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Process design of rotary dryers for olive cake
Article in Drying Technology · June 2002

DOI: 10.1081/DRT-120003756
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DRYING TECHNOLOGY, 20(4&5), 771–788 (2002)
PROCESS DESIGN OF ROTARY DRYERS

FOR OLIVE CAKE
M. K. Krokida,1 Z. B. Maroulis,1,* and C. Kremalis2

1
Department of Chemical Engineering, National
Technical University of Athens, Zografou Campus,
15780 Athens, Greece
2
Greek Pollution Control Engineering,
50 Valtetsiou Street 10681 Athens, Greece
ABSTRACT
Olive-mill cake is one of the most widespread biomaterials for

bioenergy exploitation in Greece. It is a sludge-type material,
produced as byproduct from olive-mill extraction process. Its
energy content is higher than 15 MJ/kg db and it can be used
for direct burning, after drying. The drying process of olive
cake is examined in the present paper. Drying kinetics data as
well as the related thermophysical properties are obtained
experimentally. The appropriate dryer model is proposed,
validated and used to design an industrial rotary dryer.
Economic analysis of the process is also discussed. A charac-
teristic case study of an industrial rotary dryer for olive cake is
included to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed
approach.
*E-mail: maroulis@chemeng.ntua.gr
771
Copyright & 2002 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. www.dekker.com

772 KROKIDA, MAROULIS, AND KREMALIS
Key Words: Bioenergy; Drying kinetics; Economics; Model-

ing; Residence time; Sludge drying
INTRODUCTION
The olive industry is of major importance to the Greek economy and

olive-mills cake is one of the most widespread biomaterials for bioenergy
exploitation in Greece. It is a sludge-type material produced as byproduct
from the olive-mill extraction process. Its energy content is greater than
15 MJ/kg db and it can be used for direct burning, after drying. One of
the most popular methods for drying of olive cake is the use of concurrent
rotary dryers.
The main features of these dryers are their versatility, flexibility, large
throughputs, ability to handle a wide variety of feeds etc.
A review of the literature available for simulation and design of rotary
dryers shows that most models developed are rather complicated. They
incorporate a large number of thermo-physical properties and transport
coefficients, which in most cases are only partially known, thus producing
inaccurate or erroneous results on large scale industrial applications.
Myklestad (1963) developed a procedure for predicting the material
moisture content profile of solids along the length of a rotary dryer by
assuming that the gas temperature is linearly related to their moisture con-
tent. The first attempt to correlate the rate of cascading solid flow with the
interfacial contact area, between the gas and the solid was made by Schofield
and Glikin (1964). Sharles et al. (1964) developed a computer model of a
rotary dryer based on the assumption that a volumetric heat transfer coeffi-
cient accounts for all phenomena occurring in the dryer. Davidson et al.
(1964) extended the work of Porter (1963) and Turner (1966) to include
mass transfer. Thorne (1979) combined the work of Kelly and O’Conell
(1977) on retention time with the vapor diffusion model of Garside et al.
(1970) to develop a computer simulation model of a single-pass, open center
rotary dryer. A simplified drying model for rotary dryer was proposed by
Kisakurek (1982) who assumed a constant solids temperature and neglected
sensible heat effects. In a computer program in which external convective
heat transfer to solids was assumed to control the drying process (Platin
et al., 1982), the solids were taken to be ideally porous, so that internal
moisture movement was rapid enough to keep the particle surface wetted
throughout the course of drying. Kamke and Wilson (1986) developed a
mathematical model for the simulation of rotary dryers of wood. It included
studies on retention time and heat and mass transfer phenomena within the
OLIVE CAKE DRYER MODEL 773
dryer. Douglas et al. (1993) developed a rotary dryer model to describe

dynamic performance of crystalline sugar drying. The differential equations
of the model were solved numerically and the results were tested against
experimental data.
The purpose of this paper is to present the appropriate mathematical
model and data for effective process design of olive cake dryers. The
mathematical model refers to both the residence time estimation of the
dryer and the drying kinetics of the material. It is intended to gather
adequate drying kinetics data from laboratory experiments and to select
and test empirical equations from the literature, concerning the residence
time calculation.
PROBLEM DEFINITION
The flow sheet of a typical rotary dryer is shown in Figure 1. Fuel with
flow rate Z (kg/h) is burned with atmospheric air with flow rate FA0 (kg/h),
temperature To ( C) and humidity Yo (kg/kg db). The flue gases flow rate
FAC (kg/h db), temperature TAC ( C) and humidity YAC (kg/kg db) are fed in
the rotary dryer and exit with flow rate FAC (kg/h db), temperature TA ( C)
and humidity YA (kg/kg db). Wet solids are fed to the dryer with flow rate Fs
(kg/h db) and moisture Xo (kg/kg db). The dried solids exit from the dryer
with flow rate Fs (kg/h db) and moisture Xs (kg/kg db).
The dryer size and characteristics as well as the operating conditions
can be calculated for given process specifications, minimizing the total
Figure 1. Flow sheet of a rotary dryer.

drying cost. Thus, the design problem of a rotary dryer for olive cake can be
defined as follows:
1. Process Specification
– Solids flow rate Fs (kg/h db)
– Input material moisture content Xo (kg/kg db)
– Output material moisture content Xs (kg/kg db)
2. The Characteristics of the Rotary Dryer are as Follows:
. Size:
– D: dryer diameter (m)
. Geometric characteristics:
– the length to diameter dimensionless ratio (L/D)
– the total hold-up to volume dimensionless ratio (H/V)
– the number of blades to diameter dimensionless ratio
(nf/D)
3. Drying Conditions
– Inlet temperature TAC ( C)
– Velocity u (m/s) at temperature TA
– The cylinder slope s (%)
PROCESS MODEL
The mathematical model of the process shown in Figure 1 consists of

two parts, the burner model and the dryer model.
I. Burner
A simplified version of the actual burner model is presented. Suppose

that the fuel is hydrocarbon with heat of combustion Hf and fraction of
hydrogen CH (kg/kg). The combustion reactions C+O2 ! CO2 and
H2 +ð1=2ÞO2 ! H2 O suggest that 9CH kg of water vapor is produced per
kg of fuel:
Rw ¼ 9CH Z ð1Þ
where Rw (kg/h) is the production rate of water vapor and Z (kg/h) the feed
flow rate of fuel.
Based on Eq. (1) the total balance and the moisture balance over the
burner are given by the following equations that describe the combustion
process:
FAC ð1 þ YAC Þ ¼ FA0 ð1 þ Yo Þ þ Z ð2Þ
FAC YAC ¼ FA0 Yo þ Rw ð3Þ

where, FA0 and FAC (kg/h db) are the flow rate of flue gases at the burner
input and output, Yo and YAC (kg/kg db) are the flue gases humidity at the
burner input and output, respectively.
Assuming that the flue gases have the same thermo-physical properties
as air, the corresponding energy balance over dryer is given by the following
relationship:
FAC ð1 þ YAC ÞCPA ðTAC To Þ ¼ ZHf ð4Þ
where TAC ( C) is the flue gases temperature at the burner output, To is the
ambient temperature ( C), CPA (kJ/kg K) is the specific heat of flue gases,
Hf (kJ/kg) is the latent heat of fuel.
II. Dryer
1. Mass and Energy Balances
The following equations describe the mass and the energy balances of
the dryer:
Mass Balance on Water
FAC ðYA YAC Þ ¼ FS ðXo XS Þ ð5Þ

where YAC and YA are the air moisture content (kg/kg db) at the dryer input
and output, respectively, Xo and Xs are the material moisture content (kg/
kg db) at the dryer input and output respectively.
Energy Balance (Simplified)
FAC CPA ð1 þ YAC ÞðTAC TA Þ þ FS HV ðXo XS Þ ¼ 0 ð6Þ

where CPA (kJ/kg K) is the specific heat of air—vapour mixture and HV is
the latent heat of vaporization of water at reference temperature (kJ/kg) and
TA is taken as mean air—vapour temperature at the dryer output.
2. Drying Kinetics
The following well known first order kinetics model is selected to

express drying kinetics:
ðX XSE Þ
¼ expðkM tÞ ð7Þ
ðXo XSE Þ
where Xo (kg/kg db) is the initial material moisture content, X (kg/kg db) is
the material moisture content after a time interval t (h), kM (h1) the drying
constant and XSE (kg/kg db) the equilibrium material moisture content.
The drying constant used in Eq. (7) is a function of air conditions and
the following empirical equation could be used:
kM ðT, Y, uÞ ¼ k0 T k1k2k3 ð8Þ

where u (m/s), Y (kg/kg db), T ( C) are the velocity, humidity and tempera-
ture of the drying air. Parameters k0, k1, k2, k3 express the effect of various
factors on the drying constant.
The equilibrium moisture content of olive cake as a function of water
activity and temperature of the surrounding air, can be computed by using
the following equation:
XSE ¼ b1 expðb2 =TA Þ½aw =ð1 aw Þ b3 ð9Þ

where XSE is the equilibrium moisture content (kg/kg db), aw is the water
activity of the air stream and b1, b2 and b3 are characteristic constants.
The absolute humidity of the drying air stream can be evaluated by the
following equation:
Y ¼ m½aw Po ðTA Þ =½P aw Po ðTA Þ ð10Þ
where m ¼ 0.622 is the water to air molecular ratio and Po (TA) is the water
vapor pressure at temperature TA.
The water vapor pressure at temperature TA can be obtained from
Antoine equation:
ln Po ðTA Þ ¼ A1 A2 =ðA3 þ TA Þ ð11Þ
where A1, A2 and A3 are constants.
3. Residence Time
The residence time is defined by the following equation:

t ¼ M=Fs ð12Þ
where the product holdup of the dryer (H) is related to the total product
mass in the dryer (M) by the following equation:
M ¼ ð1 "Þp H ð13Þ
Generally, the residence time in a rotating dryer is a function of its
length, diameter, slope and rotating velocity. An empirical equation is
usually used (Kelly, 1995) for this correlation as follows:
t ¼ kL=NDs ð14Þ
in which k is an empirical constant.
An empirical equation is also used by Kelly (1995) to correlate the total
holdup with the blade load per length unit. This relationship under-
estimates the true holdup value as it ignores the particles in the air cascading.
H ¼ 0:5ðnf þ 1Þho L ð15Þ
where, nf is the number of blades and ho is the holdup per meter (m2).
4. Geometrical Constraints
The following geometric constrains should be added to the mathemat-

ical model:
5 < H=V < 15% ð16Þ
2 < L=D < 20 ð17Þ
5 < nf =D < 10 ð18Þ
5. Cost Estimation
The process unit cost of wet product ($/kg wb) has to be minimized:
Cp ¼ CT =t
op Fs ð1 þ XS Þ ð19Þ
where top is operation hours per year, Cp is the cost of the product due to
the process of drying, the total annual cost CT of the plant can be expressed
by means of the following equation:
CT ¼ eCeq þ Cop ð20Þ
where e is the capital recovery factor, eCeq is the yearly capital cost ($/y) and
Cop is the operating cost ($/y).
The capital recovery factor is given by the following equation:
ið1 þ iÞN
e¼ ð21Þ
ð1 þ iÞN 1
where i is the interest rate and N is the life time.

The equipment cost is affected by the size of the dryer and the flowrate
of fuel, if a furnace is used for heat supply.
Ceq ¼ aD AnD þ aZ Z nZ ð22Þ
where aD, aZ are unit costs and nD, nZ are scaling factors of dryer and burner
respectively.
The operating cost concerns electrical energy and fuel cost:
Cop ¼ hp Ce top þ ZCz top ð23Þ
where Ce and Cz are the electricity and the fuel cost respectively. The elec-
trical power hp for cylinder rotation is given as follows (Kelly, 1995):
hp ¼ qNDðM þ WÞ ð24Þ
where q is an empirical constant, W is the weight of the dryer (kg), M is the

total product mass (kg) and N is the rotating velocity (rpm).
The mass of the dryer is calculated geometrically as follows:
W ¼ ð2D2 =4 þ DLÞ dxM ð25Þ
where dx (m) is the dryer wall thickness and M is the metal density (kg/m3).
A degrees of freedom analysis suggests that five design variables are
available for the design problem described in the previous paragraphs. It
can be proved that an effective solution algorithm could be based on the
following selection of design variables: TAC, u, L/D, H/V, nf/D, where TAC
and u express the operating conditions and L/D, H/V, nf/D the dryer
shape.
DRYING CONSTANT ESTIMATION FROM

LABORATORY DATA
The drying constant was estimated experimentally using an apparatus

in which the air passes through the drying material and air humidity, tem-
perature and velocity are controlled, while the material moisture content is
monitored. A large number of experiments were carried out for different air
temperatures, humidities and velocities. The application of the above
method proved that the drying constant depends on temperature, humidity
and velocity of drying air.
The following equation results from fitting Eq. (8) to experimental
data:
kM ¼ 1:04ðT=70Þ1:55 ðY=0:01Þ0:17 ðu=1Þ0:65 ð26Þ
The resulting empirical model is presented in Figure 2. Experiments to

evaluate the influence of air water activity and temperature on the equi-
librium moisture content of the cake were carried out. They involved two
temperatures (50 and 70 C). The following equation results from fitting
Eq. (9) to the experimental data:
XSE ¼ 0:0012 exp½1099=ðTA þ 273Þ ½aw =ð1 aw Þ 0:62 ð27Þ
Figure 2. Drying constant versus temperature for various air velocities and
humidities.
Figure 3. Experimental and calculated equilibrium moisture content.
The experimental points and calculated values are presented in

Figure 3. For high temperatures the equilibrium moisture content gets
close to zero.
The experimental and calculated values for drying times are pre-
sented in Figure 4. The results are presented for drying temperatures
varying between (50 and 135 C), three different air humidities (0.01, 0.05
and 0.09 kg H2O/kg db) and three different air velocities (0.5, 1.2 and
3 m/sec). The standard deviations between experimental and predicted
values vary between 0.005 and 0.06 kg/kg db with an average value of
0.05 kg/kg db.
CASE STUDY
The solution of a typical dryer problem for an industrial olive cake

rotary dryer is presented. The data required for process design calculations
are collected in Table 1.
The results of process design calculations using the model presented in
previous paragraph are given in Table 2. The results presented on Table 2 are
obtained minimizing the process unit cost, by evaluating the design variables.
A sensitivity analysis of the process unit cost is achieved by changing
the two significant decision variables: air drying temperature and velocity.
As drying air temperature is left to vary, air velocity is maintained constant
Figure 4. Effect of drying air conditions on drying time.

Table 1. Data for Process Design Calculations
Process specifications
Solids flowrate Fs 5000 kg/h
Input material moisture content Xo 1.00 kg/kg db
Output material moisture content X 0.10 kg/kg db
Fresh air characteristics

Temperature To 25 C
Humidity Yo 0.01 kg/kg db
Thermophysical properties
Water to air molar fraction m 0.622 –
Air specific heat CPA 1.18 kJ/kg C
Water specific heat CPV 1.98 kJ/kg C
Heat of combustion Hf 15 MJ/kg
Latent heat of vaporization of water Ho 2500 kJ/kg
Porosity " 0.48 –
Empirical constants
Empirical constant in Eq. (14) k 0.003 –
Empirical constant in Eq. (24) q 1 –
Economic data
Dryer unit cost aD 8 k$/m2
Dryer scaling factor nD 0.62 –
Burner unit cost aZ 200 $/kg
Burner scaling factor nZ 0.4 –
Life time N 10 yr
Interest rate i 8 %
Operating time top 2000 h/y
Electricity cost Ce 0.07 $/kWh
Fuel cost Cz 0.05 $/kg
and each time all other variables are calculated. It must be noted that as air
drying temperature increases the fuel consumption increases and thus the
operating cost increases, while the size of equipment and consequently the
cost of equipment decreases. For a given air velocity the total unit cost (CT)
reaches a minimum at a specific air temperature (Figure 5).
In Figure 6 the total unit cost is presented as function of air tempera-
ture for different air velocities. Effect of air temperature on fuel and elec-
tricity cost is presented in Figure 7. As temperature increases it is evident
that the electrical cost decreases, while the fuel cost increases and is the most
important part of operating cost.
The model was adapted to an industrial rotary dryer 2.5 m in diameter
and 22 m long which has 24 blades. The drying conditions are 650 C input
Table 2. Results of Process Design Calculations
Design variables

Input air temperature TAC 700 C
Mean air–vapour velocity u 2.4 m/s
Total holdup to volume fraction H/V 15 %
Length to diameter fraction L/D 20 –
Number of blades to diameter fraction nf /D 10 1/m
Drying air characteristics

Mean air temperature TA 298 C
Humidity outlet Y 0.37 Kg w/kg db
Operating characteristics
Residence time t 0.3 h
Total holdup H 8.4 m3
Rotating velocity N 8.6 rpm
Dryer characteristics
Diameter D 1.5 m
Length L 30.6 m
Blade number nf 15 –
Utilities
Fresh air flowrate FA0 15 048 kg/h
Fuel rate Z 1066 kg/h
Economics
Electricity cost Ce 6286 $/y
Fuel cost Cz 106 606 $/y
Operating cost Cop 112 891 $/y
Cost of equipment Ceq 55 619 $/y
Total cost CT 168 510 $/y
Unit cost Cp 0.00843 $/kg wb
drying air temperature, 2.4 m/s mean air-vapour velocity, while the fuel rate
is 1500 kg/h. It must be noted that the operating conditions obtained from
process design calculations are close to the real ones.
CONCLUSIONS
A design procedure for a concurrent olive cake rotary dryer has been
developed. A simple mathematical model for the rotary dryer was used,
while material thermophysical properties have been calculated experimen-
Figure 5. Effect of drying air temperature on unit cost.
Figure 6. Total unit cost as function of air temperature, at various air velocities.
Figure 7. Components of operating cost as function of air temperature.
tally. A sensitivity analysis of the process unit cost has been achieved by
varying drying conditions (air temperature and velocity). It is noted that air
temperature affects significantly products cost, while the effect of air velocity
is less significant.
NOMENCLATURE
A Area of side section of dryer (m2)

A 1, A 2, A 3 Constants of Antoine equation
aD , nD , aZ , n Z Constants of cost equation
aw Water activity of air streams
b1, b2, b3 Constants
Ceq Equipment cost ($)
CH Hydrogen mass fraction (kg/kg)
Cop Operating cost ($/y)
Cp Process unit cost ($/kg wb)
CPA Specific heat of air (kJ/kg K)
CPV Specific heat of vapor (kJ/kg K)
CT Total annual cost of the plant ($/y)
D Diameter of the dryer (m)
Hf Heat of combustion of fuel (kJ/kg)
Hv Latent heat of vaporization of water at reference
temperature (kJ/kg)
dx Cylinder thickness (m)
e Capital recovery factor
FA0 Flow rate of fresh air stream (kg/h db)

FAC Flow rate of drying air stream (kg/h db)
Fs Dry material flow rate (kg/h)
H Total volumetric holdup (m3)
ho Holdup per meter (m2)
hp Electrical power (kW)
i Interest rate (%)
k Constant
k0, k1, k2, k3 Constants of drying constant equation
kM Drying constant (1/h)
L Length of the dryer (m)
m Constant
M Total material mass in the dryer (kg)
N Life time (y); Rotating velocity (rpm)
nf Number of blades
P Pressure (kPa)
Po Water vapor pressure (kPa)
q Constant
Rw Production rate of water vapor in burner
(kg H2O/h)
s Cylinder slope (%)
T Temperature ( C)
t Time (h)
top Operating time (h/y)
To Temperature of fresh air ( C)
TA Temperature of air stream ( C)
TAC Temperature of drying air stream ( C)
u Air velocity (m/s)
V Total dryer volume (m3)
W Dryer mass (kg)
Xo Initial material moisture content (kg/kg db)
X Material moisture content after a time interval t
(kg/kg db)
XS Material moisture content at the dryer outlet
(kg/kg db)
XSE Equilibrium material moisture content (kg/kg db)
Y Absolute humidity of air (kg/kg db)
Yo Absolute humidity of fresh air stream (kg/kg db)
YA Absolute humidity of output air stream (kg/kg db)
YAC Absolute humidity of drying air stream (kg/kg db)
Z Flow rate of fuel (kg/h)
" Void fraction
p Bulk density of material (kg/m3)

M Density of metal (kg/m3)
REFERENCES
Davidson, J.F.; Robson, W.L.; Roester, F.C. Drying of Solids Subject to

Alternating Boundary Conditions. Chem. Eng. Sci. 1964, 12, 14.
Douglas, P.L.; Kwade, A.; Lee, P.L.; Mallick, S.K. Simulation of a Rotary
Dryer for Sugar Crystalline. Drying Technology 1993, 11, 129–155.
Garside, J.; Lord, L.W.; Regan, R. The Drying of Granular Fertilizers.
Chemical Engineering Science 1970, 25, 133–148.
Kamke, F.A.; Wilson, J.B. Computer Simulation of a Rotary Dryer.
AICHE J. 1986, 32, 263.
Kelly, J.J. Rotary Drying. In: Handbook of Industrial Drying, 2nd Ed.;
Mujumdar, A.S., Ed.; Marcel Dekker, Inc.: New York and Basel,
1995; 161–183.
Kelly, J.J.; O’Conell, P. Residence Time Model for Rotary Drums. Trans.
Inst. Chem. Eng. 1977, 55, 243.
Kisakurek, B. Retention Time in a Rotary Dryer. Proc. Int. Drying Symp.,
Ashworth, J.C., Ed.; Wolverhampton: England, 1982; 148.
Myklestad, O. Heat and Mass Transfer in Rotary Dryers. AICHE Symp.
Series 1963, 59, 129.
Platin, B.E.; Erden, A.; Guelder, O.L. Modeling and Design of Rotary
Dryers. Proc. Int. Drying Symp., Ashworth, J.C., Ed.; Wolverhampton:
England, 1982; 232.
Porter, S.J. The Design of Rotary Dryers and Coolers. Trans. Inst. Chem.
Eng. 1963, 41, 272.
Schofield, F.R.; Glikin, D.G. Rotary Dryers and Colers for Granular
Fertilisers. Trans. Instr. Chem. Engrs. 1964, 40, 183p.
Sharples, K.; Glikin, P.G.; Warne, R. Computer Simulation of Rotary
Dryers. Trans. Inst. Chem. Eng. 1964, 42, 275.
Strumillo, C.; Kudra, T. Drying: Principles, Applications and Design.
Gordon & Breach Science Publishers: New York, 1986.
Thorne, B. The Computer Simulation of Rotary Drying Process, PhD Thesis.
University College: Dublin Ireland, 1979.
Turner, G.A. The Thermal History of a Granule in a Rotary Cooler. Can. J.
Chem. Eng. 1966, 44, 13.
Van Arsdel, W.B. Food Dehydration. AVI Publishing Co.: Westport,
Connecticut, 1964; Vol. 2.
Van’t Land, C.M. Selection of Industrial Dryers. Chem. Eng. 1984, 91,
53.
Van’t Land, C.M. Industrial Drying Equipment. Marcel-Dekker:
New York, 1991.
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Process design of rotary dryers for olive cake

Article in Drying Technology · June 2002

M. K. Krokida Zacharias B Maroulis

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

DRYING TECHNOLOGY, 20(4&5), 771–788 (2002)

PROCESS DESIGN OF ROTARY DRYERS

M. K. Krokida,1 Z. B. Maroulis,1,* and C. Kremalis2

Olive-mill cake is one of the most widespread biomaterials for

Copyright & 2002 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. www.dekker.com

772 KROKIDA, MAROULIS, AND KREMALIS

Key Words: Bioenergy; Drying kinetics; Economics; Model-

The olive industry is of major importance to the Greek economy and

OLIVE CAKE DRYER MODEL 773

dryer. Douglas et al. (1993) developed a rotary dryer model to describe

Figure 1. Flow sheet of a rotary dryer.

774 KROKIDA, MAROULIS, AND KREMALIS

The mathematical model of the process shown in Figure 1 consists of

A simpliﬁed version of the actual burner model is presented. Suppose

OLIVE CAKE DRYER MODEL 775

FAC YAC ¼ FA0 Yo þ Rw ð3Þ

1. Mass and Energy Balances

Mass Balance on Water

FAC ðYA  YAC Þ ¼ FS ðXo  XS Þ ð5Þ

Energy Balance (Simpliﬁed)

FAC CPA ð1 þ YAC ÞðTAC  TA Þ þ FS HV ðXo  XS Þ ¼ 0 ð6Þ

776 KROKIDA, MAROULIS, AND KREMALIS

The following well known ﬁrst order kinetics model is selected to

kM ðT, Y, uÞ ¼ k0 T k1k2k3 ð8Þ

XSE ¼ b1 expðb2 =TA Þ½aw =ð1  aw Þ b3 ð9Þ

OLIVE CAKE DRYER MODEL 777

The residence time is deﬁned by the following equation:

The following geometric constrains should be added to the mathemat-

778 KROKIDA, MAROULIS, AND KREMALIS

by means of the following equation:

CT ¼ eCeq þ Cop ð20Þ

where i is the interest rate and N is the life time.

Ceq ¼ aD AnD þ aZ Z nZ ð22Þ

Cop ¼ hp Ce top þ ZCz top ð23Þ

where q is an empirical constant, W is the weight of the dryer (kg), M is the

W ¼ ð2D2 =4 þ DLÞ dxM ð25Þ

OLIVE CAKE DRYER MODEL 779

DRYING CONSTANT ESTIMATION FROM

The drying constant was estimated experimentally using an apparatus

kM ¼ 1:04ðT=70Þ1:55 ðY=0:01Þ0:17 ðu=1Þ0:65 ð26Þ

The resulting empirical model is presented in Figure 2. Experiments to

XSE ¼ 0:0012 exp½1099=ðTA þ 273Þ ½aw =ð1  aw Þ 0:62 ð27Þ

780 KROKIDA, MAROULIS, AND KREMALIS

Figure 3. Experimental and calculated equilibrium moisture content.

The experimental points and calculated values are presented in

The solution of a typical dryer problem for an industrial olive cake

OLIVE CAKE DRYER MODEL 781

Figure 4. Eﬀect of drying air conditions on drying time.

782 KROKIDA, MAROULIS, AND KREMALIS

Table 1. Data for Process Design Calculations

OLIVE CAKE DRYER MODEL 783

Table 2. Results of Process Design Calculations

784 KROKIDA, MAROULIS, AND KREMALIS

Figure 5. Eﬀect of drying air temperature on unit cost.

OLIVE CAKE DRYER MODEL 785

Figure 7. Components of operating cost as function of air temperature.

A Area of side section of dryer (m2)

786 KROKIDA, MAROULIS, AND KREMALIS

FAC ðYA YAC Þ ¼ FS ðXo XS Þ ð5Þ

FAC CPA ð1 þ YAC ÞðTAC TA Þ þ FS HV ðXo XS Þ ¼ 0 ð6Þ

XSE ¼ b1 expðb2 =TA Þ½aw =ð1 aw Þ b3 ð9Þ

W ¼ ð2D2 =4 þ DLÞ dxM ð25Þ

kM ¼ 1:04ðT=70Þ1:55 ðY=0:01Þ0:17 ðu=1Þ0:65 ð26Þ

XSE ¼ 0:0012 exp½1099=ðTA þ 273Þ ½aw =ð1 aw Þ 0:62 ð27Þ