Chemical Engineering and Processing 45 (2006) 10191028

Drying of bakers yeast in batch fluidized bed

Mustafa Turker a , Ali Kanarya a , Ugur Yuzgec b, , Hamdi Kapucu a , Zafer Senalp c
a

Pakmaya, P.O. Box 149, 41001, Kocaeli, Turkey

Department of Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering Kocaeli University, 41040, Kocaeli, Turkey
c Gebze Institute of Technology, Gebze, Kocaeli, Turkey
Received 11 June 2005; received in revised form 9 December 2005; accepted 10 January 2006
Available online 7 April 2006

Abstract
A drying model was developed for production scale fluid bed drying of granular bakers yeast. In the model, heat capacity of the dryer and the
product entrained through cyclone and heat transfer from the dryer to environment were also taken into account to improve the predictive capacity
of the model. Kinetic model based on the assumption that the resistances to mass transfer during drying lie not inside but liquid film around the
granules was integrated into material and energy balances. Drying rate constant was determined from experimental results at constant air inlet flow
rate and temperature but at varying dryer loadings. Its magnitude was found as function of amount of product loaded into the dryer. Simulations
were performed for two different granule sizes and good correspondence was found between model predictions and experimental measurements
for small granule sizes. For larger granules, deviations between simulations and measurements were observed and this was attributed to diffusive
transport limitation of moisture inside granules, which requires mathematical description of spatial distribution of moisture and temperature inside
the particles. The model can be used for design, optimization and control of drying processes for various applications.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Drying; Bakers yeast; Modeling; Fluidized bed

1. Introduction
Drying is an important unit operation widely used in chemical, food and pharmaceutical industries to reduce the water
content and improve shelf life of various products. Its principle is based on removal of water from material by means of
evaporation [1,2]. Due to the high sensivity of biological materials to high temperatures and water activities, their preservation
is a problem in industry and maintaining their activities over a
period of time are required to prolong their shelve life. They may
undergo some changes during thermal drying such as destruction of cell membranes, denaturation of proteins or enzymes or
even death of cells [3]. Therefore, optimal operation of drying
process is required in order to minimize such adverse affects of
thermal drying. A large number of dryer types have been used
for drying in practice [1]. The use of fluid bed drying for granular
materials is now well established and widely used in industry. In

Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 262 3351148.

E-mail addresses: mustafat@pakmaya.com.tr (M. Turker),
uyuzgec@kou.edu.tr (U. Yuzgec), hamdik@pakmaya.com.tr (H. Kapucu).
0255-2701/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cep.2006.01.016

fluidized bed drying process, the product to be dried is homogeneously dispersed in the bed and isothermal operation is carried
out using fluidization of material in the dryer [4,5].
The bakers yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a granular
product and the drying operation reduces the moisture content from 6570% to 46%, with varying time between 30 and
200 min to improve its shelf life [6]. Josic [7] has investigated
optimum conditions for drying of bakers yeast. The influence
of drying conditions upon the quality of bakers yeast has been
investigated by Zimmermann and Bauer [8] in laboratory scale
fluidized bed. A mathematical model was developed to describe
the drying process and combined with deactivation kinetics.
They found good agreement between proposed model and experimental results. Strumillo et al. [9] has studied drying of bakers
yeast with equivalent diameter of 0.85 mm in fluidized bed. They
have taken into account dispersion in the bed and deactivation
of bakers yeast during drying. They have concluded that better
results were obtained for plug flow of material being dried as
far as final product quality was concerned. Grabowski et al. [10]
have compared spouted bed and fluidized bed and their combinations on product quality for drying of bakers yeast. As far as the
quality of final product was concerned, it was found that two step

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M. Turker et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 45 (2006) 10191028

drying with spouted bed to reduce moisture content from 70 to

35% followed by fluidized bed to achieve a final moisture content
of 68% appeared to be of practical importance. Bayrock and
Ingledew [11,12] have studied effects of some operating parameters such as temperature, drying rates and moisture levels on
the viability of bakers yeast. Yuzgec et al. [13] have considered
diffusion limited drying of cylindrical bakers yeast granules.
In this work, a dynamic model based on the model developed
by Temple and van Boxtel [14] for continuous black tea drying
is constructed to describe simultaneous mass and heat transfer,
which takes place in a completely mixed batch fluid bed. This
study is focused on batch drying but can easily be adapted to
continuous drying. The model was compared with experimental
data obtained from production scale fluid bed dryer for drying
of granular bakers yeast with small and large size granules.
Both types of granules fall into category A according to Geldart
classification [15].
2. Process model
Model equations are constructed by combining material and
energy balances based on following assumptions [14,16] for fluidized bed as shown in Fig. 1.
2.1. Assumptions
1. Fluidized bed is open to the atmosphere and therefore the top
of the bed is under the atmospheric pressure. Pressure difference along the bed is negligible and drying process proceeds
under constant pressure.
2. Complete mixing is assumed for the product and air in the
bed.
3. The resistance to mass transfers lies in the film around granular particle not within the granules and this has been the basis
of the assumptions in the derivation of kinetic model.

4. Heat exchange between particles and air in the bed is instantaneous; therefore air temperature and particle temperature
in bed are in equilibrium.
5. Mass of air inside the bed is negligible.
6. Product entrained through cyclone is accounted for in material balances.
7. Mass of dryer material containing product is not negligible
and taken into account in energy balance.
2.2. Model equations
The constructed model equations for all components flowing
in and out of the system as follows.
2.2.1. Dry solids equation
In drying process, the product is initially loaded into the dryer
and then dried solid content of product in the system increases
throughout the loading phase. However, some product will be
lost due to entrainment through the cyclones. Therefore, accumulation of the product in the bed can be described by following
differential equation:
dMb,y
= miy moy
dt

(1)

where Mb,y is dry solid mass of product in the bed and miy is
the flow rate of the product into the bed and moy is the flow rate
of the product out of the bed. The continuous transport of the
product out of bed can be found by following equation:
d
o
(2)
my (t) = m (t)
dt
 o
moy is flow rate and
my is total mass of entrained product.
The rate of the product collected from the cyclone moy was continuously registered every minute on a balance and following
polynomial equation was obtained as a function of time during

Fig. 1. Layout of batch fluidized bed drying process.

M. Turker et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 45 (2006) 10191028

drying:
moy = 4.0 109 t 2 3.1 106 t + 103

(3)

dWb,y
= wiy rw woy
dt
or
wia

+ rw =

(4)

woa

(5)

where wia is flow rate of water as vapor in air to the system and
woa is flow rate of water as vapor in air from the dryer.
2.2.3. Air conservation equation
Air used for drying does not involve in any reaction (Mb,a ),
since it is neither produced nor consumed in the bed. Therefore:
dMb,a
= mia moa
=0
dt

(6)

mia
= moa

(7)

2.2.4. Energy balance equation

There are four components of enthalpy flow in the system:
1.
2.
3.
4.

The energy introduced by air

The energy introduced by yeast (hiy ).
The energy removed by air (hoa ).
The energy removed by yeast (hoy ).

The energy accumulation of the process H is assumed as adiabatic. The total energy accumulation in the bed can be written as
dynamic balance between energy flows to and from the system
as:
(8)

Energy flow components of Eq. (8) can be written as:

hiy = cp,y miy Tyi + cp,w wiy Tyi

(9)

hia = cp,a mia Tai + cp,wv wia Tai

(10)

hoy = cp,y moy Tyo + cp,w woy Tyo

(11)

hoa = cp,a moa Tao + cp,wv woa Tao

(12)

where Tyi inlet product (yeast cake) temperature, Tai input air temperature, Tyo temperature of the product that leaves the system
from dryer cyclones, Tao output air temperature, cp,y specific heat
of product, cp,w specific heat of water, cp,a specific heat of air

(13)

Temperature balance equation can be obtained according to

the assumptions at Eqs. (5) and (7).
Tao = Tb,a = Tb,y = Tyo = Tb,ss = T

(14)

where Tb,a represents temperature of air in bed, Tb,y represents

temperature of yeast in bed and Tb,ss represents temperature of
stainless steel material of dryer. Therefore, Eqs. (11) and (13)
can be rewritten as below,
hoy = cp,y moy T + cp,w woy T

(15)

hoa = cp,a mia T + cp,wv (wia + rw )T

(16)

The total energy accumulation in the bed can be calculated by

combination of energy changes of yeast-air in bed, dryer material
and evaporation process:
H=

d(cp,y Mb,y + cp,w Wb,y )Tb,y

dt
d(cp,a Mb,a + cp,wv Wb,a )Tb,a
d(cp,ss Mb,ss )Tb,ss
+
+
dt
dt
+ rw
Hv
(17)

where Mb,ss , cp,ss ,
Hv and Wb,a are mass of the dryer material
that encloses the product, specific heat of stainless steel, evaporation enthalpy of water and mass of water vapor, respectively.
Using the assumption in Eq. (14), Eq. (17) can be written as:
H=

(hia ).

H = hiy + hia hoy hoa

and cp,wv specific heat of water vapor. Eq. (12) can be rewritten
using Eqs. (5) and (7):
hoa = cp,a mia Tao + cp,wv (wia + rw )Tao

2.2.2. Water conservation equation

Water in the bed consists of water associated with the product
and water vapor carried by air into and out of the system. The
change of mass of water inside the bed, dWb,y /dt, relates to the
flow rate of water in product fed to the system, wiy , flow rate of
water removed from product by means of evaporation, rw , and
flow rate of water in product entrained through cyclones woy . The
corresponding equations are shown below.

1021

d(cp,y Mb,y + cp,w Wb,y )T

d(cp,a Mb,a + cp,wv Wb,a )T
+
dt
dt
d(cp,ss Mb,ss )T
+
(18)
+ rw
Hv
dt

Since the mass of air in bed is assumed as negligible then the

terms Mb,a and Wb,a can be deleted from Eq. (18):
H=

d(cp,y Mb,y + cp,w Wb,y + cp,ss Mb,ss )T

+ rw
Hv
dt

(19)

The main variable that the model predicts is the product temperature, T, used in above equation. Mb,y and Wb,y terms depend
on time as Eqs. (2) and (4), respectively. Mb,ss depends on time
indirectly. It varies with airflow, which is the function of time.
Specific heat of yeast cp,y is a function of dry solid content. Since
dry solid content varies with time during process, specific heat
of yeast can be considered as a time dependent variable. Based
on this information, more open form of Eq. (19) can be obtained
as:
dT
H = (cp,y Mb,y + cp,w Wb,y + cp,ss Mb,ss )
+T
dt


dMb,y
dWb,y
dcp,y
dMb,ss
cp,y
+ Mb,y
+ cp,w
+ cp,ss
dt
dt
dt
dt
+ rw
Hv

(20)

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M. Turker et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 45 (2006) 10191028

If Eqs. (8)(10), (15) and (16) are replaced into Eq. (20), then
accumulation term becomes:
dT
(cp,y Mb,y + cp,w Wb,y + cp,ss Mb,ss )
+T
dt


dMb,y
dWb,y
dcp,y
dMb,ss
cp,y
+ Mb,y
+ cp,wv
+ cp,ss
dt
dt
dt
dt
= cp,y miy Tyi + cp,w wiy Tyi + cp,a mia Tai + cp,wv wia Tai
T (cp,y moy + cp,w woy

+ cp,a mia

+ cp,wv (wia

rw = Mb,y J

+ rw )) rw
Hv
(21)

Main model equation is obtained using the derivative terms

in Eqs. (1) and (4):

dT
(cp,y Mb,y + cp,w Wb,y + cp,ss Mb,ss )
+ T cp,y (miy moy )
dt

dcp,y
dMb,ss
+ cp,w (wiy rw woy ) + cp,ss
+ Mb,y
dt
dt
=

cp,y miy Tyi

+ cp,w wiy Tyi

T (cp,y moy + cp,w woy

+ cp,a mia Tai

+ cp,a mia

+ cp,wv wia Tai

+ cp,wv (wia

+ rw )) rw
Hv
(22)

The Eq. (22) can be simplified as

dT
A BT
=
dt
C
where parameters A, B and C are:

material properties, mechanism of drying process applied, dryer

and water sorption and desorption mechanisms. Drying rate is
determined by examining these parameters [18]. The ability of
product to release water can be found by multiplying mass of
dry solid and specific drying rate. The specific drying rate of
product refers to J so that the water releasing ability of product
can be written as:

(23)

A = cp,y miy Tyi + cp,w wiy Tyi + cp,a mia Tai + cp,wv wia Tai rw
Hv

(28)

Specific drying rate is described as mass of water removed

from material at unit time interval:
J=

dX
dt

(29)

A commonly used simple model to describe specific drying

rate J is as follows, assuming that the resistance to mass transfer
lies in the liquid film around the particle;
J=

dX
= k(X Xe )
dt

(30)

where k is drying rate coefficient (h1 ), X moisture content

(kg water/kg dm) and Xe is equilibrium moisture content (kg
water/kg dm). Using this equation, the drying time can be calculated separately for constant and falling drying periods [2].
However, a new method of drying time calculation has been
developed to enable one to describe the total drying process
including constant and falling drying rate periods in single
kinetic expression [2]. The principle of this method is based on
the generalized mass transfer equation written in the following
form;
dX
= k(X1 X)(X Xe )
dt

(24)

J=

+ cp,a mia + cp,wv (wia + rw )

(25)

C = cp,y Mb,y + cp,w Wb,y + cp,ss Mb,ss

(26)

where X1 is the initial moisture content and the expression

(X1 X)(X Xe ) represents the driving force for drying. The
simulation starts by choosing a value X(t = 0) slightly different
from X1 .

B = cp,y miy + Mb,y

dcp,y
dMb,ss
+ cp,w (wiy rw ) + cp,ss
dt
dt

Heat transfer from the surface of the dryer to environment has

also been considered in overall energy balance using following
equation for dryer heat transfer coefficient [17]:


T Tsurr 1/4
ha = 1.37
(27)
L
assuming that resistance to heat transfer lies outside the dryer.
Tsurr and L represent ambient air temperature and fluid bed
length, respectively. However, it has not been seen any significant effect in model output when this equation has been included
in the overall energy balance. Thus, adiabatic drying has been
justified an Eq. (27) has not been included in the model at the
present work.
2.3. The water releasing ability of product
The ability of drying material to release moisture depends on
many factors such as materials cellular and structural integrity,

(31)

2.4. Constraints on drying rate

Latent heat required for mass transfer of water from solid
to gas phase is supplied by hot air. Evaporation rate cannot be
more than the evaporative capacity of the air. During the constant
rate period, drying rate is governed by evaporative capacity of
air. However, the rate is controlled by water releasing capacity
of product during falling rate period where exhaust air is not
saturated with water vapor [19].
3. Solution of model equations
The mathematical model developed in previous section is
based on the first order ordinary differential equation with initial and boundary conditions. Therefore, RungeKutta finite
difference method has been used for the solution of the Eq.
(23) describing product temperature [20]. The temperature has
been calculated by the following equations where k0 , k1 , k2 and

M. Turker et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 45 (2006) 10191028

1023

Fig. 2. Algorithm for solution of drying model.

k3 represent the coefficients in the RungeKutta method, h the

sampling period and k is the step.
k0 =

A BT(k 1)
C

(32)

k1 =

A B(T (k 1) + 0.5k0 h)
C

(33)

k2 =

A B(T (k 1) + 0.5k1 h)
C

(34)

k3 =

A B(T (k 1) + k2 h)
C

(35)

T (k) = T (k 1) + (k0 + 2k1 + 2k2 + k3 )

h
6

(36)

The program algorithm for solution of set of equations is

shown in Fig. 2 in detail. The sampling period has been chosen
as one second for the solution of the model equations.
4. Materials and methods
The experiments were carried out in production scale fluidized bed dryer. Yeast cake was extruded into the dryer through
a perforated plate of different diameter to get desired granule
size. The fluid bed consisted of centrifugal fan to supply air
drawn from ambient air (Fig. 1). Air inlet temperature was main-

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M. Turker et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 45 (2006) 10191028

Fig. 4. Progress of moisture removal at different loadings (kg): (
) 150, ()
250, () 300 and () 400.

Fig. 3. Air temperature and airflow rate used for the small particle size.

100 C

tained at
as shown in Fig. 3 during most part of drying
process. The temperatures and humidities of air at inlet and outlet and its flow rate were measured on-line and registered on a
computer in order to establish continuous material and energy
balances for the prediction of the moisture content and temperature of the product.
The mass of the structural material of the dryer in contact
with granular yeast, which is a function of air flow rate, is taken
into account in the model presented in this paper. Following
equation is derived for the mass of stainless steel in contact with
the product to be used in energy balance:
Mb,ss = 2 106 fa + 1.505 101 fai + 2 1012
i2

(37)

where fai is flow rate of input air with the unit of kg/h. The
specific heat of yeast is a function of its dry solid ratio and following equation is derived for the specific heat capacity of yeast
as a function of dry solid ratio based on experimental results of
Josic [7]. Dry solid ratio at time t refers to Y(t) and specific heat
capacity of product as a function of dry solid content is given
by;
cp,y (t) = 6 106 Y 3 (t) + 8 104 Y 2 (t)
5.34 102 Y (t) + 4.26

(38)

where the dry solid ratio, Y (kg dry solid/kg total) can be defined
as:
Mb,y
Y = 100
Mb,y + Wb,y

(39)

Specific heat capacity of water vapor depends on air temperature and is given by following equation [21]:
cp,wv (t) = 0.2324(8.22 + 1.5 10

T (t) + 1.3 10

6 2

T (t))
(40)

The evaporation enthalpy of water is a function of temperature and given by following equation [21]:


1 Tr 0.38

Hv (T ) =
Hv1
(41)
1 Tr1
Tr =

T
Tc,w

and

Tr1 =

T1
Tc,w

(42)

where
Hv1 is evaporation enthalpy of water at known temperature T1 , Tr is reduced temperature, Tc,w is critical temperature
of water which is 647.3 K and evaporation enthalpy of water at
T1 = 0 C
Hv1 = 2501 kJ/kg [22].
5. Results and discussion
5.1. Determination of drying rate constant
Determination of drying rate constant was carried out at different dryer loadings but constant air inlet temperature and air
flow rates. Therefore, the drying rate constant was estimated
only as a function dryer loading. The progress of drying along
time is shown in Fig. 4 for different dryer loadings.
The moisture content of product decreased slowly as the loading to the dryer increased from 150 to 400 kg. The drying curves
in Fig. 4 have three different slopes; loading period, constant
drying period where drying rate proceeds at maximum rate and
finally reduced drying period where drying rate decreases after
critical moisture content. The specific moisture removal rates
have been plotted in Fig. 5 for different loadings and maximum
moisture removal rates are calculated and presented in Table 1
and Fig. 6 for different loadings. As can be seen from these figures, the maximum specific water removal rates are inversely
proportional to the loading.
Table 1
Maximum moisture removal rate as function of dryer loading at constant air
inlet temperature and flow rate
Loading (kg)

Maximum moisture removal rate

(kg water/kg dry product h)

150
250
300
400

9.0
5.1
4.5
3.6

M. Turker et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 45 (2006) 10191028

1025

Fig. 5. Specific moisture removal rates at different loadings (kg): (
) 150, () 250, () 300 and () 400.

Integration of Eq. (31) from the initial equilibrium moisture

content X1e to the final moisture content Xe gives the following
expression for drying time;
t=

1
(X1 X)(X1e Xe )
ln
k(X1 Xe ) (X1 X1e )(X Xe )

(43)

The initial equilibrium moisture content X1e corresponds to

the moisture content of the product during the initial drying
period where the temperature of the drying air at the product
surface is equal to the wet-bulb temperature. Its value can easily
be calculated from Eq. (43) on the basis of the experimental
drying curve when Zt plot is drawn where Z is defined as;

shown in Fig. 7. If the value of X1e is unknown the curve on

coordinates Zt can be constructed for any reasonable value of
Xie = X1e for X1 < X1e . Then the real value of the initial equilibrium moisture content can be calculated from the following
equation;
= ez(0) ln
X1e =

X1e Xe
X1 X1e

X1 + Xe
1+

(45)
(46)

This graph gives straight line with the slope equal to the drying
rate constant k and the intercept on the Z-axis equal to X1e as

where represents intermediate parameter for X1e calculation

and z(0) is the value of intercept on Z-axis. If the value of Xe is
unknown it can be determined by a trial and error method substituting in consecutive values of Xe until the curve on the Zt
graph becomes straight line as shown in Fig. 7. In Fig. 7 reasonable straight lines are obtained for most part of the experimental

Fig. 6. Maximum moisture removal rate as function of dryer loading at constant

air inlet temperature and flow rate.

Fig. 7. Zt plot for determination of drying rate constant for different loadings
(kg): (
) 150, () 250, () 300 and () 400.

Z = ln

(X1 X)(X1e Xe )
(X1 X1e )(X Xe )

(44)

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M. Turker et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 45 (2006) 10191028

Table 2
Drying rate constants
Batch loading (kg)

k (h1 )

150
250
300
400

10.97
8.26
7.08
5.45

Fig. 9. Effect of cyclone loss on the model output; symbols are experimental
results, continuous lines are the model output with cyclone effect and dashed
lines are the model output without cyclone effect.

where the values of drying rate constants can be calculated

for each set of drying experiment. The values in Table 2 were
obtained for different dryer loadings that are plotted in Fig. 8.
The magnitudes of drying rate constants fit to following equation:

Fig. 8. Drying rate constants as function of loading.

k (h1 ) = 14.027 0.0221 (kg cake)

drying points, rapid drying phase and most part of reduced drying phase, apart from last few points at the very end of drying
process.
The slopes of each line in Fig. 7 are equal to
Slope = k(X1 Xe )

(47)

(48)

5.2. Simulation of uid bed dryer

The drying process consists of three phases. In the first
phase dryer is loaded with granulated material to be dried.
Then drying temperature is increased to initiate constant dry-

Fig. 10. Simulation results for 250 kg (a), 300 kg (b), and two different batches at 400 kg loadings (c) and (d) for small size granules: experimental moisture content
() and product temperature (
). Continuous lines are model predictions.

M. Turker et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 45 (2006) 10191028

1027

particle should be taken into account in order to improve the

accuracy of the prediction.
6. Conclusions

Fig. 11. Simulation result for larger granule: experimental moisture content, X,
() and product temperature, T, () and continuous lines are model predictions.

ing phase. Third phase is reduced drying phase or called falling

rate period. Finally dried material discharged from the dryer
when the desired end dry matter was reached. The drying
model with kinetic parameters determined in the previous section was validated on two sets of experimental data obtained
from batch fluid bed. The experiments were carried out with
two types of products dried in the dryer with different diameter:
one extruded through 0.0006 m diameter perforated holes into
dryer and the second one extruded through 0.0012 m diameter
perforated holes to get larger granules. In the model, rate of
product removal from the cyclone was taken into account and
its effect is shown in Fig. 9. As can be seen from this figure,
the contribution of the product entrained through the cyclone
during drying does not have any significant effect on the model
output.
The experimental results together with model predictions for
granule sizes extruded from 0.0006 m perforated disc are shown
in Fig. 10 for three different loadings. The product bed temperature decreases during loading phase due to rapid loading
of cold yeast cake. The model closely predicts the actual measurements. Only slight deviation between model predictions and
actual measurements is observed in the final phase of drying of
first two graphs of Fig. 10. However, in the final two graphs
the product temperature is well predicted for reduced drying
phase. In all experiments the accuracy of predictions for the
progress of moisture content is quite acceptable. The simulations
for small particles give good correspondence to actual measurements. Temperature and moisture predictions are quite good and
fit well to simulation results during most part of drying. The
result obtained with particles extruded through 0.0012 m perforated plate is shown in Fig. 11. In this case, the particle size
is doubled compared to previous experiments. During constant
drying rate period, the model predicts product temperature and
moisture content quite well.
However, major deviation is observed in predictions for
falling rate period where no moisture and temperature distribution inside particles are assumed and therefore the assumptions
of the kinetic model may be invalid. As the particle size increases
the spatial distribution of moisture and temperature inside the

A drying model has been developed, based on material and

energy balances around production scale fluidized bed for the
drying of granular bakers yeast. The model accounted for product entrained through cyclone and energy loss through the body
of the dryer, to improve the predictions of the model on production scale. It has been observed that the amount of product
entrained from cyclones did not change much the predictive
capacity of the model. In addition, the energy loss through the
body of dryer was insignificant and the assumption of adiabatic
conditions was justified. The model was applied to batch drying
of granular bakers yeast with different granular dimensions.
For smaller granules (0.0006 m), the model predictions were
quite reasonable and progress of product moisture content and
temperature were estimated with reasonable accuracy during
loading, rapid drying and reduced drying phases. When granule
size increased to 0.0012 m, the simulations deviated from actual
measurements especially during reduced drying phase. This may
indicate that diffusive transport of moisture inside particles plays
an important role on the overall drying performance of granules.
This also affects energy balance and as a result the prediction
of bed temperature deviates from actual measurements. Temple
and van Boxtel [14] have shown that thin layer drying model
was used for simulating the fluid bed drying of black tea. However, they had to multiply the drying rate with an efficiency
factor of 0.6 to get good correspondence between model and
actual measurements, indicating the limitations of the model.
As a result, the model presented here may be used for drying of
relatively small particles where diffusion is not the limiting step.
As the granule size increases, spatial distribution of moisture and
temperature need to be taken into account to improve the accuracy and predictions of the model. The extended version of the
present model was previously presented for cylindrical granules
[13] and more complete version of distributed parameter model
is in preparation together with deactivation kinetic [23].
Appendix A. Nomenclature

A
B
cp
C
f
h
h
H
I
J
k
ki
L

parameter defined in Eq. (24)

parameter defined in Eq. (25)
specific heat (kJ/kg K)
parameter defined in Eq. (26)
flow rate (kg/h)
enthalpy (J/h)
heat transfer coefficient
energy accumulation term (J/h)
energy
drying rate (kg water/kg dry solid h)
drying rate coefficient (h1 ) and step in RungeKutta
method
RungeKutta coefficients
length

1028

m
M
rw
t
T
w
W
X
Y

M. Turker et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 45 (2006) 10191028

mass flow rate (kg/h)

mass of dry solid (kg)
evaporation (kg/h)
time
temperature (K)
water flow rate (kg/h)
mass of water (kg)
moisture content (kg water/kg dry solid)
dry solid ratio (kg dry solid/kg total)

Greek letters

Hv
evaporation enthalpy of water (kJ/kg)

intermediate parameter for X1e

Subscripts
a
air
b
bed
c
critical
e
equilibrium
r
reduced
ss
stainless steal
surr
surround
w
water
wv
water vapor
y
yeast
Superscripts
i
input
o
output
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