions ; it corresponds to a very low sample water content (around 1% dry basis) and to a sample temperature equal to the heating temperature. The “thermic past” (drying method, drying rate, heating temperature before t_B) has no influence on the browning rate, only the heating temperature after t_B is important     

DESIGN,EXPERIMENTAL AND ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF A COMMERCIAL-TYPE SOLAR DRYER FOR PRODUCTION OF HIGH-QUALITY HAY

Abstract

Design features, development, experimental functional performance and economic evaluation of an energy efficient solar energy dryer for commercial production of high-quality hay and processed forage products are presented. The solar hay dryer consists of an improved solar collector with selective coated aluminum absorber plate and spaced fins, and a drying shed connected to the collector by an insulated duct and having a perforated metal grate floor, swing-away plywood frames and polyethylene curtains for effectively sealing the hay stack, and a crawl space below the floor where a 3-hp in-line centrifugal fan is housed for air circulation by suction. In late August and in early September, 1996, 160 small rectangular bales of alfalfa hay with about 25% bromegrass were successfully dried from 33% initial moisture content to 13%, and from 25% to 11% moisture in 4 and 3 days, respectively, under average weather conditions in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. With about 18 m³/min per tonne airflow, 10-15 °C temperature rise above ambit was obtained during peak bright sunshine hours. Relatively high daily average collector Effciency of 76%, high drying effectiveness, drying uniformity, uniform air distribution and tight sealing of the stack were achieved which resulted in an attractive green color of hay, no mold growth on hay, and an overall system drying efficiency of about 79%. Compared to a conventional natural gas drying system or field-drying method, the payback period on extra investment costs recovered through drying cost savings of $3/ t to $6/ t or through over two times higher prices for high-quality hay produced by the solar drying system may be just one or two years, respectively.     

Drying of Porous Material During the Constant and the Falling Rate Period: A Critical Review of Existing Hypotheses

Abstract

During drying of porous material a so-called “falling rate” period is observed, where the drying rate decreases as the moisture content decreases. This behavior is usually described by the well known “shrinking core model.” This model, however, contradicts experimental findings and violates basic laws of multiphase mass transfer in porous media as well. A new model, named “wet surface model,” is suggested which eliminates those discrepancies.     

PRESENTATION OF DRYING KINETICS IN A FLUIDIZED BED BY MEANS OF RADIAL BASIS FUNCTIONS

ABSTRACT

Radial Basis Functions (RBF) have been proposed to describe drying kinetics in a vibro-fluidized bed. Mapping of changes in material moisture content and temperature by means of the RBF has been discussed. The “one step ahead” concept was applied. Results of investigations of agricultural material drying were used for training and testing of artificial neural networks.     

THE NEED FOR FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH ON DRYING AS PERCEIVED BY THE EUROPEAN CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

ABSTRACT

The “Solids Processing Industrial Network ” (SPIN), an alliance of 14 European chemical companies. intends lo set up an EC-funded joint research project on drying. A first rough outline of a project of this kind has been made. A more detailed project proposal will be made in close co-operation with companies wishing to lake part in a project of this kind and with universities willing to carry out pans of the project.

Project topics are: combined granulation/drying, spray drying, contact drying, mathematical modelling. standardisation of test methods and an expert system for the selection of a dryer.     

DESIGN AND TESTING OF A COMBINED CONDUCTION-CONVECTION ROTARY PADDY DRYER

ABSTRACT

A rotary drum dryer prototype was designed, fabricated and tested to combine convection drying with conduction heating of paddy to increase moisture reduction rates. Ambient air forced inside the drum counter-flow to the direction of the cascading grains brought about “dryeration” of the hot grains, resulting in cooler grain output and increased moisture reduction rates. Its partial drying capacity doubled that of the benchmark pre-dryer at 5?rpm drum speed and quadrupled at 7?rpm, requiring only a single-pass operation. Tests using freshly harvested and re-wetted paddy showed that partial drying capacity, final moisture content and moisture reduction rate were all significantly affected by counter-flow air velocity, Its overall thermal efficiency was also 50% higher.     

A STUDY OT THE DRYING PERFORMANCE OF A VIBRATING TRAY DRYER

ABSTRACT

This study reports the results of drying tests with a dryer operated both with and without internal air reheating (isothermal operation and noniaothermal operation, respectively), which provide an overview of dryer performance in removing moisture from coffee beans- The results show that “isothermal operation” has an advantage regarding drying speed, whereas the noniaothermal process shows more advantages when the analysis is carried out for energy consumption.     

ANALYSIS OF OPEN SUN DRYING EXPERIMENTS

ABSTRACT

Open sun drying has lost its previous importance due to the fact that different factors affect its reliability and the quality of the products obtained.

One of the set–backs for the analysis of solar drying exoeriments is their deoendence on a non–controlled source of energy, i.e. solar radiation depends on climatic conditions and experiments are difficult to compare. It is thus necessary to investigate the advantages of a particular set up as well as the climatic influences. Open sun drying could constitute the natural reference, allowing the comparison of different drying strategies.

A new way of standardizing drying times, based on solar radiation inout, is proposed, to allow better evaluation of the experiments. An equivalent time is defined, allowing comparison of experiments carried out under different circumstances. Carrots and potatoes were used in these experiments.

The use of the average daily solar radiation 15.28 MJ m^-2.d^-1 in Palma de Mallorca (39.33°N, 2.37°E), is proposed for comparison purposes. An improvement of more than 12 % in the explained variance was observed, the unexplained variance being lower than 1 %.     

Radio Frequency Heating—A Prospective Leather Drying System for Future

Abstract

Drying is one of the important operations influencing finished product quality and leather is no exception. Newer drying methods are being explored worldwide in order to enhance the productivity and quality. Radio frequency (RF) heating is being increasingly applied for industrial applications such as drying of wood, paper, and textiles. Investigations on the use of radio frequency heating for leather drying has been attempted in the present work which has led to promising results. Compared to conventional air-drying, RF heating produced leathers of comparable quality both at laboratory and semi-commercial scale trials. Leather drying by radio frequency heating has resulted in time reduction by more than 80%, at favorable energy costs.     

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF SORPTION ISOTHERMS AND DRYING KINETICS OF MOROCCAN EUCALYPTUS GLOBULUS

ABSTRACT

The paper deals with sorption isotherms and drying kinetics of Eucalyptus globulus. The sorption isotherms have been determined using a static gravimetric method and then fitted by GAB equation at T = 30, 40, and 50°C over a range of relative humidity from 0.05 to 0.9. The drying kinetics in a solar dryer with an auxiliary heating system are determined. The results show with good reproducibility that temperature is the main factor in controlling the drying rate. The drying rate equation is determined empirically from the characteristic curve of drying.     

DEVELOPMENT OF A FUZZY EXPERT SYSTEM FOR THE SELECTION OF BATCH DRYERS FOR FOODSTUFFS

ABSTRACT

The selection of dryers is an art in which knowledge, experience and science all play important roles. Historically, dryer selection has been made by experts on the basis of their extensive knowledge. However, in recent years, computer-based techniques have been developed, which have the potential of at least partially deskilling this process. Of the various possibilities, fuzzy expert systems, in which the selection qualifiers are represented as linguistic rather than numerical variables, are the most promising. This paper describes the development of a fuzzy system for the selection of batch dryers for food products. It featured a novel modular approach in which independent selection goals for dryer type, atmospheric, vacuum or freeze operation, and single or multiple units were adopted. This made the system particularly flexible and amenable to adaptation. The program starts from a ‘ drying process checklist“ in which the principal process variables are specified, and provides a ranked list of feasible alternative dryers. The algorithm was extensively tested and provided quite plausible results. Four representative case studies are presented and discussed.     

Heating/Drying Using Particulate Medium : A Review Part I. General and Heat transfer parameters

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an Overview of particulate medium drying and heat treating of cereal grains. While the conventional air drying of grains is well documented, studies on the drying of grains using heated granular medium do not appear to exist. The scientific study of the different aspects of drying with a heated granular medium began in the early 1970's. Progress on the utilization of particle-to-particle heat transfer was slow as evidenced by the fact that there is no commercial dryer using the method as of today.

The first section of this paper deals with conduction heating and how it led to the use of granular medium in heating the grain. Starting with the earliest work on conduction heating reported by Kelly ( 1939), the developments in the heating of grain using granular media is discussed. For decades since Kelly's report, work in the subject area dealt mostly with the theoretical aspects of solid-to-solid heat transfer. Thus, in the succeeding section of the paper, heat transfer parameters and mechanisms involved in the process are thoroughly investigated.     

DEFORMATION AND SlRESS ANALYSIS OF POROUS CAPILLARY BODIES DURING INTERMITTENT VOLUMERIC THERMAL DRYING

ABSTRACT

lntermittent heating in a thermal drying is one way to improve energy utilization and to enhance the quality for some products. Using the finite element method and Luikov's theory. the temperature, moisture and stress distributions at different instances of intermittent drying were obtained. Several examples were analyzed using this method. The numerical results are compared with prior experimental and theoretical results. This numerical simulation method could be used to devise an intermittent drying process schedule optimal operation.     

Drying Of Vanilla Pods Using A Greenhouse Effect Solar Dryer

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the basic design of the GHE solar dryer and evaluates the performance of the dryer when used to dry vanilla pods. From laboratory test results it was indicated that the average drying time for vanilla pods was between 49 to 53, 5 hrs, for the case of heating augmentation using coal briquette stoves. The total amount of coal briquettes used to produce drying air temperature between 33 C to 65 C and RH of about 34% during day time was 61 kg equivalent to 6.1 kW heating rate and the average electric energy usage of 36.5 kWh, respectively. Quality test results indicated that the dried products were of grade IA of the export quality standard with vaniline content of 2.36%.     

HYBRID NEURAL APPROACHES FOR MODELLING DRYING PROCESSES FOR PARTICULATE SOLIDS

ABSTRACT

This work presents methods for synthesizing drying process models for particulate solids that combine prior knowledge with artificial neural networks. The inclusion of prior knowledge is investigated by developing two applications with the data from two indirect rotary steam dryers. The first application consisted in the modelling of the drying process of soya meal in a batch indirect rotary dryer, The external and internal mass transfer resistances were associated in the hidden layer of the network to linear and sigmoidal nodes, respectively. The second application consisted in the modelling of the drying process of soya meal in a continuos indirect rotary dryer. The model was constructed using the Semi-parametric Design Approach. The model predicts the evolution of solid moisture content and temperature as a function of the solid position in the dryer. The results show that the hybrid model performs better than the pure “ black box” neural network and default models. They also shows that prior knowledge enhances the extrapolation capabilities of a neural network model,     

COMPARISON OF EXPERIMENTAL AND MODELLING STUDIES FOR THE MICROWAVE DRYING OF IRONBARK TIMBER

ABSTRACT

Temperature profiles through boards during the microwave-assisted drying of Australian Ironbark timber have been investigated in this work in order to explore evidence for timber degrade via “charring” at internal temperatures below those required for pyrolysis (Brooke et al., 1998). A previously published model (Turner and Jolly, 1990a) describing one-dimensional microwave power absorption, based on the solution of Maxwell's equations, has been reviewed and significant limitations identified and overcome. Improvements included the use of a linear-mixing approach for the dielectric constants, the incorporation of temperature and moisture dependencies for these dielectric properties and the inclusion of diffusion within an overall system model. A control-volume technique has been used for predicting both moisture and temperature distributions within the timber, with a second-order finite-difference method being used to solve Maxwell's equations. The final model showed