PRINCIPLE

In the fluidized bed dryer, hot air or gas is passed at high pressure through a perforated bottom
of the container containing granules to be dried.
The granules are suspended in the stream of air and are lifted from the bottom. This condition is
called fluidized state.
The hot air is surrounded every granules to completely dry them. Thus materials or granules are
uniformly dried.
CONSTRUCTION
Two types of fluidized bed dryers are available in the pharmaceutical industry. There are vertical
fluidized bed dryers and horizontal fluidized bed dryers.
The construction of the vertical fluidized bed dryer is made up of the stain less steel or plastic. A
detachable bowl is placed at the bottom of the dryer, which is used for charging and discharging
of the materials.
The bowl has a perforated bottom with a wire mesh support for placing the materials to be dried.
A fan is mounted in the upper part for circulating hot air. Fresh air inlet, prefilter and heat
exchanger are connected serially to heat the air to the required temperatures.
The temperature of the hot air and exit air are monitered. Bag filters are placed above the drying
bowl for the recovery of the fines.
The air flow is adjusted by means of recirculation control and fabric bags are provided to prevent
the passage of the fine particles. This type of the fluidised bed dryer is a batch type dryer and the
drying chamber is removed from the unit for the charging and dumping.
The different capacities ranging from 5 kg to 200 kg with an average drying time of about 20 40 min of the fluidised bed dryers are available
Horizontal vibrating conveyer fluidised bed dryers are used for continuous drying of a large
volume of the materials.
WORKING
The wet granules to be dried are placed in a detachable bowl. The bowl is pushed in to the dryer.
Fresh air is allowed to pass through a prefilter, which subsequently gets heated by passing
through a heat exchanger.

The hot air flows through the bottom of the bowl. Simultaneously fan is allowed to rotate. The
air velocity is gradually increased. When the velocity of the air is greater than the settling
velocity of granules, the granules remains partially suspended in the gas stream.
After some times a point of pressure is reached at which the frictional drag on the particles is
equal to the force of the gravity. The granules rise in the container because of high velocity gas
1.5 to 7.5 m per min and later fall back in a random boiling motion.
This condition is said to be fluidised state. The gas surrounds every granules to completely dry
them. The air leaves the dryer by passing through the bag filters. The entrained particles remain
adhered to the inside the surface of the bags. Periogically the bags are shaken to remove the
entrained particles.
Intense mixing between the granules and hot gas is provided uniform conditions of the
temperature, composition and particle size distribution. Drying is achieved at constant rate and
falling period is very short. Any attempt to increase the air velocity may result in entrainment.
The residence time for the drying is about the 40 min. the materials is left for the some times in
the dryer for reaching ambient temperature. The bowl is taken out for the discharging. The end
product is free flowing.