Design Of Separation

Processes

Lecture(3):Drying
Nihad Omer Hassan

Nihad Omer Hassan

CONTENTS

Definition of drying
Importance of drying
General Principles
Rate Of Drying

Nihad Omer Hassan

Drying
The removal of moisture from a wet solid, a solution or a gas
to make it dry is often necessary in various industrial
operations, particularly in chemical process industries.
Examples
In the last stage of sugar production, washed and
centrifuged sugar crystals are dried to get the finished
product ready for packaging.
Drying of leather under controlled conditions is an
important step in leather processing.
Soap bars are dried to reduce the moisture content.
Milk is dried in a spray chamber to produce milk powder.
Nihad Omer Hassan

Drying
In all these cases the wet material loses moisture in
direct contact with a hot gas.
The hot gas supplies the energy required for drying
and also carries away the moisture released by the
solid.

Nihad Omer Hassan

Drying
Drying may be defined as an operation in which the
liquid, generally water, present in a wet solid (or a
suspension or even a solution) is removed by
vaporization to get a relatively liquid-free solid
product.
Drying of a solid does not demand or ensure
complete removal of the moisture.

Nihad Omer Hassan

Importance of drying
drying is carried out for one or more of the following
reasons:
1. To reduce the cost of transport.
2. To make a material more suitable for handling.
3. To provide definite properties.
4. To remove moisture which may otherwise lead to
corrosion

Nihad Omer Hassan

General Principles
The moisture content of a material is usually expressed
in terms of its water content as a percentage of the
mass of the dry material, though moisture content is
sometimes expressed on a wet basis.
If a material is exposed to air at a given temperature
and humidity, the material will either lose or gain water
until an equilibrium condition is established.
This equilibrium moisture content varies widely with
the moisture content and the temperature of the air, as
shown in next figure.
Nihad Omer Hassan

General Principles

Equilibrium
moisture content
of a solid as a
function of
relative humidity
at 293 K

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Time for Drying

If a material is dried by
passing hot air over a
surface which is initially
wet, the rate of drying
curve in its simplest form
is represented by BCE,
shown in Figure below.

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Time for Drying

Constant-rate period
During the period of drying from the initial moisture content
w1 to the critical moisture content wc, the rate of drying is
constant, and the time of drying tc is given by:

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Time for Drying

Falling-rate period
During this period the rate of drying is, approximately, directly
proportional to the free moisture content (w we), or:

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Time for Drying

Total time of drying
The total time t of drying from w1 to w is given by t = (tc + tf ).
The rate of drying Rc over the constant rate period is equal to
the initial rate of drying in the falling rate period, so that R c =
mfc.

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Example (1)
A wet solid is dried from 25 to 10 per cent moisture
under constant drying conditions in 15 ks (4.17 h). If
the critical and the equilibrium moisture contents are
15 and 5 per cent respectively, how long will it take
to dry the solid from 30 to 8 per cent moisture under
the same conditions?

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Solution
For the first drying operation:

Then:

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Solution
For the second drying operation:

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