INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ROORKEE

Drying

Mass Transfer-II
(CHN-301)
Chemical Engineering
IIT Roorkee
Drying

 Drying is a mass transfer process resulting in removal of moisture

(water) or another solvent, by evaporation from a solid, semi-solid
or liquid to end in a solid state via application of heat.
 Drying is a complex operation involving transient heat and mass
transfer.
 When the solid material is exposed to air at a given temperature
and humidity, water is gained or lost until a equilibrium moisture
content is attained.

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Drying mechanism

 Drying is basically governed by the principles of transport of heat

and mass. Various types of solids may have to be handled for
drying are crystalline, granular, beads, powders, sheets, slabs,
filter-cakes, etc.
 The mechanism of moisture transport in different solids broadly
classified into (a) transport by capillary forces, (b) liquid diffusion,
(c) pressure induced transport, and (d) vapour diffusion.
 The mechanism that dominates depends on the nature of the solid,
its pore structure and the rate of drying.

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 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 of the solid. The larger capillaries are emptied
first, but the smaller ones continue to supply liquid to the drying
surface. Simultaneously some drying gas enters into the solid
through free passages and cracks.

Fig: Stages of drying of a moist solid: (a) the solid is uniformly wet, (b) the upper
region is partly dry, (c) the upper region of the solid is dry .

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Drying mechanism

• Transport by capillary forces

• Liquid diffusion

• Pressure induced transport

• Vapor diffusion

• Nature of solid, its pore structure and rate of drying

• Different mechanisms – different stages of drying

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Drying mechanism

• Granular and Porous solids – Capillary forces

• Some solids – Shrinkage – high drying rate – generates

compressive force to squeeze out moisture from interior –
Pressure induced transport.

• Colloidal and gelatinous solids – affinity water – molecular

liquid diffusion.

• Low moisture content – vaporization may occur below the

surface – vapor diffuses out – Vapor Diffusion.

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Drying mechanism

• Drying process - Three transport resistances

1. Resistance to liquid or vapor transport inside the solid

2. Resistance to convective mass transfer from the surface of

the solid to the bulk of gas

3. Resistance to convective heat transfer from the bulk of

drying gas to solid surface.

• Case Hardening – hard impervious layer to moisture.

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Drying applications

 Used in manufacturing of granules.

 Used to reduce the bulk and weight of materials.
 It helps in the size reduction process.
 It is an essential process in the chemical, agricultural, food,
polymer, ceramics, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, mineral
processing and wood processing industries.

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Fig: Different types of moisture in a wet solid

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 Important definitions and terms
 Moisture content: The moisture content is the quantity of
moisture in a wet solid generally expressed in the mass ratio unit
(kg moisture per kg dry solid).
 Bound Moisture: The amount of moisture in a solid that exerts a
vapour pressure less than the normal vapour pressure of water at
the given temperature is called bound moisture.
 Unbound moisture: The amount of moisture in a wet solid in
excess of the bound moisture is called unbound moisture. Unbound
moisture exerts a vapour pressure equal to that of water at the
given temperature.
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• Equilibrium moisture: The moisture content in a solid that can
remain in equilibrium with the drying medium of a given relative
humidity at a given temperature is called equilibrium moisture.
• Free moisture: The moisture in a wet solid in excess of the
equilibrium with drying medium of a given humidity at a given
temperature is called equilibrium moisture.
• Critical moisture: The moisture content at which the rate constant
rate period ends and the falling rate period starts. It is the function
of constant drying rate, material properties and particle size.

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 A solid of initial moisture content Xi is being dried in contact with a
gas of relative humidity RH. The water present in the solid exerts a
vapour pressure equal to that of pure water till a moisture content of
the wet solid.
 As the moisture concentration decreases below Xb, the vapour
pressure exerted by the water remaining in the solid also decreases. As
the moisture content reaches the equilibrium moisture content x, the
vapour pressure of moisture over the solid becomes equal to the
partial pressure of water vapour in the drying gas.
 Hence, Xb is the bound moisture, Xi-X is the free moisture content.
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Drying rate curve

 The drying rate of a solid is a function of temperature, humidity,

flow rate and transport properties of the drying gas.
 The moist solid is taken on a pan and kept suspended in the drying
chamber through which the drying gas is passed at a given flow
rate. The change in mass of the solid with time is recorded. The
mass of the ‘bone dry’ solid is determined separately.
 Let Ws is mass of the ‘bone dry’ solid

a is the drying area

x is the moisture content at any time t.
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Drying rate curve

Fig: Schematic of a simple laboratory batch drying experiment

 Rate of drying is given as:
(1)

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Drying rate curve

Fig: Change in the moisture content of solid in batch drying

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Drying rate curve

Fig: A typical drying rate curve

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Drying rate curve

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Calculation of drying time

Let the solid have an initial moisture content Xi. It has to be dried to a
final moisture content of Xf. The mass of ‘bone dry’ solid is Ws and
the drying area is a. The required drying time may be obtained by
integrating eq. It is to be noted that the drying rate N remains constant
at Nc till the critical moisture content Xc is achieved, but depends
upon X in the falling rate period. So, the integration has to be done
over the two intervals separately.

(2)

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The second integral may be evaluated graphically or numerically if
the tabular data for N versus X are available. In the simplest case, if
the drying rate N decreases with X as a linear function (N=pX+q, say)
over the falling rate period, the time of drying may be expressed as

(3)

Since and ,
On substitution,

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 (4)
Here, =constant rate drying time, and =falling rate drying time. It can
also be expressed in a slightly different form by noting the fact that
the drying rate n=0 at the equilibrium moisture, X=. Thus,

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Substituting these results,

(5)

The drying rate is zero when X. Hence, if the falling rate of drying is
linear in X, it is proportional to (). If there are two falling rate periods
over which the drying rates are known, the functions of the moisture
content x should be integrated accordingly.

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Classification of Drying Equipment
Dryers can be classified on the several basis:
 Mode of operation:- A dryer may operate batch-wise or in continuous
mode. A batch dryer has a low equipment and installation cost, it is easy
to operate, and is more versatile in possible applications. If necessary, the
same dryer may be used to dry different material. Batch dryers are
generally suitable for small production capacities.
 Sate of the wet solid:- The wet feed to a dryer may range form a liquid
solution, a slurry, a paster, or a filter-cake to free-flowing powders,
granular or fibrous solids or lumps.
 Method of energy supply:- Heat energy required for drying may be
supplied directly by a hot drying gas, or it may be supplied indirectly
through the wall of the dryer from a hot gas flowing outside the wall. The
dryers are correspondingly called direct-heat or indirect-heat dryers.

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Types of dryers

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Drying Calculation for batch dryers

Cross-circulation drying : The flow of the drying gas over the wet material
on the trays in a tray dryer is called crossflow. The gas enters at one end of
the tray, flows over the material while supplying heat to the solid and
picking up the moisture in return, and leaves at the other end.

Some of the notations used in the figure are mentioned below:

Dry bulb temperature of drying gas at inlet: TGi
Humidity of drying gas at inlet: Yi
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Drying Calculation for batch dryers

The temperature of the solid: Ts

Saturation humidity of the solid: Ys
Convective heat transfer coefficient at the tray bottom: h c
Thickness of the wet solid layer: ls
Thermal conductivity: ks

Heat transfer from the drying gas to the wet solid occurs mainly by
convection at the top open surface. The overall heat transfer coefficient can
be obtained as follows.
(6)

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Drying Calculation for batch dryers

The combined coefficient for heat transfer to the drying surface from the
tray bottom is given by
(7)
Here, the thermal resistance of the tray wall has been neglected since it is
very small for all practical purposes.
Case I – The temperature and humidity of the drying gas remains constant:
If the gas flow rate is high, the temperature and humidity of the gas may be
assumed to be constant.
The combined heat flux at the drying surface ( )
Mass flux or drying rate

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Drying Calculation for batch dryers

Mass flux or drying rate

If lW = heat of vaporization of water (kJ/kg), the fluxes are to be related as

(8)
The quantity is approximately equal to the humid heat of water, . The
equation has two unknowns. It can be solved in combination with the
saturation humidity-temperature relation for water graphically or by trial-
and-error.
If is the weight of bone-dry solid and is the area of the drying surface, the
constant rate drying period is.
(9) (Xi = initial moisture, XC = final moisture)

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Drying Calculation for batch dryers

Equation for the falling rate drying time can be determined (i) if the drying
rate decreases linearly with the moisture content and (ii) if unsaturated
surface drying occurs.
The length of the falling rate period can be written as
From equation (5) and (8)

(10)
The total Drying time per batch is , where is the ‘downtime’ (the time
required for loading and unloading of the trays in the dryer).

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Drying Calculation for batch dryers

Case II - The temperature and humidity of the gas vary along the tray
A theoretical analysis of the changing drying rate along a tray is done by
making a different heat balance over a thin strip of the solid layer on a tray.

Let be breadth of tray and be gap between two adjacent trays for gas flow.
Cross Section for gas flow is
Total gas flow rate over a tray is (Kg/s) were, (kg/dry air/m2s). the specific
heat of the gas is .

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Drying Calculation for batch dryers

Some of the notations used in the figure are shown below.

Local distance from the gas-inlet end of the tray:
Local temperature of the gas:
Surface temperature of the solid:
Thickness of the solid:
An amount of heat is transferred from the gas to the solid over a thin strip
of area . the gas temperature drops by as a result. The following heat balance
may be written.
(11)
Since we have neglected the heat transfer by conduction through the tray
bottom, the solid temperature is same as the wet-bulb temperature or the
adiabatic saturation temperature.

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Drying Calculation for batch dryers

The above equation can be integrated from the inlet gas temperature to the
outlet gas temperature over the length of the tray .

(12)
Where and (13)
Here, = number of gas-phase heat transfer units, and = length of a gas-
phase heat transfer unit. The product of these two quantities is the length of
the tray.

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Drying Calculation for batch dryers

From equation (12)

(14)
The rate of heart transfer to the solid = ; area of the tray,
The average rate of vaporization of moisture per unit drying area =
Determination of the constant rate drying time
Rate of drying in the constant rate period,

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Drying Calculation for batch dryers

The quantity of unbound moisture to be removed during the constant rate

period,
; = volume of the solid; =bulk density pf the solid (dry basis),
Drying time for the removal of unbound moisture (i.e., constant rate drying
time),

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Drying Calculation for batch dryers

If we assume that the falling rate of drying is proportional to , , the falling

rate time of drying is

The value of forced convection heat transfer coefficient is required for

using the above equations for calculation of the rate or time of drying. The
following empirical correlation may be used to estimate the heat transfer
coefficient .
where is in kg/h.m2 and is in W/m2.K (17)

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Through-Circulation Drying

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Through-Circulation Drying

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Through-Circulation Drying

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Material and Energy balance in continuous
dryers
Material and energy balance are integral parts of design calculations of all
kinds of dryers including continuous dryers.

Here = flow rate pf air (dry basis, kg/h); = flow rate of the solid (kg/h, dry
basis); = humidity of air [(kg of H2O)/ (kg of dry air)]; = rate of heat loss
(kJ/h).

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Material and Energy balance in continuous
dryers
Material balance equation: (18)
Energy balance equation: in order to write down the energy balance
equation, the heat contents of the gas and the solid streams are to be
expressed with respect to a reference temperature. If denotes the enthalpy of
the solid (kJ per kg dry solid) and , that of the gas (kJ per kg dry gas),

(19)

Taking as the reference temperature, the enthalpies of the gas and the solid
streams are:

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Material and Energy balance in continuous
dryers

(20)

(21)
Where , , , are specific heats of the solid, the liquid (water), the dry gas
(air), and of the vapour (water vapour) respectively (in kJ/kg.K);
= heat of vaporization of water at the reference temperature = 2500kJ/kg (at
the reference temperature= 273 K )

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Drying time in continuous countercurrent
dryer

Wet solid enters zone I at a rate of kg/h (dry basis) and the hot gases at the
opposite end of the dryer. The temperature, the moisture content, and the
enthalpy of the gas and of the solid at the boundaries between the zones are
shown in the figure. Drying occurs in zone I and zone II, while heating of
the dry solid, if necessary, occurs in Zone III.
The surface area of drying is m2/ (kg dry solid)

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Drying time in continuous countercurrent
dryer
Zone III: The heat load for raising the temperature of the dry solid from to
and the temperature driving forces at the boundaries are:
;; (22)
If is the log-mean temperature difference, the heating time in this zone is
given by
(23)
It is also known as is the wet bulb temperature corresponding to the gas at
temperature and humidity . Given these conditions, we start with a guess
value of and calculate and therefrom the gas temperature , and check if the
corresponding wet bulb temperature matches the assumed . This trial-and-
error procedure.
(24)

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Drying time in continuous countercurrent
dryer
Zone I: Since the moisture content of the solid changes from to and the
condition of the gas at boundary I is known, the humidity of the gas at
boundary 2 () can be calculated by a moisture balance.
The solid is at wet-bulb temperature and the corresponding saturation
humidity is . If the local humidity of the gas is , the local drying rate is
given by
is equivalent to (25)
Putting , and integrating over the zone, the drying time can be obtained.

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Drying time in continuous countercurrent
dryer
Zone II: The moisture content of the solid is below the critical moisture
over this zone and the drying rate depends upon . we assume that the drying
rate is proportional to the free moisture, i.e., .
(27)

Drying time, (28)

To integrate, we can express in terms of by writing the following moisture
balance.
() (29)

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Drying time in continuous countercurrent
dryer
Drying time, (30)

If , drying time, (31)

The above simple analysis of a countercurrent continuous dryer can be used

for many design calculations with necessary modifications.

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