Table of content

CONTENT PAGE

Abstract / summary

Introduction

Aims / objectives

Theory

Apparatus

Experimental procedure

Result

57

Calculation

Discussion

Conclusion

10

Recommendations

10

Reference

11

Appendices

12 - 13

Abstract / summary

In this experiment, we use tray dryers to dry the wet sample.We choose the coconut fiber as our sample because it is much easier to find and also much easier to increase the moisture content of both tea herbs and coconut fiber before dried in the tray dryers. The measurement of the moisture content is based on the mass of the sample which inversely proportional with the temperature & time. Thus, we can determine the drying rate of the sample by using the formula which shown in the calculation part later.

Introduction
Nowadays, drying process is very important especially in pharmaceutical and herbs industry. A dry product have a better shelf life and easier to handle. In a tea industry, drying process help to preserve the taste, colour and the aroma of the tea beside it can be stored easily in form of sachets and packets. Tray dryers is the most commonly used system in industry after the sun drying. The tray dryers are heated by means of electrical, steam and oil/gas fired burners. These tray dryers must be operated carefully by the expert or specialist since it is easily flammable and can cause a big explosion in a factory if it is not used properly. Tray drier (Model BP 772) has been designed for student laboratory training programmers in unit operations. The unit resembles the most commonly used industrial method of drying solid in bulk where hot air stream is passed over fixed trays of wet material. Student will able to vary the operating conditions and collect data to demonstrate both the theoretical and practical aspects of industrial drying practice. Air is drawn into the chamber by mean of axial flow fan located at one end of the tunnel. The fan speed may be regulated to vary the air velocity through the drier. The unit comes with a bank of electrically heated element upstream of the drying compartment to increase the air temperature. The heaters come with a variable power output. The 0.004 m3 drying compartment is fitted with a transparent access door. A rack of tray capable of holding approximately 3 kg of solids, is suspended from the arm of a digital which is mounted on top of the drying compartment. The ducting upstream of the drying compartment has been designed to produce a uniform airflow over a trays. The units comes with instruments for the measurement of temperature and humidity before and after the heating / drying section.

Aims / Objective

The purpose of this experiment is to determine the drying rate of the sample using the tray dryers in the drying process besides exposed us with the tray dryers equipment and how to operate the tray dryers.

Theory

The equipment that we use in this experiment is most likely a pharmaceutical tray dryers which widely used in the industry nowadays. In these pharmaceutical tray dryer and industrial tray dryer, doors provided at the front and rear side of the dryer. Door lips are lined with silicon rubber gasket to prevent any leakages. Suitable locking is provided for the doors. Air circulation is done by specially designed recirculation blowers inside the dryer. The blower capacity, static & design depends on the size and model of dryer. Dryers are normally supplied with either steam/ electric/ thermic fluid / hot water heating system. Suitable heating coils / caloriefiers are provided in the dryers. Temperature control system is done by electronic digital temperature controller fitted in the control panel. The temperature control in the dryer is fully automatic. Trays are available in S.S. 304/ 316 q. All trays are fully die pressed and with cooved corners. Trays are buffed to mirror finish. Trays are also available in aluminium / Polypropelene / Frp/ M.S. galvanized as per clients requirements. Automatic Control panel is fitted on the side of the dryer. If consists of Starters, contactors, safety relays, ckt breakers, indicating lamps, push buttons , timers, controllers and many else. By using this specified and automatic tray dryers, we calculated the moisture content and then the drying rate of the sample which we have been dried.

Apparatus

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Tray drier Analytic balance Water Anemometer Stopwatch Dry coconut fibre

Procedure

1. All of the equipment which used in this experiment were switched on. 2. Rinse the empty plate using water before start 3. .The mass of the empty plate were measured and tared. The data was recorded. 4. The dry tea herbs were sprinkled with enough of water to make it wet. 5. The tea herbs were placed onto the empty plate and putted into the tray dryers to be prepared ro be dried. 6. The initial mass of the wet tea herbs were measured and recorded before being dried. 7. The initial temperature and humidity which shown on the tray dryers taken and recorded. The initial air flow inside the tray dryers were measured using the anemometer and the readings was recorded. 8. The drying process is started by pressing the HEAT button on the tray dryers. 9. All of the data readed and recorded every 3 minutes in one hour time of the drying process of the tea herbs. 10. The Step 2 until Step 9 were repeated using the second sample which is the dry coconut fibre. 11. The moisture content and the drying rate were calculated. 12. The graph of drying rate against moisture content was plotted.

Result
Mass of drying plate : 1.3917 kg Time (min)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 Temperature, T1 ( oC ) 26.9 40.0 43.8 44.5 44.8 45.3 45.4 45.3 44.8 45.2 45.2 45.1 45.2 45.3 45.5 Temperature, T2 ( oC ) 26.6 38.0 41.8 42.9 43.2 43.6 43.6 44.1 43.9 43.8 43.8 44.2 44.3 44.4 44.4 Air flow (m/s) 1.42 1.44 1.53 1.54 1.64 1.43 1.43 1.44 1.47 1.43 1.43 1.43 1.44 1.43 1.43 Mass (kg) 1.6756 1.6610 1.6413 1.6242 1.6091 1.5945 1.5828 1.5750 1.5687 1.5655 1.5617 1.5602 1.5584 1.5578 1.5552 Humidity, h1 59.6 17.5 12.2 11.4 11.1 10.7 10.7 10.7 10.8 10.6 10.7 10.7 10.5 10.5 10.3 Humidity, h2 15.3 7.0 6.8 6.8 6.8 6.7 6.7 6.7 6.7 6.7 6.7 6.7 6.7 6.7 6.7 Moisture content 0.7364 0.6471 0.5266 0.4220 0.3297 0.2404 0.1688 0.1211 0.0826 0.0630 0.0398 0.0306 0.0196 0.0159 0.000 drying rate ( min-1) 0.0179 0.0241 0.0209 0.0185 0.0179 0.0143 0.0095 0.0077 0.0039 0.0046 0.0018 0.0022 0.0007 0.0032 0.0000

Graph of mass (kg) against time (min)

mass vs time
1.7 1.68 1.66 1.64 1.62 1.6 1.58 1.56 1.54 0 20 40 60 80 mass vs time

Graph of moisture content against time (min)

moisture content vs time

0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 20 40 60 80 moisture content vs time

Graph of drying rate (min-1) against time (min)

drying rate vs time

0.03 0.025 0.02 0.015 0.01 0.005 0 0 20 40 60 80 drying rate vs time

Calculation
1. Moisture content,x calculated using the following formula: Moisture content, x = mass1 mass final mass final

Example : Moisture Content 1, x1

=

0.2839 0.1635 0.1635

0.7364 0.2693 0.1635 0.1635

Moisture Content 2, x2

= 0.6471

2. After calculated the moisture content, the drying rate calculated using the following formula : Drying Rate, v =

Example : For tea herbs sample : Drying Rate, v = = = 0.0179

Discussion

As we can see from the graph, the drying rate of the samples are inversely proportional with time. This may be due to the decreasing amount of the moisture content in the sample which varies with time. Therefore, we can say that amount of moisture content in the substance is the most significant in determining the drying rate of a substance. There are some precautions that have taken during conducting the experiment : a) Make sure that the sample have been sprinkled with water evenly before dried. b) The anemometer is placed inside the hole at the side of the tray dryers while taking the readings of the air flow. c) Alert with the time interval to take the data which is in every 3 minutes. d) Use gloves while dealing with the hot tray.

The value of moisture content for the dry coconut fibre are 0.7364 for the first 5 minutes and 0.6471 for the first 10 minutes.

Conclusion

From this experiment, it can be concluded that the drying rate is varies with time and also it varies with the moisture content inside the substances. A tray dryers is an equipment which can used to determine well the drying rate of a wet substance.

Recommendations

From this experiment, there are some recommendation which can be done if necessary to improve the drying rate which are: Use the most suitable herbs which suits the tray dryers that we use. Set the tray dryers heating until an appropriate temperature which suits the drying substance.

10

References
Tray Dryers from http://www.riddhipharma.net/tray-dryer.html Pharmaceutical Tray Dryers from http://www.pharma-machinery.co.in/tray-dryer.html 3-Tray Dryers from http://catalogs.indiamart.com/products/tray-dryer.html

11

Appendices

12

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