Intro Exp 2
Intro Exp 2
0 Objectives
1. To produce drying and drying rate curves for a wet solid being dried with air of fixed
temperature and humidity.
1.0 Introduction
Drying is a mass transfer process that involves removal of relatively small amounts of water
or moisture contents from a material or a process stream. In industries, drying process is
often used as the final step operation before packaging and selling products. Generally,
drying the solid refers to the removal by thermal vaporization of relatively small quantity of
water or other liquid from the solid material to reduce the content of residual liquid to an
acceptable low value. There is also direct heating and indirect heating. There are many
methods of drying such as contact drying, dielectric drying, application of hot air, freezing
drying and supercritical drying. This method of drying involves with different type of drying
equipment such as Tray dryers, Vacuum-shelf indirect dryers, Continuous tunnel dryers,
Rotary dryers, Drum dryers and Spray dryers.
The common type of dryers uses in many industrial applications involves tray dryers as their
drying operation. The dryers are made of tray held in a cabinet, which is connected to a
source of heated air. The operation mechanism of tray drying is the heat is channeled by an
air current sweeping across the trays, by conduction from heated trays or heated shelves on
which the trays lie, or by radiation from heated surfaces. The tray must be tight-fitting in the
cabinet to air form bypassing the material that needed to be dried. The drying time by using
tray dryers usually need a longer time. In industries, tray dryer operates about 12 to 48
hours for solids to be dried. This is because tray dryers required low capital and
maintenance cost but it have poor control and chances to produces more variable product
quality.
The equipment of SOLTEQ Tray Drier (Model: BP 772) comprise of an air duct mounted on
a floor standing frame to give a comfortable working height for the operator. Air is drawn into
the duct through a Mesh Guard by a motor driven axial flow Fan Impeller whose speed can
be controlled to produce a range of air velocities up to 2.0 m/s in the duct. The air passes
over an electrically heated element controlled by a power regulator to provide a variation in
air temperature up to a maximum of 80°C at low air velocities. The air passes into the
central section of the duct where trays of material to be dried are suspended in the air
stream. The trays are carried on a support frame, which is attached to a digital balance,
mounted above the duct and on which the total weight is continuously indicated. The trays
are inserted or removed from the duct through a latched side door with a glass panel for
viewing purpose. After passing over Drying Trays, the air is discharged at atmosphere
through an outlet duct section where a Vane Anemometer can be position. Wet and Dry Bulb
temperatures of the air are measured using a DC powered aspirated Psychrometer. Access
points for the Psychrometer are provided both upstream and downstream of the Drying
Trays and are covered by flaps when not in use. A Process Flow Diagram for Tray Drying
Process Unit is as shown below.