Unitops - ch7 Problems
Unitops - ch7 Problems
Unitops - ch7 Problems
1. Cabbage Drying
Initial composition 11% solids, 89% water.
Final composition after drying 100kg dry solids + 5kg water
= 4.8% water on wet basis.
Now 100kg initial cabbage yields 11kg dry solids + 0.55 kg water
Therefore remove 89-0.55 = 88.45 kg water
(a) heat energy per tonne of raw cabbage = (1000/100) x 88.45 x 2258
= 2 x 106 kJ
(b) heat energy per tonne of dry cabbage = (1000/11.55) x 88.45 x 2258
= 1.73 x 107 kJ
Efficiency could be lifted by decreasing air outlet temperature, or increasing air inlet
temperature if the product could tolerate this.
3. Humidity of air
(a) Working from calculation and steam tables (Appendix 8):
Pressure of saturated steam at 65oC = 25.7kPa = ps
Then if the mole fraction of the water is x
Then (x/18) / (1/29 + x/18) = p/P = p/100
(b) Reading from psychrometric chart (Appendix 9(b)), for temperature of 65 C and RH of
40%:
Absolute humidity = humidity ratio = 0.075kgkg-1
4. Cooling water
In an evaporative cooler, the lowest available temperature must be the wet-bulb temperature
of the ambient air: a real cooler may approach, but cannot get below this. So the problem is to
calculate the wet-bulb temperature of the air, with 18oC dry bulb and 42% RH.
From steam tables (Appendix 8) and 42%RH, the humidity of the air can be calculated,
assuming Y = 18p/29P
(a) At 42% RH, vapour pressure, ps = 2.06kPa
so p = 2.06x 0.42 = 0.87kPa
p/P = 0.0087
Y = (18/29) x 0.0087 = 0.0054kgkg-1
Taking cs =1 from Appendix 6 and =2534 kJkg-1 from Appendix 8
cs / = 1/2534 = 0.0004 kgkg-1oC-1
cs / = 4 x 10-4 kgkg-1oC-1
This can be found very much more easily on the psychrometric chart, which agrees that the
wet-bulb temperature is 11oC.
(b) If the water approaches this by 5oC, then this implies the water cooling from 36oC to
16oC. Achieving this depends on the relative flow rates of air and water and the design of the
cooler.
%RH 90 80 70 60 50 40
Wet bulb depression 0.7 1.4 2.2 2.9 3.6 4.4
The chart is not easy to read, therefore imprecise and cannot be read below 40%RH.
Tabulated data should be sought if accuracy is important..
When heated to 150oC, the enthalpy increases to 170 kJkg-1 as shown in the Appendix 9(b)
chart.
So mass of air heated = 1300/0.829 = 1568kgh-1
Energy input = 1568 (170 –35)
= 2.12 x 105 kJh-1
= 58.8kJs-1
= 58.8kW
(b) Air leaves at 90oC and 5%RH
Humidity 0.024kg kg-1
t = 60/(8.21 x 10-3)
= 7308s
= 2.03h
For falling rate drying
Also from equn. 7.7
t = w (Xo –Xf)/f kg'A(Ys -Ya)
Moisture content X 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.3 0.25 0.20 0.18 0.163
w(X1 - X2) kg 4 4 4 2 1 1 0.4 0.34
f (from Fig.7.7) 0.85 0.47 0.24 0.12 0.07 0.05 0.03 0.02
f kg'A(Ys -Ya) x 10-3 7 3.9 2 0.99 0.57 0.41 0.25 0.16
t = 13534s = 3.8h