DRYING

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 DEFINITION
The removal of small amounts of water or other liquid
from a material by the application of heat.

Drying = Evaporation ???

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 APPLICATION
Improve characteristics
Improve handling (storage and transportation)
Preservation of food products
Preservation of pharmaceutical products
Preservation of biological materials

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Transport of moisture within the solid may occur by any
one or more of the following mechanisms of mass transfer:
Liquid diffusion, if the wet solid is at a temperature
below the boiling point of the liquid
Vapor diffusion, if the liquid vaporizes within material
Knudsen diffusion, if drying takes place at very low
temperatures and pressures
Surface diffusion (possible although not proven)
Hydrostatic pressure differences, when internal
vaporization rates exceed the rate of vapor transport
through the solid to the surroundings

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 FUNDAMENTAL
Bound water is the minimum water held by the material that
exerts an equilibrium vapour pressure less than the pure water at
the same temperature.
Unbound water is the amount of water held by the material that
experts an equilibrium vapour pressure equal to that of pure water
at the same temperature.
Equilibrium moisture content is the amount of water present in
the solid which exerts a vapour pressure equal to the vapour
pressure of the atmosphere surrounding it.
Free moisture content is the amount of water that is free (easy) to
evaporate from the solid surface
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 EQUATIONS
mass of water in sample (kg)
% Loss on drying = ------------------------------------- x 100
total mass of wet sample (kg)

mass of water in sample (kg)

% Moisture content = ------------------------------------- x 100
mass of the dry sample (kg)

weight of water lost from sample(kg)

Drying rate = --------------------------------------------------------------
time (h) x weight of the dry solid (kg) X unit area

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TYPICAL DRYING CURVE

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TYPES OF MOISTURE

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DRYING RATE CURVE

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UNUSUAL DRYING RATE CURVE

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DRYING EQUIPMENT

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 TRAY DRYER
In tray dryer, hot air is continuously circulated.
Forced convection heating takes place to remove moisture
from the solids placed in trays.
Simultaneously, the moist air is removed partially.

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TRAY DRYER

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 SPRAY DRYER
In spray dryer, the fluid to be dried is atomized into fine
droplets, which are thrown radially into a moving stream of
hot gas.
The temperature of the droplets is immediately increased and
fine drop-lets get dried instantaneously in the form of spherical
particles.

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SPRAY DRYER

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 DRUM DRYER / ROLLER DRYER
In drum dryer, a heated hallow metal drum rotates on its
longitudinal axis, which is partially dipped in the solution to be
dried.
The solution is carried as a film on the surface of the dryer and
dried to form a layer.
A suitable knife scraps the dried material, while the drum is
rotating.

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DRUM DRYER / ROLLER DRYER

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 FLUIDIZED BED DRYER
In fluidized bed dryer, hot air (gas) is passed at high pressure
through a perforated bottom of the container containing
granules to be dried.
The granules are lifted from the bottom and suspended in the
stream of air. The condition is called fluidized state.
The hot gas is surrounding every granule to completely dry
them. Thus, materials or granules are uniformly dried.

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FLUIDIZED BED DRYER

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 FREEZE DRYER
Freeze drying is also known as lyophilization.

In freeze drying, water is removed from the frozen state by

sublimation, i.e., direct change of water from solid into vapour
without conversion to a liquid phase.

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FREEZE DRYER

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 MICROWAVE DRYER
Microwave dryers are expensive both in terms of the
capital and operating (energy) costs.
They have found limited applications to date.
Seem to have special advantages in terms of product
quality when handling heat-sensitive materials.
They are worth considering as devices to speed up drying
in the tail end of the falling rate period.
Applications mainly in food and pharmaceutical industries.

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 FACTORS IN DESIGN OF DRYER
Dryer throughput; mode of feedstock production (batch/continuous)
Physical, chemical and biochemical properties of the wet feed as well as
desired product specifications; expected variability in feed
characteristics
Upstream and downstream processing operations
Moisture content of the feed and product
Drying kinetics; moist solid sorption isotherms
Quality parameters (physical, chemical, biochemical)
Safety aspects, e.g., fire hazard and explosion hazards, toxicity
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 FACTORS IN DESIGN OF DRYER
Value of the product
Need for automatic control
Toxicological properties of the product
Turndown ratio, flexibility in capacity requirements
Type and cost of fuel, cost of electricity
Environmental regulations
Space in plant

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REFERENCE
Prof Arun S. Mujumdar (The Drying Guru)
Department of Mechanical Engineering
National University of Singapore

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