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SHROFF S.R ROTARY INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL

TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

SUBJECT:- MASS TRANSFER OPERATION:-2

SEMESTER:- 6
BRANCH:- CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
OEP TOPIC:- FORCED DRAFT TRAY DRYER

PRESENTED BY:-

NAME ENROLLMENT NO
JADAV HARSH 160990105013
JADHAV ISHWAR 160990105014
KACHA PREET 160990105015
KAPADIYA MOHAMMADAADIL 160990105016

GUIDED BY :- CHINTAN SIR

ACADEMIC YEAR (2018-2019)

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SHROFF S. R. ROTARY INSTITUTE OFCHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project entitled

“Forced draft tray Dryer”

Has been carried out by
NAME ENROLLMENT NO
JADAV HARSH 160990105013
JADHAV ISHWAR 160990105014
KACHA PREET 160990105015
KAPADIYA MOHAMMADAADIL 160990105016

Under my guidance and supervision, as a part of the Open Ended Project in

the subject MASS TRANSFER OPERATION 2, in Bachelor of Engineering
in Chemical Engineering (Semester-6) at SHROFF S. R. ROTARY
INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY during the academic year
2018-2019.
Date: -
Guide: - Chintan Sir HOD:- Dr. Alok Gautam

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Acknowledgement
We would like to express our deepest appreciation to all
those who provided us the possibility to complete this OEP. We
also thank Chintan sir for helping us to coordinate in our
project. Further, we would also like to acknowledge with much
appreciation the crucial role of our SRICT staff who gave the
permission to use all the equipment, which we have used
during the work.

We would also like to thank all the lab assistants who have
helped in providing us the chemicals and equipment needed in
this project. Last but not the least many thanks to ourselves for
being involved in this project.

Date:
Place: SRICT, Vataria

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FORCED DRAFT TRAY DRYER

INTRODUCTION:

Drying a solid means the removal of relatively small amounts of water or other liquid
from the solid material to reduce the content of residual liquid to an acceptable low
value. Drying is usually the final step in series of operations, and the product from a
dryer is often ready for final packaging.

Water or other liquids may be removed from solids mechanically by presses or

centrifuges or thermally by vaporization. This manual is restricted to drying by thermal
vaporization. It is generally cheaper to reduce the liquid content as much as practicable
before feeding the material to a heated dryer.

The liquid content of a dried substance varies from product to product; occasionally the
product contains no liquid and is called bone – dry. More commonly, the product does
contain some liquid. Dried table salt, for example, contains about 0.5 % water, dried
coal about 4 %, and dried casein about 8 %. Drying is a relatively term and means
merely that there is a reduction in liquid content from an initial value to some
acceptable final value.

The solid to be dried may be in many different forms – flakes, granules, crystals,
powders, slabs, or continuous sheet – and may have widely differing properties. The
liquid to be vaporized may be on the surface of the solid, as in drying salt crystals; it
may be entirely inside the solid, as in solvent removal from a sheet of polymer; or it may
be partly outside and partly inside. The feed to some dryers is a liquid in which the solid
is suspended as particles or is in solution. The dried product may be able to stand rough
handling and a very hot environment or it may require gentle treatment at low or
moderate temperatures. Consequently a multitude of types of dryers are on the market
for commercial drying. They differ chiefly in the way the solids are moved through the
drying zone and in the way heat is transferred.

CLASSIFICATION OF DRYERS:

There is no simple way of classifying

drying equipments. Drying equipment can
be classified according to the following
design and operating features:

1. Batch or Continuous
2. Physical state of the feed: liquid,
slurry, and wet solid.
3. Method of conveyance of the solid:
belt, rotary, fluidized.
4. Heating system: conduction,
convection, radiation. Figure – 1: Simple Batch Dryer

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Except foe a few specialized applications, hot air is used as the heating and mass
transfer medium in industrial dryers. The air may be directly heated by the products of
combustion of the fuel used (oil, gas, or coal) or indirectly heated, usually by banks of
steam heated finned tubes. The heated air is usually propelled through the dryer by
electrically driven fans.

Batch dryers are normally used for small – scale production and where the drying cycle
is likely to be long. Continuous dryers requires less labor, less floor space; and produce
a more uniform quality product.

When the feed is solids, it is important to present the material to the dryer in a form
that will produce a bed of solids with an open, porous, structure.

For pastes and slurries, some form of pretreatment equipment will normally be needed,
such as extruction or granulation.

The main factors to be considered when selecting a dryer are:

1. Feed condition: solid, liquid, paste, powder, crystals

2. Feed concentration, the initial liquid content
3. Product specification: dryness required, physical form
4. Throughput required
5. Heat sensitivity of the product
6. Nature of the vapor: toxicity, flammability
7. Nature of the solid: flammability (dust explosion hazard), toxicity.

The basic types used in chemical process industries are: tray, band, rotary, fluidized,
pneumatic, drum and spray dryers.

When wet sample is placed in contact with air, water evaporates from its surface and
diffuses as vapor through the air film that covers the surface. The concentration of
moisture at the surface is decreased, a concentration difference is setup and moisture
then diffuses from the interior to the surface of the slab or it moves to the surface as
rapidly as it can vaporize from the surface, the rate of drying is independent of the
moisture content of the slab and is constant providing that the air velocity, temperature
and humidity do not change.

During this constant rate period the rate of drying is controlled by the rate of vapor
diffusion through the air film and is, therefore, dependent upon the humidity difference
across the film and the thickness of the film.

However, when the moisture content becomes less than a certain value known as the
critical moisture content, moisture can no longer move to the surface as rapidly as it
could be vaporized from the surface. The drying rate begins to fall and continues to fall
with decreasing moisture content until the equilibrium moisture content is reached and
no further drying is possible under the particular drying conditions.

TERMS USED IN DRYING - DEFINITIONS:

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 MOISTURE CONTENT, WET BASIS:

The moisture content of a solid or solution is usually described in terms of weight
percent moisture, and unless otherwise qualified this is ordinarily understood to be
expressed on the wet basis, i.e. as
(kg moisture / kg wet solid) 100 = [(kg dry solid + kg moisture)] 100 = 100 X / (1+X).

 MOISTURE CONTENT, DRY BASIS:

This is expressed as kg moisture / kg dry solid = X.
Percentage moisture, dry basis = 100 X.

 EQUILIBRIUM MOISTURE X*:

This is the moisture content of a substance when at equilibrium with a given partial
pressure of the vapor.

 BOUND MOISTURE:
This refers to the moisture contained by a substance, which exerts an equilibrium
vapor pressure less that of the pure liquid at the same temperature.

 UNBOUND MOISTURE:
This refers to the moisture contained by a substance, which exerts an equilibrium
vapor pressure equal to that of the pure liquid at the same temperature.

 FREE MOISTURE:
Free moisture is that moisture contained by a substance in excess of the equilibrium
moisture: X – X*. Only free moisture can be evaporated, and free – moisture content
of a solid depends upon the vapor concentration in the gas.
Equilibrium Moisture
Curve
1.0

Bound Unbound
Relative Humidity of Gas

Moisture Moisture

Equilibrium
Moisture Free Moisture

0 X* X
Moisture Content, kg moisture / kg dry solid
THEORY OF DRYING:
Figure – 2: Types of Moisture

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There are various modes of drying a material in various types of dryers. In the present
experiment, we study the cross – circulation drying in an adiabatic or direct dryer. In
this case, hot gas (air) is blown over a bed of wet solid (brick particles wetted with
water) under constant drying conditions by maintaining the temperature, humidity and
the velocity of the air across the drying surface constant. A drying curve is then
obtained by plotting drying rate against moisture content of the solid. In drying, it is
necessary to remove free moisture from the surface and also moisture from the interior
of the material. Thus there is interplay of the surface evaporation, inter - -particle and
intra – diffusion processes during the drying of a material. This gives rise to several
distinct periods in the drying curve as the moisture content of the solid is reduced from
the high value to its final value, as given below:

Period – I0:
An initial period during which the drying rate may increase or decrease rapidly drom
an initial value and the drying conditions are adjusting themselves to the steady state
condition, which is the next period. This period is of relatively short duration and in
some experiments may be unobservable. Therefore, this period is neglected in the
mathematical analysis of the process.

Period – I:
An early stage of drying during which drying rate remains constant value, that is, is
independent of thye moisture content. This period may be absent if the initial moisture
content of the solid is less than a certain minimum.

Period – II:
During this period, the drying rate decreases more or less linearly with continued
decreases of water content.

Period – III:
This stage immediately follows period – II but is not always clearly distinguishable from
it. The drying rate in this zone decreases further, but generally in a non - -linear fashion
with the moisture content.

The moisture content at which the drying rate falls for the first time is the first critical
moisture content, and the moisture content at which the drying rate falls, for the second
time is the second critical moisture content. In case of non – porous solid, due to the
absence of intra – particle moisture and hence intra - particle diffusion, the constant -
rate period is followed by only one falling rate – period. So that there is only one critical
moisture content.

Drying continues until equilibrium moisture content in the solid is attained. Nature of
the drying curve depends on the nature of the solid (porous / non – porous), and the
temperature, humidity and flowrate of the drying medium.

During the constant rate period, the rate of drying can be expressed by the following
equation.

dW / d = KgA (pa - pg) (1)

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Where,
dW/ d = Rate of diffusion, kg/ hr
Kg = Film coefficient of diffusion, kg / hr m2 atmosphere
A = Area of drying surface, m2
pg = Partial pressure of water vapor in the air atmosphere
pa = Partial pressure of saturated air at the water air interface

Since H = 18 p / (29 * (1 - p))

Where H = Humidity kg water / kg dry air

p = Partial Pressure, atm
18, 29 mol. wt. of water and air respectively

H  (18 / 29) p

Then (1) may be written,

dW / d = KgA (Ha - Hg)

The drying time during the falling rate period can be calculated from the general
diffusion equation
dW / d = - Dg A dC/ dX
Where,
Dg = Diffusivity of water in air
C = Concentration of moisture subject to diffusion in wt. Per unit volume

When the experimental drying curve is available, the time required to dry a slab from
one moisture content to another during the falling rate period can be calculated by
graphically integrating the equation

f F
W 1 dF
0 d 
A F2 f (F )
f

Where,
f = time of drying, hr
W = weight of dry solid, kg
A = drying area, m2
F1 = free moisture content at the beginning of drying period, kg water/ kg dry
solid
F2 = free moisture content at the end of drying period
f(F) = ordinate of the drying rate curve where free moisture content is F kg/ kg
dry solid

The total time of during tT, is determined from the following equation:

ms  Xc 
tT   X 1  X c   X c ln 
A * Rc  X2 
Where,

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ms = mass of bone – dry solid

A = area of drying
Rc = rate at first critical point
X = free moisture content, mass of water per unit mass of dry solid
Xc = free – moisture content at first critical point
X1 = initial free moisture content
X2 = final free moisture content

Inderiving the above equation, the entire falling rate period is assumed to be adequately
represented by a singe straight line passing through the origin of the drying curve.

Free moisture content, X, is given by

X = XT = X*

Where,
XT = total free – moisture content
X* = equilibrium free – moisture content

The equilibrium moisture content of a non – porous insoluble material is practically

zero so that the whole moisture content is free moisture.

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AIM:

To find the rate of drying for given porous / nonporous material.

UTILITY:

230 v AC power supply, dryer assembly, water, brick particles ( or sand or CaCO3
powder), physical balance,

DESCRIPTION OF APPARATUS WITH TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

The equipment consists of a drying chamber (400*300*300 mm), MS insulated with

glass wool (25 mm thick) and cladded with SS sheet in which tray rack (SS,
Nonmagnetic, rustproof) & tray (1 Nos., SS (Nonmagnetic, Rustproof) is to be hanged.
The drying chamber is provided with toughened glass door and handle.

Hot air to the drying chamber is drawn with the help of a blower (1 FHP) and before
entering it is heated by 6 kW heaters of Nichrome wire (input to the heaters could be
vary with the help of controller). Flow control valve is provided for varying the
Flowrate of air through the heating chamber.

Wet and Dry bulb thermocouples types are mounted at either ends of the drying
chamber to measure the humidity of the entering and leaving air. Wet bulb
thermocouple is provided with proper water storage facility in the back portion.

The loss of moisture shall from the material to be dried is continuously monitored with
the help of an electronic balance (1 kg cap.  1 gm accuracy, LED display, 230 V AC
power supply) and is to be mounted directly over the heating chamber.

The control panel consists of Digital Temperature Controller, Temperature Indicator,

On/ Off starter switch for blower and MCB for heater with Indictor lamps (mains) &
fuse. Space for manometer mounting,

PROCEDURE:

1. Switch on the power supply to the unit and press the ON/OFF key provided on
the digital weighing scale. The scale will indicate the weight of the trays and tray
cage. Press TARE switch.
2. Open the drying chamber and take out the tray. Measure the surface area of the
trays.
3. Prepare the sample whose drying characteristics are to be determined by taking
about 2-3 kg of material (usually fine sand) and adding about 10 % of solvent
(usually water).
4. Fill the tray and spread the material evenly throughout the cross section of the
tray.
5. Fill the bulb provided on the back of the tray dryer with water upto topmost
level to provide continuous water (wetting agent) to the wick of wet bulb
thermocouples provided at either ends of the drying chamber.
6. Connect the respective tappings to the Manometer,

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7. Switch ON the blower and adjust the predetermined flow rate of air using the
flow control valve. When a steady state is reached, record the manometer
reading calculates the flowrate of air.
8. Switch ON the heater. Adjust the temperature of air by using digital
temperature controller provided for heater on control panel.
9. After achieving a fairly high & stable temperature note down the decrease in
weight displayed on the digital weighing scale after an interval of 5 minutes. Also
note down the wet & dry bulb temperatures of air entering and leaving the
drying chamber on digital temperature indicator.
10. After certain time no loss of weight is observed for prolonged period of time,
switch OFF the heaters as well as weighing scale. Take out the trays after it is
cooled.
11. Switch OFF the Blower. Remove the sample from the trays and clean them with
the help of cotton cloth first and then with water. Allow them to get sun dried.
Also clean the drying chamber with the cotton cloth, if there is any spillage of
material while operation.
12. Repeat the experiment by either varying the flow rate for the same sample or
take different sample with the same conditions of air flow rate and compare
them with the initial results.

Setting of Drying Chamber Temperature by Digital Temperature Controller:

 Press SET key for 2 seconds.

 You are in SET MODE.
 Display 1 will show SEt.
 Display 2 will indicate current value of set point.
 You can change current value of set point by following PROCEDURE.
 Increase the parameter by  key.
 Decrease the parameter by  key.
 Press ENT key to store it in memory or press SET key for next step.
If no key is pressed for 5 seconds previous value of parameter is retained and controller
goes in control mode.

PRECAUTION:
 Never run the equipment without blower ON for more than 1 minute, immediately
after switching on the MCB provided for the heaters, switch ON the blower.
 While shutting down the tray dryer, we need to keep the blower on to cool down the
drying chamber and heaters so as to minimize the damage to the heaters and drying
chamber.
OBSERVATIONS:

 Cross sectional area of the trays = 0.0484 m2

 Weight of the tray = 420 kg
 Drying Chamber Temperature = 70 C
 Weight of the material (CaCO3) taken = 100 gm (1)
 Weight of the solvent (water) added = 138 gm (2)
 Total initial weight of the sample = 658 gm (1) + (2)

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 Density of Air Air = 1 kg/m3

 Density of Manometric Fluid M = 1000 kg/m3

OBSERVATION TABLE:

Time Wt. Loss in Inlet Air Temp. Outlet Air Temp.

Indicated weight of
Sr.
on the Material (C) (C)
No.
LED
(min) (Gram) (Gram) Dry Wet Dry Wet
1 0 658 - 66 50 50
56
2 5 646 12 66 51 57 52
3 10 638 8 67 53 58 53
4 15 631 7 67 53 58 53
58
5 20 623 8 67 54 53
59
6 25 616 7 68 55 55
58
7 30 610 6 67 55 54
62
8 35 603 7 66 56 56
9
40 595 8 67 56 58 53
10
45 590 5 68 56 59 55
11
50 584 6 67 56 59 55

12 55 577 7 69 57 60 57

13 60 570 7 68 56 58 56

14 65 564 6 66 57 58 57
15 70 560 6 68 57 59 57
16 75 554 4 66 57 61 57

17 80 548 6 68 57 59 57

18 85 542 6 67 56 59 57

19 90 539 3 68 57 60 57

20 95 533 6 68 59 62 59

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21 100 531 2 68 59 60 59

22 105 529 2 68 59 61 59

23 110 528 1 68 59 61 59

24 115 528 0 68 59 62 59

25 120 528 0 68 59 62 59

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Time X ∆X ∆T N
0 1.38 0 0 #DIV/0!
5 1.26 0.12 5 0.062479
10 1.18 0.08 5 0.097521
15 1.11 0.07 5 0.123843
20 1.03 0.08 5 0.148967
30 0.9 0.06 5 0.178512
35 0.83 0.07 5 0.188636
40 0.75 0.08 5 0.195248
45 0.7 0.05 5 0.196694
50 0.64 0.06 5 0.195702
55 0.57 0.07 5 0.190785
60 0.5 0.07 5 0.181818
65 0.44 0.06 5 0.170909
70 0.38 0.06 5 0.153884
75 0.34 0.04 5 0.146116
80 0.28 0.06 5 0.127273
85 0.22 0.06 5 0.105455
90 0.19 0.03 5 0.09343
95 0.13 0.06 5 0.067149
100 0.11 0.02 5 0.057727
105 0.09 0.02 5 0.047975
110 0.08 0.01 5 0.042975
115 0.08 0 5 0.042975
120 0.08 0 5 0.042975

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CALCULATION:

 Manometer Reading = Ho = h1 – h2
= 1.8mm
Area of orifice =AO =12mm=(3.14/4)*(0.012)2 m =1.1304 * 10 -4 m2
Cd = 0.64

Q
COEFFICIENT OF DISCHARGE = Cd  = Q= kg/m3
A0 2gH 0

 Velocity of Fluid at the Orifice (V) = Q / AO

= 0.38 m/s
 Air flow rate over the trays
= Air velocity over the trays * C/s area of the dryer
=
 Loss in weight with time
= (Wt. of the sample at the time of previous reading – Wt. of the sample at given
time)
= 658 - 646
= 12gm in 5min
 Plot the weight of the sample against time. Graphically differentiate this curve
(draw tangents to the points of interest and find their slopes) to obtain the drying
rate.

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 Drying coefficient during the constant rate period:

dw  1 
Kg’ =  
Ad  H w  H g 

Where,
dw/ Ad = Drying rate, gm water evaporated per hour per cm2
Kg’ = Drying coefficient, gm water evaporated per hr per cm2 per unit
humidity difference
Hw = Saturation humidity of air at the wet bulb temperature, gm water per
gm dry air
Hg = Humidity of the drying air, gm water per gm dry air

The humidity diff. (Hw - Hg) is calculated from the eqn. = 0.26 (tg - tw) /  w

tg = Dry bulb temperature, C (average value) = 59.36

tw = Wet bulb temperature, C (average value) = 55.92
w = Latent heat of evaporation of water at tw = 2260

(Hw - Hg) . = 0.26 (tg - tw) /  w

= 0.26(59.36-55.92)/2260
=0.0003957

dw/ Ad = 81/484 =0.168

dw  1 
K g’ =  
Ad  H w  H g 

= 0.1683(1/0.0003957)
=425.57

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X1 = 138/100 =1.38
X2 = 126/100 =1.26
X3 = 118/100= 1.18
.
.
.

N1 = (0.012*1.26)/(0.0484*5) =0.0624

N2 = (0.02*1.18)/(0.0484*5) = 0.0975

.
.
.
.
.

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RESULT:- RATE OF DRYING DECREASE FROM 0.0624 TO 0.0429

CONCLUSION: FROM THIS EXPERIMENT WE CONCLUDE THAT

RATE OF DRYING INITIALLY INCREASE OR DECREASE ALONG WITH
TIME, BUT AFTER CERTAIN TIME IT CONTINUOUSLY GET
DECREASE.

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Reference

https://www.academia.edu/36667711/CHE504_-
_Lab_Report_on_Tray_Dryer_L1_2018_

https://www.scribd.com/doc/39173297/Tray-Dryer-Experiment

https://www.chemengonline.com/solids-drying-basics-and-
applications/?printmode=1

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267199853_Corn_drying_e
xperiments_by_pilot_dryer

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