Drying of Solids

Drying is a process of removal of relatively small amount of a

solvent (usually water) from a solid material to reduce the content
of residual liquid to acceptable level
(McCabe et al)
Drying of Solids

Industrial applications of drying:

Chemical Industry: Food Industry: Pharma Industry:

- Agrochemicals - Fruits - Inhalable drugs
- Fertilizers - Sugar - Transdermal drugs
- Detergents - Milk - Preservation
- Dyes/pigments - Starch
- Polymers
- Fine Chemicals
Drying processes

- Air and contact drying under atmospheric pressure

- Vacuum drying: vaporization is facilitated by lower pressure

- Freeze drying: the materials is brought to the freezing point, the

solvent is then sublimed off
Drying equipment:
Dryer types:
Drying processes

Rate of drying process = f(Heat delivery):

- Convection

- Conduction

- Radiation

(sun dried tomatos)

 Drying processes: Air/water systems

Importance of psychrometric analysis for drying

Air: T2, H2 Air: T1, H1

Adiabatic process. Energy balance (Tref=T2):

Enthalpy of air in: Eair ,1  cs (T 1  TRef )  H1H 2O

Enthalpy of air out: Eair , 2  H 2 H 2O

 Drying processes: Air/water systems

Importance of psychrometric analysis for drying

Air: T2, H2 Air: T1, H1

Adiabatic process. Energy balance (Tref=T2):

Eair ,1  Eair , 2 cs (T 1  TRef )  H1H 2O  H 2 H 2O

H 2  H1 cs H s  H1 cs
 
T1  T2 H 2O T1  Ts  H 2O Saturated outlet air
 Drying processes: Air/water systems

Importance of psychrometric analysis for drying

Air: T2, H2 Air: T1, H1

Adiabatic process. Energy balance (Tref=T2):

H s  H1 cs ( H Wick  H ) hy hy
   cS
T1  Ts H 2O (T  TWick ) M Air k y H 2O M air k y

Compare with expression for wet bulb Lewis relation

 Drying processes: Air/water systems

Importance of psychrometric analysis for drying

Air: T2, H2 Air: T1, H1

H2
H1
Assumption: evaporation surface
is a liquid film

Constant wet-bulb temperature

process
T2 T1
 Drying processes: Air/water systems

Importance of pyschrometric analysis for drying

Example: Water removed in air drying

Air at 60°C and 8% RH is blown through a continuous
dryer from which it emerges at a temperature of 35°C.
Estimate the quantity of water removed per kg of air
passing, and the volume of drying air required to
remove 20 kg water per hour.

H2
H1

T2 T1
Drying processes: Air/water systems

Importance of pyschrometric analysis for drying

 Drying processes: Air/water systems

Drying regimes

Warming up

Constant rate t
regime

Falling rate
regime N H 2O

relative moisture
Drying processes: Air/water systems

Calculation of drying time in the constant rate regime

a( X o  X c ) t – time
tconst  a – mass of dry material
( N H 2O ) const Xo – the initial moisture of material
Xc – final moisture of material
k – mass transfer coefficient
( N H 2O ) const  kA( H s  H a ) A – surface area
Drying processes: Air/water systems

Calculation of drying time in the constant rate regime

a( X o  X c ) t – time
tconst  a – mass of dry material
( N H 2O ) const Xo – the initial moisture of material
Xc – final moisture of material
k – mass transfer coefficient
( N H 2O ) const  kA( H s  H a ) A – surface area

Time for air drying at constant rate

200 kg of material are dried from an initial water content of 80% on a wet basis and
with a surface area of 20m2. It has been measured that to dry to 50% moisture content
on a wet basis, assuming constant-rate drying in air at a temperature of 55°C dry bulb
and 25°C wet bulb, mass transfer coefficient k=0.018kg/m2/s.

Under the conditions in the dryer, estimate the time required for the process
Drying processes: Air/water systems

Calculation of drying time in the falling rate regime

Rate of drying

N H 2O  mX some linear
function

But at the same time:

dX N H 2O
N H 2O  a
dt
Therefore:

dX RC
mX  a m can be found at a specific point m
dt XC