DRYING

TOPICS
 Drying Mechanism
 Equilibrium

 Different Moisture Contents

 Batch and Continuous Drying

 Drying Rate Curve

 Time of Drying and its calculations

 Mechanism of batch Drying

 Equipments (Batch and Continuous)

INTRODUCTION
 Generally The term drying refers to the removal of moisture
from a substance (Solid)

 It is one of the oldest, most commonly used and most energy

consuming unit operation in the process industries.

 final processing step before packaging

 The fundamental nature of all drying process is the removal

of volatile substances (mainly moisture) from mixture to
yield a solid product.

 In general drying is accomplished by thermal techniques and

thus involves the application of heat, most commonly by
convection from current of air.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DRYING AND EVAPORATION

 1- In drying processes, the main operation usually carried out

on solid materials, e.g. powders, or products.

 2- Drying in most of the cases means the removal of relatively

small amounts of water from solids .Evaporation include the
removal of large amounts of water from solutions.

 3- In most cases, drying involves the removal of water at

temperatures below its boiling point, whereas evaporation
means the removal of water by boiling a solution.

 4- In drying , water is usually removed by circulating air over

the material in order to carry away the water vapour , while
in evaporation , water is removed from the material as pure
water vapour mixed with other gases.
DRYING BASED ON HEAT INPUT
1. Direct (Convective):

 Drying medium directly contacts material to be dried

and carries evaporated moisture.

2. Indirect (Contact, Conduction)

DRYING BASED ON HEAT INPUT

3. Radiant

 Vacuum or low gas flow to carry evaporated moisture

away.
 Radiation or volumetrically by placing the wet material
in a microwave or radio frequency electromagnetic
field.

Over 85 percent of industrial dryers are of the convective type with

hot air or direct combustion gases as the drying medium.

Over 99 percent of the applications involve removal of water

CONCLUDING REMARKS
 Throughout the convective drying of solid materials,
two processes occur simultaneously namely,
 transfer of energy from the local environment in the dryer
and
 transfer of moisture from within the solid.

 Therefore this unit operation may be considered as

simultaneous heat and mass transfer operation
APPLICATIONS:
 Food Industry: Drying is an important operation in
food processing.
 In the sugar industry washed and centrifuged sugar crystals
are dried to get finished product for packing.
 Milk is dried in a spray chamber to produce milk powder.

 Pharmaceutical Industry: where drying normally

occurs as a batch process, drying is a key
manufacturing step.
 The drying process can impact subsequent manufacturing
steps, including tableting or encapsulation and can influence
critical quality attributes of the final dosage form.

 Removal of Moisture from wood, paper, Pulp and wet

cloth etc..
DRYING MECHANISM
 Drying does not mean only removal of the moisture but during the
process, physical structure as well as the appearance of the solid has
to be preserved. Drying is basically governed by the principles of
transport of heat and mass.

 When a moist solid is heated to an appropriate temperature, moisture

vaporizes at or near the solid surface and the heat required for
evaporating moisture from the drying product is supplied by the
external drying medium, usually air or a hot gas.

 Drying is a diffusional process in which the transfer of moisture to the

surrounding medium takes place by the evaporation of surface
moisture.

 As soon as some of the surface moisture vaporizes, more moisture is

transported from interior of the solid to its surface. This transport of
moisture within a solid takes place by a variety of mechanisms
depending upon the nature and type of the solid and its state of
aggregation.
DRYING MECHANISM
 Different types of solids may have to be handled for drying
crystalline, granular, beads, powders, sheets, slabs, filter-cakes etc.
 In granular and porous solids with an open pore structure,
moisture transport occurs due to capillary forces so long as
there is enough moisture in the bulk solid.
 The Larger capillaries are emptied first and smaller ones
continue to supply moisture to the surface.
 The states of moist granular solid at different stages of
drying are shown below
DRYING EQUILIBRIUM
 One Should have pre-knowledge about

 Daltons Law
 Raoults Law
 Partial pressure
 Vapor Pressure
 Molal/Absolute Humidity
 Relative Humidity/ Relative Saturation
 Percent Humidity/ Percent Saturation
DRYING EQUILIBRIUM
 It establishes the relation between moisture content of a
solid and the humidity of the ambient drying medium (Air)
at equilibrium.

 The Moisture present in a solid exerts a pressure is equal

to or less than vapor pressure of water at a particular
temperature. It all depends on the nature of the solid,
Moisture content and Temperature.

 Moisture content present in solid is generally expressed as

X= Mass of Moisture
Unit mass of Bone dry solid

 A solid totally free from moisture is called Bone Dry solid

 If a wet solid is exposed to continuously supply of a gas (Hot
Air) containing a fixed partial pressure of the vapor is p and
its saturated vapor pressure is p.

 The solid may loose the moisture (Desorption) by evaporation

or gain moisture from the gas (Adsorption) by the
condensation until the vapor pressure of the moisture of solid
equals to the p . Thus the solid and the gas are in
equilibrium and the moisture content of the solid is termed as
Equilibrium moisture content (EMC)

 Then Relative saturation/Relative Humidity of air

RH= Y = p / p

o
IMPORTANT TERMINOLOGY (DEFINITIONS)
 Moisture Content, Dry Basis: Expressed as
= (Kg moisture)/ (Kg dry solid) * 100
= 100 (X)

{ i.e. as X= (Kg moisture)/ (Kg dry solid) }

 Moisture Content, Wet Basis: Moisture Content of a

solid is usually described in terms of weight percent
moisture.
= (Kg moisture)/ (Kg wet solid) * 100
= (Kg moisture)/ (Kg dry solid + Kg moisture) * 100
= 100 (X) / (1+X)
 Equilibrium Moisture: (X*) : This the moisture content
of the solid substance when at equilibrium with a given
partial pressure of vapor at a temperature .

 Bound Moisture: This refers to the moisture contained

by a solid substance which exerts an equilibrium vapor
pressure less than that of the pure liquid at the same
temperature .

 Un Bound Moisture: This refers to the moisture

contained by a solid 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 obtained by a
substance in excess of
the equilibrium moisture
i.e. (X-X*)
only free moisture
can be evaporated and
the free moisture content
of a solid depends upon
the vapor concentration
in the gas
 DRYING OPERATIONS
 Methods Operation:
 Batch (Unsteady State)
 Continuous (Steady State)

 Based on Methods of supplying heat (for evaporation of moisture) Dryers

are divided into
 Direct Driers: Heat is supplied entirely by direct contact of substance with the hot
gas
 Indirect Driers: Heat is supplied by Conduction through a metal wall i.e. heat
supplied is independent of the gas

 Nature of substance to be dried is also major factor in selection of drier

i.e. solid may be rigid solid (wood or fiberboard), or a flexible material
such as cloth paper or a granular solid such as mass of crystals or a thick
paste or a thin slurry or solution
 BATCH DRYERS
 Batch dryers favoured by : •Low throughput (under 50 kg/h)
•Long residence time (i.e. mainly falling rate drying)

 Batch dryers unfavoured by :

•Expensive operation
•Limited to small scale operation

Batch Direct Driers: The construction depends on the solid substance to dried and
which are of three different types

 Tray Driers
 Truck Driers (Modified Tray driers)
 Through Circulation Drier
TRAY DRIERS: (CABINET, COMPARTMENT OR SHELF
DRIERS)
 Use Racks/Trays to hold product and circulate air over the material.

 It
consists of a rectangular chamber containing removable trays on
which solid to be dried is placed

 Afterloading chamber is closed and steam heated air is blown across

and between the trays to evaporate the moisture (Cross circulation
Drying)

 When a solid has reached the desired degree of dryness, cabinet is

opened and trays replaced with new batch
SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM: TRAY DRIER
TRAY DRIERS: (CABINET, COMPARTMENT OR SHELF
DRIERS)
 Tray dryers are used for small-scale production (1-20 ton per day )
or for pilot-scale work.

 They commonly are used to dry fruit and vegetable pieces, and
depending upon the food and the desired final moisture

 Drying time may be of the order of 10 or even 20 hr.

 They have low capital and maintenance costs but has relatively poor
control and produces more variable product quality.
TRUCK DRIER (MODIFIED TRAY DRIER)
 Here Trays are racked upon trucks which can be rolled into and
out of cabinet.

 Since the trucks can be loaded and unloaded out of the drier
considerable time can be saved between drying cycles
 CONTINUOUS DRYING
Advantages of continuous drying over Batch Drying
 The size of equipment is relatively small for the same
quantity of material handled
 The product is more uniform in moisture content

 The cost of drying is relatively low and the product can

be readily sent to subsequent operations, without
intermediate storage
 The Solid and the drying air may flow counter currently
or in parallel. Alternatively, the air may flow across the
path of solid
TYPES OF CONTINUOUS DRYERS
 Continuous Driers:

 Rotary Drier
 Spray Drier
 Drum Drier
ROTARY DRIER
 Most widely used driers in chemical process industry
 Handling free flowing Granular materials, which are
not having concern about breakage of materials.
 Consists of a long circular shell rotating about its
central axis with small angle to the horizontal
 Some times the shell may be stationary, and an
agitator inside may revolve slowly.
 In either case, the wet material is fed in at the upper
end, and the rotation, or agitation, advances the
material progressively to the lower end, where it is
discharged.
 The shell is provided with flights to lift the materials
to be dried and throw them through the drying gas
 Solid feed passes through the central tube using of
flights and the hot air coming from the combustion
chamber flows through the annular space
 The diameter of the shell depends on the capacity

 The length of the shell depends on the rate and extent

of drying
DRUM DRYER
 Drum dryers are suitable for handling slurries or
pastes of solids in fine suspension and for
solutions.
 A drum dryer consists of one or more metal rolls
which are heated internally by steam.
 The rolls are usually 0.6 to 3.5 m in diameter and
0.6 to 5 m in length.
 The material is dried on the outside surface of
the drum.
 The dry solid is finally recovered by a knife
scraper from the slowly revolving roll.
SINGLE DRUM DRYER
DOUBLE DRUM DRYER
SPRAY DRYER
 Spray dryers are used mostly for liquid or slurry
solutions and in general for any product that is pump
able.
 The material is usually sprayed by spray nozzles or
high speed rotating spray discs in the form of a mist
of fine droplets into a hot gas stream inside a vertical
cylindrical chamber with a conical bottom.
 The material is dried due to rapid evaporation of
water from the droplets.
 Finally the dried material is separated from the gas
stream.
 The flow here can be cocurrent, counter-current or
mixed.