DRYING

• Removal of moisture from a wet solid, a solution or a gas to

make it dry is an industrial operations
Example for direct heat drying
• In the last stage of sugar production-ready for packaging
• Drying of leather-processing
• Soap bars dried to reduce the moisture content
• Milk powder-spray drying
Indirect drying-Heat sensitive material(organic chemical
industries)
• Drying does not demand or ensure complete removal of the
moisture(sometime desirable to retain some moisture-soap
bar,foof stuff)
• Refers to L-S separation-
• Distinguish between mechanical separation-There are other
water/liquid removal processes such as filtration, settling,
centrifugation, supercritical extraction of water from gels etc.
In all these operations liquid is removed by mechanical means
but a considerable amount of liquid is still retained in the
solid. This residual liquid can be removed by drying.
• Removal of water from a purified soap lye to make
glycerin-??? Reason???
• Production of condensed milk??? Production of milk powder
Purpose of Drying
• Removal of small amount of water or organic liquids
from solids (process materials).

• The difference between evaporation and drying:

1. Evaporation: remove large amount of water
Drying: remove relatively small of water
2. Evaporation: water is removed as vapor at its boiling
point
Drying: water is removed as a vapor by air
• Moisture content of the final dried product varies
depending upon the type of product.
• Example: Dried salt (0.5% water); coal (4%) and food
products (5%)
• Final processing step before packaging.
• Drying or dehydration of biological materials, especially
foods is used as preservation technique.

• Microorganisms cannot grow and multiply in the absence

of water.

• Below 10 wt% - the microorganisms are not active

• To preserve flavor & nutrition – 5 wt% water content

• Some biological materials & pharmaceuticals may not be

heated for ordinary drying – may be freeze dried.
 Physical mechanism of drying
• Drying is governed by the principles of transport of heat and mass-Drying
does not mean only removal of the moisture but during the process, physical
structure as well as the apperance has to be preserved. When a moist solid
is heated to an appropriate temperature, moisture vaporizes at or near the
solid surface and the heat required for evaporating moisture from the drying
product is supplied by the external drying medium, usually air or a hot gas
• Various types of solids can be handled-crystalline, granular beads,
powders,sheets,slabs,filter cakes etc..
• The mechanism of moisture transport classified as (i)transport by capillary
forces,(ii)liquid diffusion(iii)pressure induced transport and vapor diffusion .
• The mechanism that dominates depends on the nature of solid, its pore
structure and the rate of drying
 Contd…
• Three transport resistance plays an important role in
the drying process
 The resistance to liquid or vapour transport inside
the solid
 The resistance to convective mass transfer of vapour
from the surface of the solid to the bulk of the gas
 The resistance to convective heat transfer from the
bulk of the drying gas to the solid surface
Drying equilibria- relation b/w moisture content of a
solid and the humidity of ambient drying medium at
equilibrium
 Equilibrium Moisture Content of Materials
• The material will dry until it reaches its equilibrium
value.
 EQUILIBRIUM MOISTURE CONTENT, X*

• bound water - the minimum moisture a material can carry

- intersection of 100% humidity line in equillibrium water
content vs relative humidity
• Unbound water = excess water held primarily in the voids of the
solid
• free moisture content, X - moisture above the equilibrium moisture
content
- can be removed by drying
Moisture amount that
can be release/free
X = Xt - X* during drying
where

Xt = total moisture content

X* = equilibrium-moisture content – cannot be

predicted
Important definitions and term
 Classification of dryers

• Drying equipment is classified in different ways,

according to following design and operating features.
• It can be classified based on mode of operation such
as batch or continuous,
• In some cases vacuum may be used to reduce the
drying temperature. Some dryers can handle almost
any kind of material, whereas others are severely
limited in the style of feed they can accept.
• Drying processes can also be categorized according
to the physical state of the feed such as wet solid,
liquid, and slurry. Type of heating system i.e.
conduction, convection, radiation is another way of
categorizing the drying process.
• Heat may be supplied by direct contact with hot air at
atmospheric pressure, and the water vaporized is removed by
the air flowing. Heat may also be supplied indirectly through
the wall of the dryer from a hot gas flowing outside the wall or
by radiation.
• Dryers exposing the solids to a hot surface with which the solid
is in contact are called adiabatic or direct dryers, while when
heat is transferred from an external medium it is known as non-
adiabatic or indirect dryers. Dryers heated by dielectric, radiant
or microwave energy are also non adiabatic. Some units
combine adiabatic and non adiabatic drying; they are known as
direct-indirect dryers.
Solids handling in dryers
 Rate-of-Drying Curves
• Introduction & Experimental Methods
• Rate of Drying Curves for Constant-Drying
Conditions
• Drying in the Constant-Rate Period
• Drying in the Falling-Rate Period
Introduction & Experimental Methods

• To determine rate of drying for a given material, a

sample is usually placed on a tray.
• If it is a solid material it should fill the tray so that only
the top surface is exposed to the drying air stream.
• By suspending the tray from a balance in a cabinet or
duct through which the air is flowing, the loss in weight
of moisture during drying can be determined at different
intervals without interrupting the operation.
Rate of Drying Curves for Constant-Drying
Conditions
• Data obtained from a batch-drying experiment are usually
obtained as W total weight of the wet solid (dry solid plus
moisture) at different times t hours in the drying period.
• These data can be converted to rate-of-drying data in the
following ways.
• First, the data are recalculated.

• Where:
W = the weight of the wet solid in kg total water plus dry
solid and WS = the weight of the dry solid in kg,
Moisture content Drying rate,
(kg /kg dry solids)
dW/dt (kg/h)

A B
B C
A

1a 1b

C
tc D tc D

time (hrs) time (hrs)

Typical drying rate curve of for food solids.
AB = Settling down period where the solid surface
conditions come into equilibrium with the drying air.
BC = Constant rate period which the surface of the
solid remains saturated with liquid because the
movement of water vapour to the surface equals the
evaporation rate. Thus the drying rate depends on
the rate of heat transfer to the drying surface and
temperature remains constant.
C = Critical moisture content where the drying rate
starts falling and surface temperature rises.
CD = Falling rate period which surface is drying out
and the drying rate falls. This is influenced by the
movement of moisture within the solid and take time.
Rate of drying curve
A-wet surface (CCD)
Cross section of the
bed measured at right
angles to the direction
of flow(TCD)
Ss d x
N
A dt

Ss d x
N
A dt
• ED-internal movement of moisture
• DC-unsaturated surface drying
 Time of drying
•   of Drying:
Time
Constant rate drying
Rearranging and Integrating over the time interval while
the moisture content changes from its initial X 1 to its final
X2
 

 The Constant -rate Period: X1 and X2> Xc and N=Nc

=
 Falling Rate period
•• If X1 and X2 are both less than Xc. so that drying occurs under condition
 of changing N we process as follows.
• General case: For any shape of falling-rate curve whatsoever. Eq. can be
integrated graphically by determining the area under the curve of 1/N
as ordinate and X as abscissa
• Special case: N is linear in X, as in the region BC . In this case
• N=mX+b

• =
 Numericals
A 100 kg batch of granular solids containing 30%
moisture is to be dried in a tray dryer to 16%
moisture by passing a current of air at 350K
across its surface at a velocity of 2 m/s .If the
constant rate of drying under these conditions is
0.7*10-3kg/m2s and the critical moisture content
is 15% calculate the drying time
Drying surface = 0.03m2/kg dry wt.
A filter cake is dried for 5 hrs from a moisture
content of 30% to 10% (wet basis) calculate the
time required to dry the filter cake from 30% to 6
% (wet basis)
Eqm moisture content = 4% on dry basis
Critical moisture content = 14% on dry basis
Assure that the rate of drying in the falling rate
period is directly proportional to the free moisture
content .
• A slab of paper pulp 1.5mx1.5mx5mm is to be
dried under constant drying conditions from
65% to 30% moisture (wet basis) and the
critical moisture is 1.67kg free water/kg dry
pulp. The drying rate at the critical point has
been estimated to be 1.40kg/m2.hr. The dry
weight of each slab is 2.5kg. Assuming drying
to take place from the two large faces only,
calculate the drying time to be provided.
 X x100,kgmoisture/kg dry 35 25 20 18 16 14` 12 10 9 8 7 6.4
applies, is to be dried from
solid25 to 6 % moisture under conditions identical to those for which the data were tabulated. The initial weight of the wet solid
Nx100 kg moisture 30 30 30 26.6 23.9 20. 18 15 9.7 7 4.3 2.5
evaporated/hr.m2 8
 1. A batch of the solid for which the following table of data applies, is to be dried from
25 to 6 % moisture under conditions identical to those for which the data were
tabulated. The initial weight of the wet solid is 350kg, and the drying surface is 1m2/8
kg dry weight. Determine the time for drying. (15)

X x100,kgmoisture/kg dry 35 25 20 18 16 14` 12 10 9 8

solid

Nx100 kg moisture 30 30 30 26.6 23.9 20. 18 15 9.7 7

evaporated/hr.m2 8
 X x100,kgmoisture/kg dry 35 25 20 18 16 14` 12 10 9 8 7 6.4
applies, is to be dried from
solid25 to 6 % moisture under conditions identical to those for which the data were tabulated. The initial weight of the wet solid
Nx100 kg moisture 30 30 30 26.6 23.9 20. 18 15 9.7 7 4.3 2.5
evaporated/hr.m2 8