Class Problem 23

On Drying + Membrane Separation

Advanced Separation processes

Question 1

A rotary dryer is fed with wet feed at a rate of 1 kg dry solid/s. The feed contains 50%
water per kg dry solid and the product is discharged with 3% water per kg dry solid.
The entering air is at 107 C and an absolute humidity of 0.007 kg/kg. The solid feed
enters at 21 C and leaves at 36 C. The air leaves at 37 C. Allow a radiation heat loss
of 25 kJ/kg of dry air. Calculate
(i) mass of air passing through dryer
(ii) humidity of the air leaving dryer
(iii) if there is no loss of radiation, what will be the air flow rate and humidity.
(iv) Discuss your answer
Given: Cp data: in kJ/kg K: dry solid= 1.5, dry air = 1.005, water vapor = 1.88, liquid water =
4.19; at 0oC =2501 kJ/kg

Q2: In laboratory scale, a batch of wet solid is required 10 hrs to be dried from a free
moisture content of 22% to 0.3%. The critical moisture content was found to be 5%. If solid
condition remains similar, what will be the time needed to dry the solid to 0.01% in a rotary
drying. Note: All moistures are expressed as % of bone dry solid.

Q3

A 4 g/L of bovine serum albumin (BSA) is to undergo a microfiltration. Experiments have

been performed using a cellulose-acetate membrane with an average pore diameter of 0.45m
and AM of 17.3 cm3. The filtration rate is started at 15mL/min and the pressure drop across
the cake and membrane remains constant at 1kPa. The permeate viscosity is found to be
0.001Pa.s. Calculate

(i) The resistance due to filter medium if no accumulation of cake is found

(ii) If accumulated cake is found to be 1.25 x 109m-1, what will be the new RM
(iii) What will be the pressure drop if the resistance due to filter medium remains
as (i)