Drying

Dr. Mansoor Ul Hassan Shah

Department of Chemical
Engineering UET Peshawar
DEFINITION
 Drying is the removal of water or any solute from a
material and the operation often fallows, evaporation,
filtration or crystallization.
 It is a mass transfer process resulting in the removal of
moisture (water) or any other solvent by evaporation
from a solid, semisolid or liquid. To achieve this there
must be a source of heat.
DEFINITION
TYPES OF DRYING
Application of drying

 To reduce the cost of transportation

 To make a material easy for handling

 To obtain definite properties of material

 To reduce the chance of corrosion

Example
 In pharmaceutical industry drying is carried out for one or more of the
following reasons.
 To eliminate moisture which may lead to corrosion and decrease the
drug stability
 To improve or keep good properties of materials, i-e flowability,
compressibility.
 To reduce the cost of transportation of large volume materials (liquids).
 To make the material easy or more suitable for handling.
 Precautions
 In case of crystalline product, crystal must not be
damaged.
 Shrinkage as with paper and cracking as with wood
should be avoided.
 Loss of flavor as with food products must also be
prevented.
General drying behavior

Drying medium Wet Solid

Difference between drying and
evaporation
 Terms Used in Drying

 The moisture content of a wet solid is expressed as kilogram

of moisture associated with 1 kg of solid. Thus a moisture
content of 0.4 means that 0.4 kg of removable water is
present per kg of the solid.
 Total moisture contents
This is the total amount of liquid associated with a wet solid.
Terms Used in Drying
Free moisture content:
 The easily removable water is known as free moisture content. This
is also known as unbound water/moisture. This is the water which is
in excess of equilibrium moisture.
Equilibrium moisture content:
 The moisture which is more difficult to remove is known as
equilibrium moisture contents. At a stable condition environment
when there is no moisture transfer from the substance, then
moisture in that substance is equilibrium moisture content.
 The moisture content present in a solid under steady state ambient
conditions is termed the equilibrium moisture content.
Terms Used in Drying
Critical moisture contents
 The critical moisture content is the average material moisture
content at which the drying rate begins to decline.
 It is the moisture content attained during the drying process when
the entire surface is no longer wet.
Bound moisture
 Bound or attached water is an extremely thin layer of water
surrounding mineral surfaces. Due to water's polarity, the water
molecules are bonded to each other and to other charged surfaces,
such as soil minerals. Clay in particular has a high ability to bond
with water molecules.
 The amount of moisture that exerts a vapor pressure less than the
vapor pressure of water at given temperature.
Terms Used in Drying
Drying Rate
In drying it is necessary to remove free moisture from the surface
and also moisture from the interior of the material. If the change in
moisture content with time for a material is determined, a smooth
curve is obtained from which the rate of drying at any given
moisture contents can be evaluated.
The drying rate curve varies with the structure and type of material
and two typical curves are illustrated in the Fig 1.
Drying Rate
The rate of drying shows certain phases in
which the change in moisture content is
plotted against time.
Curve-1
Curve 1 shows three stages
DE…….Represents a constant rate period
EF……. Falling rate period
FC……..Falling rate period.
In this case the section EF is a straight line
and only the portion FC is curved. Thus,
section EF is known as the first falling period
and the final stage shown as the FC is the
second falling rate period.
Drying rate

Curve-2
In curve 2 there are two well defined
zones
AB…….where the rate of drying is
constant.
BC……. Where there is steady fall in the
rate of drying as the moisture contents
is reduced.
Drying Rate
First Falling rate Period
The point B and F in the Fig.
represents conditions where the surface
is no longer capable of supplying
sufficient free moisture to saturate the
air in contact with it. Under these
conditions the rate of drying depends
very much on the mechanism by which
the moisture from inside the material is
transferred to the surface
 Drying Rate

Second Falling rate Period

At the conclusion of first falling rate
period it may be assumed that the
surface is dry.
In this case the evaporation is taking
place and the vapor reaches the surface
by molecular diffusion.
Classes of material according to drying behavior

Materials can be divided into two classes according to their

drying behavior

 Granular or crystalline Solids

 Amorphous, fibrous or gel like solids

Classes of material according to drying behavior
Granular or crystalline Solids

 Moisture is held in between the spaces of particles

 The moisture movement occur due to gravitational, or

capillary forces

 These materials are mostly inorganic and relatively un effected

by the presence of moisture or liquid, and else by drying

conditions i-e., High temperature and high humidity values.

 Amorphous solids

 These materials hold moisture within the fiber

 The moisture removal is controlled by diffusion

 As the rate of diffusion is very low, the surface will dry and

cracking or rupturing of material may occur.

 Drying conditions must be controlled so that product quality and

process economy of operation is not effected.

Moisture removal in these two categories
 Time for drying

W = Total moisture contents

W1 = Initial moisture contents
Wc = Critical moisture contents
We = Equilibrium moisture contents
Time for constant rate period
Segment BC shows constant rate
period. During the period of drying
from the initial moisture contents “W1”
to the critical moisture content Wc, the
rate of drying is constant and the time
of drying is given by
Time for constant rate period
Time for falling rate period
Total Time for drying
Total Time for drying
Problem
Problem
For the first drying operations

W1=0.25kg/kg, W =0.10kg/kg, Wc = .15kg/kg, and We = 0.05kg/kg

f1 = (W1-We) = (0.25- 0.05) = 0.2kg/Kg
fc = (Wc-We) = (0.15-0.05) = 0.1kg/kg
f = (W-We) = (0.10-0.05) = 0.05 kg/kg
t= 1/mA[ln(fc/f) + (f1- fc)/fc]………… Eq(1)
mA =0.113kg/s
Continued..
For the second drying operations

W1=0.3kg/kg, W =0.08kg/kg, Wc = .15kg/kg, and We = 0.05kg/kg

f1 = (W1-We) = (0.3- 0.05) = 0.25kg/Kg
fc = (Wc-We) = (0.15-0.05) = 0.1kg/kg
f = (W-We) = (0.08-0.05) = 0.03 kg/kg
The total drying time is
t= 1/mA[ln(fc/f) + (f1- fc)/fc]………… Eq(1)
t = 6.65h
Problem

A wet solid is dried from 25% to 10% moisture, under constant

drying conditions in 15ks (4.17h). If the equilibrium moisture
content is 5% and the critical moisture content is 15%, how long
will it take to dry to 8% moisture under the same conditions.
Problem
Problem