By Sadam shahani

WE WILL COVER FOLLOWING TOPICS:

Introduction to Drying.
Classification of Dryers.
Principles of Drying.
• Temperature Patterns in Dryer
• Heat Transfer in dryer
• Phase Equilibria
The Drying Curve.
Drying a Solid:

Removal of relatively small amount of water or other liquid

from solid material.

Reduce the content of residual liquid to an acceptable low

value.
 OPTIONS AVAILABLE
TO REDUCE / REMOVE LIQUID FROM SOLIDS

Mechanically by PRESS
Centrifuges
Drying (thermally by Vaporization)
 Location of Liquid to be Vaporized.
May be on the surface of the solid (e.g. Drying salts, crystals)
May be inside the solid (e.g. Solvent removal from sheet of polymer)

May be partly outside and partly inside

Feed for dryers may in the form of

Liquid in which the solid is suspended as particles.
Solution.
Which type of
Industry
uses
Dryers
?
TextilesIndustries
Paper and Allied Product Industries
Chemical Industries
Food Industries
Herbal Industries
Pharmaceutical Industries
Dairy Industries
Tea Industries
 Different FORMS of Solids.

1. Flakes
All
2. Granules have
3. Crystals widely
different
4. Powders properties
5. Slabs
6. Continuous sheets
Classification of DRYERS

1. Adiabatic or Direct Dryers

Dryers that expose the solids to a hot gas (usually air) are called
Adiabatic or Direct Dryers.

2. Non-Adiabatic or Indirect Dryers

Dryers in which heat is transferred from an external medium are known as
non-adiabatic or Indirect Dryers
Solids Handling in Dryers
Heat is important only to describe the different
patterns of motion of solid particles through dryers

In Adiabatic Dryers solids are exposed

to the gas in the following ways.

1. Cross-Circulation Drying:
Gas is blown across the surface of a bed or slab of solids.

2. Through Circulation Drying:

Gas is blown through a bed of coarse granular solids that are
supported on a screen

3. Solids are showered downward through a slowly moving gas

stream in a rotary dryers

4. Gas passes through the solids at a velocity sufficient to fluidize

the bed

5. Solids are all entrained in a hi velocity gas stream and are

pneumatically conveyed from a mixing device to a mechanical
separator.
In Non-Adiabatic Dryers solids are exposed to the hot surface or other source
of heat in the following ways.

1.Solids are spread over a stationary or slowly moving horizontal surface and
cooked until dry.
Surface may be heated
Electrically
Heat transfer fluid stream or hot water
Radiant heater.

2. Solids are moved over a heated surface, cylindrical by an agitator or a screw

or paddle conveyer.

3. Solids slide by gravity over an inclined heated surface or are carried upward
with the surface for a time and then slide new location (rotary dryer)
Commercially DRYERS are chiefly differ in
The way of solid are moved through the drying zone
 The way in which heat is transferred

Some dryers are Continuous or other are Batch wise

Some dryers Agitate the Solids and other are Essentially un Agitated

Some dryers can handle almost any kind of material while others are severely limited to

specified type of feed

 Major Division of Dryers on the basis of
mode of heat transfer
1. Dryers in which the solid is directly exposed to a hot gas (usually air)
2. Dryers in which heat is transfer to the solid from an external medium such as condensing steam
3. Dryers that are heated by dielectric, radiant or microwave energy
4. Dryers which uses more then one mode of H/T
e.g. Hot gas with heated surface
Hot gas with Radiation

Temperature vary depends upon

Nature and liquid content of the feedstock

Temperature of heating medium
Drying Time
Allowable final temperature of the dry solids
Typical Temperature Pattern

Batch Dryers
With heating medium at constant temperature.
Tsa= feed temp./Initial solid temp.
Tsb= Final Solids temp.
Tv= Vaporization temp.
Th= constant heating medium temp.

In a non-adiabatic dryers with no sweep gas

Tv is essentially the B.P of the liquid at the
pressure prevailing in the dryers.

In a adiabatic dryers with sweep gas

Tv is near the WBT of the gas.
Typical Temperature Pattern
cont.

Ideal Continuous Dryers

In steady-state operation, the temp at any given
point in a continuous dryer is constant, but it
varies along the length of the dryers.
Tsa= feed temp./Initial solid temp.
Tsb= Final Solids temp.
Tv= Vaporization temp.
Thb= gas temp. at inlet
Tha= gas temp. at outlet Temperature pattern for an adiabatic countercurrent dryer
Heat Transfer in Dryers

By definition it is a thermal process

It is often complicated by diffusion in the solid or through a gas.
Solids can be dried by exposure to highly superheated steam, there are no diffusion
limitation.
Surface temp. depends on the rates of mass transfer and heat transfer and this
concept is used in dryer calculation
Calculation of Heat Duty
Heat must be applied to a dryer to accomplish the following.

1. Heat the feed (solids & liquids) to the vaporization temp.

2. Vaporize the liquid.
3. Heat the solid to their final temp.
4. Heat the vapor to its final temp.
5. Heat the air or other added gas to its final temp.

All the other items are often negligible compared to the vaporization of
liquid.
Total rate of heat transfer
If ms is the mass of bone-dry solids to be dried per unit time.
Xa and Xb are the initial and final liquid content in mass of liquid per unit mass of bone-dry solid.

Heat qT transferred per unit mass of bone-dry solid per unit time

qT = cps (Tsb-Tsa) + Xa cpl (Tv - Tsa) + (Xa-Xb) λ

ms + Xb cpl (Tsb - Tv) + (Xa – Xb) cpv (Tva - Tv)
Where,

Tsa – feed temperature

Xa – initial liquid contents (mass of liquid per unit mass of bone-dry solid)
Xb – final liquid contents
λ –heat of vaporization
cps, cpL, cpv – specific heats
In adiabatic dryer heat transferred to the solids, liquids and vapor , comes from the
cooling of gas.

For continuous adiabatic dryers the heat balance gives.

qT = mg Csb (Thb - Tha)

Where,

mg= mass rate of dry gass

Csb = humid heat of gas at inlet humidity
Basic heat transfer equation

q= UA ∆T
q = rate of heat transfer in a section of the dryer
U = Overall co-efficient
A= Heat transfer area
∆T = Average temp. difference

Value of U can be predicted

Empiricalcorrelation
Experimental data
Theory and correlation
Basic heat transfer equation
(cont)
Value of A

For tray Dryers and moving Belt Dryers.

A is the area of horizontal surface carrying the wet solids
For Drum Dryers.
A is the active surface area of the drum
For Through-Circulation Dryers.
A is the total surface area of the particles
For Screw Conveyor Dryers or Rotary Dryers
The effective area for heat and mass transfer is hard to determine. Such dryers are design on the basis of a
volumetric heat transfer coefficient (Ua)
Phase Equilibria
Equilibrium data for moist solids are the
commonly given as relationship between the
Relative humidity of the gas and liquid
content of the solid.

Always independent of the temp.

When a wet solid is brought into contact with air

of low humidity than that corresponding to the
moisture content of the solids, as shown by the
humidity-equlibrium curve , the solids tends to
lose moisture and dry to equlibrium with the air.

When the air is more humid than the solid in

equilibrium with it, the solids absorbs moisture
from the air until equilibrium is attained.

Equilibrium moisture curve at 25 degree C

Equilibrium Moisture
Humidity of air is called equilibrium moisture.

Free Water
The difference between the total water content XT of the solid and the equlibrium water
content X*:

X = XT – X*

Mechanism of drying depends on the

• nature of solids
• methods of contracting the solids and gas.

Solids are of three kinds.

1. Crystalline : no Interior liquid, drying occur at the surface.
2. Porous : such as pallets, contain liquid in Interior channel.
3. Non- Porous : such as soap, glue and plastic clay, dense cellular solids such as wood
and leather and many polymeric materials.
For each and every product, there is
a representative curve that describes
the drying characteristics for that
product at specific temperature,
velocity and pressure conditions.

This curve is referred to as the

drying curve for a specific product.

Variations in the curve will occur

principally in rate relative to carrier
velocity and temperature.
Drying occurs in three different phases

INITIAL PERIOD
 Sensible heat is transferred to the feed that contained moisture
 Heating up the feed from the inlet condition to the process condition
 The rate of evaporation increases dramatically during this period with mostly free moisture being removed.
 Pre-processing can reduce or eliminate this phase.
e.g. preheated by a source of waste energy.

CONSTANT RATE PERIOD

 Free moisture persists on the surface.
 Rate of evaporation alter very little as the moisture content reduces.
 Drying rates are high.
 There is a gradual and relatively small increase in the product temperature.
 Time scale of the constant rate period may determine and affect the rate of drying in the next phase.

FALLING RATE PERIOD

 Migration of moisture content from the particles to the outer surface becomes the limiting factor that reduces
the drying rate.
CROSS-CIRCULATION DRYING
gas flowing over slabs or beds of solids
• Slow, usually done batch wise
• Displaced by other faster methods in most large scale drying operations.
• Still it is important especially for the production of pharmaceutical and fine
chemicals especially where drying conditions must be carefully controlled.
Constant drying conditions
Assume that temperature, humidity, velocity and direction of flow of the air
across the drying surface are constant.
Moisture content and other factors in the solids are changing with time and
position in the bed
Rates of Drying:
The drying rate of solids containing internal liquids however depend on
 Internal moisture flow
 Distance it must travel to reach the surface.
As the time passes, the total moisture content XT typically falls.

Graph A:
First: XT graph becomes nearly linear after the feed
material reaches Tv. Graph stays this way for a
considerable time so-called constant-rate period

Next: falling-rate period. Linear, concave, or convex

drying-rate plots possible, depending on the
nature of solids and mechanism of internal
moisture flow.

Graph B:
Drying rate which is the derivative of curve A.
The rate is constant or decreasing slightly for a
considerable period. Typical plots of total moisture content and drying
rate.
Critical Moisture Content:
Point at which the constant-rate period ends (see point B)

Initial XT below critical value 􀃆

no constant-rate period
Other factors affecting the
critical content:
Thickness of material
Rate of drying

Typical plots of total moisture content and drying

rate.