EP325/ BEP3043 Separation

Process Fundamentals

Lesson 3 – DRYING
Contents

• Introduction and methods of Drying

• Equipment of Drying
• Vapor Pressure of Water and
• Humidity Equilibrium Moisture Content
• Rate of Drying
• Constant-Rate Drying Curve
• Calculation methods for Constant-Rate
Drying Period
Objectives

• Explain the principle of drying of materials

• Identify a different types of dryers
• Use the humidity chart to estimate humidity
• Calculate the equilibrium moisture content of the materials
• Calculate the rate of drying
• Calculate drying time for constant-rate and falling- rate
period
 Drying

• Removal of relatively small amounts of water as

vapor by air
• Removal of water from process material and
other substances
• Removal of other organic liquids from solids
• Evaporation – removal of large amounts of water
• Usually the final processing step before
packaging - as a preservation technique
especially for food
 Methods of Drying
i. Based on operation
• Batch - material is inserted into the drying equipment and
drying proceeds for given period of time.
• Continuous - material is continuously added to the dryer and
dried material continuously removed.
ii. Based on physical conditions used to add heat or remove water
vapor
• Direct contact with heated air at atmospheric pressure, and
water vapor formed is removed by the air.
• Vacuum drying – evaporation is enhanced by lowering the
pressure over the wet material and heat may be added by direct
contact with a metal tray holding the wet material or by
radiation (IR).
• Freeze drying – Low pressures and temperatures are employed
to cause the water to sublime form a solid state (ice).
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Equipment for Drying - Examples

Vacuum-Shelf Continuous
Tray Dryer
Indirect Tunnel Dryers
Dryers

Rotary Dryers Drum Dryers Spray Dryers

Vertical
Continuous-
Flow Grain
Dryer
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Tray Dryer
• In tray dryers, the material is spread out, generally quite thinly,
on trays in which the drying takes place.
• Heating may be by an air current sweeping across the trays, by
conduction from heated trays or heated shelves on which the
trays lie, or by radiation from heated surfaces.
• Most tray dryers are heated by air, which also removes the
moist vapours.

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Continuous Tunnel Dryers
• Tunnel dryer trucks
• Screen conveyor dryer

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Rotary Dryer
• Hollow cylinder which is rotated and usually slightly inclined
toward the outlet

• Being heated either by air flow through the cylinder, or by

conduction of heat from the cylinder walls

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Spray Dryer
• In a spray dryer, liquid or fine solid material in a
slurry is sprayed in the form of a fine droplet
dispersion into a current of heated air.
• Air and solids may move in parallel or counterflow.
• Drying occurs very rapidly, so that this process is
very useful for materials that are damaged by
exposure to heat for any appreciable length of time.
• The dryer body is large so that the particles can
settle, as they dry, without touching the walls on
which they might otherwise stick.
• The dried solids leave at the bottom of the chamber
through a screw conveyor.
• The exhaust gases flow through a cyclone separator
to remove any fines
• Commercial dryers can be very large of the order of
10 m diameter and 20 m high. 1
0
Spray Dryer
Humidity

• Definition of humidity
• Percentage humidity
• Percentage relative humidity
• Dew point of an air-water vapor mixture
• Humid heat of an air-water vapor mixture
• Total enthalphy of an air-water vapor mixture
• Humidity chart of air-water vapor mixtures
 Humidity
❑ Humidification - transfer of water
from the liquid phase into a gaseous
mixture of air and water vapor.

❑ Dehumidification -water vapor is

transferred from the vapor state to the
liquid state.
Humidity
1-The humidity is defined as;
 Humidity
2. Percentage Humidity, Hp
100 times the actual humidity, H of the air divided by the humidity Hs if the
air were saturated at the same temperature and pressure;

3. Percentage Relative Humidity, HR

The amount of saturation of an-air water vapor mixture is also given as
percentage relative humidity HR using partial pressure.

Note :
MW of water 18.02 kg/kg
mol and air 28.97 kg/kg mol
Example 1: Humidity from Vapor-Pressure Data
Solution
Solution
 Humidity
4. Dew point of an air-water vapor mixture
 Humidity
5. Humid heat of an air-water vapor mixture; Cs
Humidity
6. Humid volume of an air-water vapor mixture; vH
❑ The humid volume, vH , is the total volume in m3 of 1 kg of dry air plus
the vapor it contains at 101.325 kPa (1.0 atm) abs pressure and the
given gas temperature.
❑ Using the ideal gas law,
 Humidity
7. Total enthalpy of an air-water vapor mixture

❑ The total enthalpy of 1 kg of air plus its water vapor is Hy (J/kg or

kJ/kg) dry air
❑ If T0 is the datum temperature chosen for both components, the total
enthalpy is the sensible heat of the air-water vapor mixture plus the
latent heat o in J/kg or kJ/kg water vapor of the water vapor at To
 Humidity
8. Humidity chart of an air-water vapor mixture
Humidity
Humidity Chart
Example 2 – humidity chart
Solution of Example 2
 Hp (%) = 14% H = 0.0225

Dew Point = 26.7oC t = 60oC

Solution of Example 2
The humid heat for H = 0.0225 is, from Eq.(9.3.6)
𝐶𝑠 𝐾𝐽Τ𝑘𝑔 𝑑𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑖𝑟. 𝐾 = 1.005 + 1.88 𝐻 𝑆𝐼
𝐶𝑆 𝑏𝑡𝑢 Τ𝑙𝑏𝑚 𝑑𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑖𝑟. ℉ = 0.24 + 0.45 𝐻 (English)

𝑉𝐻 𝑚3 Τ𝑘𝑔 𝑑𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑖𝑟 = 2.83 × 10−3 + 4.56 × 10−3 𝐻 𝑇 𝐾

𝑉𝐻 𝑓𝑡 3 Τ𝑙𝑏𝑚 𝑑𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑖𝑟 = 0.0252 + 0.0405 𝐻 𝑇 𝑜𝑅
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Thank You
Asst. Prof. Dr. Ng Ching Yin
ngcy@ucsiuniversity.edu.my