chemical engineering research and design 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 20542062

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Chemical Engineering Research and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cherd

Modelling batch drying of sand in a draft-tube conical

spouted bed
Martin Olazar , Gartzen Lopez, Haritz Altzibar, Javier Bilbao
Univ. of the Basque Country, Dept. Chemical Engineering, P.O. Box 644-E48080, Bilbao, Spain

a b s t r a c t
A model has been built to predict the evolution of sand drying in a conical spouted bed with a non-porous draft
tube. Three regions have been considered in the model, i.e., spout, annulus and fountain, and unsteady-state mass
balances have been written for water in the solid and gaseous phases. The model has been validated by comparing
its results with the experimental ones obtained in a previous study and it allows predicting the moisture content
evolution of both the air and the sand during the drying process.
2011 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Spouted bed; Drying; Draft tube; Simulation

1.

Introduction

Although rotary dryers dominate the market, uidised or

spouted bed dryers could be an alternative, since they are
characterised by an efcient external heat and mass transfer
leading to short residence times and compact design (Vanecek
et al., 1965). Moreover, reported mean residence times (Kamke
and Wilson, 1985) range from 10 to 20 min when drying sawdust in a rotary dryer to 10 times lower in uid bed dryers
(Jensen, 1995). Spouted beds/dilute spouted beds are able
to lower these times and with the advantage of processing
unscreened materials (Berghel, 2005; Olazar et al., 1994a).
The applicability of the spouted bed technique lies in its
ability to treat coarse particles (Mathur and Epstein, 1974)
and granular products of irregular texture, ne particles and
those with a wide size distribution and sticky solids, which
are difcult to treat using other gassolid contact regimes
(Olazar et al., 1992). Thus, the spouted bed regime is an alternative contact method that is especially interesting when
conventional regimes have limitations imposed by the physical characteristics of the solid and by gas residence time
(Olazar et al., 1992). Conical spouted beds allow attaining
low gas residence times and this parameter can be varied
from few seconds operating in conventional spouting conditions to values of milliseconds in dilute conditions (Olazar
et al., 1993). The good performance of conical spouted beds

has been proven in the combustion of bituminous coals

(Tsuji et al., 1989), catalytic polymerizations (Olazar et al.,
1994b), pyrolysis of waste materials (Arabiourrutia et al.,
2008; Elordi et al., 2009) and drying (Oliveira and Passos,
1997).
A crucial parameter that limits the scaling-up of spouted
beds is the ratio between the inlet diameter and particle diameter. In fact, the inlet diameter should be up to 2030 times
the average particle diameter in order to achieve spouting
status. The use of a draft tube is the usual solution to this
problem (Swasdisevi et al., 2005). In fact, an internal device is
the key for stable operation in a large-scale spouted bed and,
moreover, it allows increasing the spoutable bed height and
reducing bed pressure drop (Luo et al., 2004; Swasdisevi et al.,
2004; Swasdisevi et al., 2005). Nevertheless, solid circulation,
particle cycle time, gas distribution and so on are governed
by the space between the bottom of the bed and the draft
tube (Altzibar et al., 2009; Cunha et al., 2009; Ishikura et al.,
2003; Kalwar and Raghavan, 1992; Neto et al., 2008; Wang et al.,
2010a,b; Zhao et al., 2008). Moreover, minimum spouting velocity and operating pressure drop are also functions of the type
of draft tube used. The use of different types of draft tubes
improves the versatility of the conical spouted bed in terms of
gas owrate, gas residence time, solid circulation, materials
to be handled and so forth. Moreover, the draft tube is easy to
build and install.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 94 601 2527; fax: +34 94 601 3500.
E-mail addresses: martin.olazar@ehu.es (M. Olazar), gartzen.lopez@ehu.es (G. Lopez), haritz.altzibar@ehu.es (H. Altzibar),
javier.bilbaoe@ehu.es (J. Bilbao).
Received 2 November 2010; Received in revised form 22 December 2010; Accepted 13 January 2011
0263-8762/$ see front matter 2011 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cherd.2011.01.012

chemical engineering research and design 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 20542062

Nomenclature
aan
af
asn
dp
dp
Cd
Dv
f
g
G
Ka
Kf
Ks
Ms
Re
Sc
Sh
t
u
v
Van
Vf
Vsn
W
xi
Xan
Xc
Xf
Xsn
Yan
Yf
Ysn
Ysat

wet surface area of the sand in an element n in

the annulus, m2 kg1
wet surface area of the sand in the fountain,
m2 kg1
wet surface area of the sand in an element n in
the spout, m2 kg1
particle diameter, mm
average particle diameter, mm
drag coefcient
diffusivity of steam into air, m2 s1
fraction of the inlet gas ow rate that crosses
the annulus.
acceleration of gravity m s2
inlet air mass ow rate, kg s1
overall mass transfer coefcient in the annulus,
m s1
overall mass transfer coefcient in the fountain, m s1
overall mass transfer coefcient in the spout,
m s1
mass of sand, kg
Reynolds number
Schmidt number
Sherwood number
time, s
velocity of the gas, m s1
velocity of the particles, m s1
volume of an element n in the annulus, m3
volume of the fountain, m3
volume of an element n in the spout, m3
sand mass owrate, kg s1
mass fraction of particles of size dpi
moisture content of sand in an element n in the
annulus, kg water kg1 sand
critical moisture content, kg water kg1 sand
moisture content of sand in the fountain,
kg water kg1 sand
moisture content of sand in an element n in the
spout, kg water kg1 sand
moisture content of air in an element n in the
annulus, kg water kg1 air
moisture content of air in the fountain,
kg water kg1 air
moisture content of air in an element n in the
spout, kg water kg1 air
moisture content corresponding to the adiabatic saturation at the operating temperature,
kg water kg1 air
vertical position of the particle, m

Greek letters
a
bed voidage in the annulus
f
bed voidage in the fountain
bed voidage in the spout
s
g
density of the air, kg m3
s
density of the sand, kg m3

2055

A way of improving our understanding of the hydrodynamic behaviour of spouted beds involves Computational
Fluid Dynamics (CFD). This technique has been applied to
conventional (Wu and Mujumdar, 2008), conical (Wang et al.,
2010c; Duarte et al., 2009) and two-dimensional spouted beds
(Hosseini et al., 2010). Recently CFD studies have been applied
to spouted beds provided with draft tubes (Hosseini et al.,
2009, Szafran and Kmiec, 2004; Szafran et al., 2005; Wang et al.,
2010a,b). These models provide accurate predictions, but complexity is their main disadvantage.
The advantage of the spouted bed technique for drying lies
in its the capacity for handling granular products that are too
coarse to be readily uidized and where good heat and masstransfer and favourable gas solid contacting are important (Cui
and Grace, 2008; Olazar et al., 1993). Moreover spouted beds
are suitable for operating with heat sensitive materials due to
their good heat transfer and isothermicity (Freitas and Freire,
2001). The spouted bed has been successfully applied to the
drying of different solid materials such as sawdust (Berghel
et al., 2008), grain (Markowski et al., 2007), seeds (Ando et al.,
2002) and inert materials (Altzibar et al., 2008). The spouted
bed with inert particles has been commonly used for the drying of pastes, suspensions and solutions (Correa et al., 2004;
Jumah et al., 2007; Marmo, 2007; Passos et al., 2004; Taruna and
Jindal, 2002).
This paper models the batch drying of construction sand
whose average particle size is 0.415 mm. The specication is
that the sand should be dried to approximately 0.0005 kg of
water per kg of dried solid for subsequent use. This solid is
usually dried in rotary driers where mass transfer and efciency are low (Couper et al., 2010). The conical spouted bed is
an interesting alternative since it is characterised by efcient
heat and mass transfer resulting in higher drying rates and a
compact and simple design. However, in other drying devices,
such as rotatory dryers, the gassolid contact is poorer and hot
air must be used to increase drying rates, which means higher
operating costs. In this study, the performance of a non-porous
draft tube conical spouted bed has been addressed in order to
verify its performance for the drying of ne solids. A theoretical model has been developed and its predictions have been
compared with experimental results to check its suitability.

2.

Experimental

2.1.

Equipment

Based on the knowledge acquired in previous studies about the

hydrodynamics of conical spouted beds (Altzibar et al., 2009;
Olazar et al., 1992) and the application of this technology to
other processes, such as polymerization (Olazar et al., 1994b)
or pyrolysis (Arabiourrutia et al., 2008), a new pilot plant dryer
has been designed and built, Fig. 1. This pilot plant is made
of 304-L stainless steel, and consists of a blower, a solid feeding system, the contactor and a fabric lter for ne particle
retention.
The blower supplies a maximum air owrate of
300 Nm3 h1 at a pressure of 1500 mm of water column.
The owrate is measured by two computer-controlled mass
ow-meters in the ranges 50300 m3 h1 and 0100 m3 h1 .
The blower supplies a constant owrate, and the rst mass
ow-meter controls the air owing into the contactor (in
the range 50300 m3 h1 ) by operating on a motor valve that
reroutes the remaining air to the outside. When the ow

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chemical engineering research and design 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 20542062

length and the lower end is protected by a grill to stop particles

entering the tube and possibly damaging the anemometer.
The experimentation used for the validation of the model
has been carried out using a non-porous draft tube. It is part
of a more extensive experimental work including the effect of
different draft tubes, the evolution of pressure drop with moisture content and air velocity, amongst others (Altzibar et al.,
2008). The dimensions of the non-porous draft tube are: the
diameter of all the tubes, DT , is the same as the inlet, 0.04 m,
the length is 0.27 m and the height of the entrainment zone,
LH (distance between the gas inlet nozzle and bottom of draft
tube), is 0.07 m.

2.2.

Fig. 1 Diagramme of the dryer unit tted with the spouted

bed contactor.
required is lower than 50 m3 h1 , it passes through the rst
mass ow-meter, being regulated by the second one placed in
series, which also operates another motor valve that adjusts
the desired owrate. The accuracy of this control is 0.5% of the
measured owrate. The solid feeder is made up of a hopper
and a vibrating device. The solid owrate into the dryer is
controlled by the vibration level.
The measurement of bed pressure drop (040 kPa range)
is relayed to a differential pressure transducer (Siemens
Teleperm), which quanties these measurements within the
0100% range with an accuracy of 1%. The transducer sends
the 420 mA signal to a data logger (Alhborn Almeno 2290-8),
which is connected to a computer where the data are registered and processed by AMR-Control software. This software
also registers and processes the air velocity data, providing
continuous curves of pressure drop vs. air velocity.
Two thermocouples located at the bed inlet and outlet,
respectively, measure the temperatures of the air supplied
by the blower before entering the contactor and at the
exit. In addition, there are thermal conductivity detectors
(Alhborn MT8636-HR6) for measuring air moisture content
(00.01 kg water kg1 air range) at both inlet and outlet with
and accuracy of 1%. Temperature and moisture contents are
also stored in the Alhborn Almeno 2290-8 data logger, which
allows monitoring their evolution over time. The gas stream
leaves the dryer and passes through a fabric lter for removing
any entrained matter.
The pilot plant main component is the contactor which
has a conical geometry. The dimensions of the contactor, are:
diameter of the upper cylindrical section, Dc , 0.35 m, conical
section height, Hc , 0.51 m, included angle of the cone, /2, 36 ,
inlet diameter, Do , 0.04 m and base diameter, Di , 0.068 m. The
total height of the contactor (conical plus cylindrical section)
is 1.16 m. In addition to the stainless steel contactor, an exact
poly-methylmethacrylate replica has also been constructed
for observing the bed whilst conducting hydrodynamic studies.
A Schiltknecht C-59875 anemometer has been used for
measuring the gas velocity at different positions on the bed
surface and thereby estimating the gas distribution on the
upper surface and across the bed. The anemometer has been
inserted in the upper end of a 20 mm diameter tube of 80 cm

Material

The material used for drying is construction sand. The initial moisture content (as received) is between 7 and 10%, and
the specication is that it should be dried to approximately
0.0005 kg of water per kg of dried solid for subsequent use. The
particle size distribution of this material has been reported in
a previous paper (Altzibar et al., 2008) and the average size
(reciprocal mean diameter) has been calculated by the expression:
dp =

(xi /dpi )]

(1)

The average size of the sand obtained using Eq. (1) is

0.415 mm.
The sands real or chemical density and surface area, measured in a Micromeritics ASAP 2010, are 2358 kg m3 and
65 m2 kg1 , respectively. The porous structure of the sand has
been analysed by a Micromeritics AUTOPORE 9220. The pore
volume is 0.005 ml g1 of sand, which indicates that it is of low
porosity. In addition, the analysis shows that the prevailing
pores are those between 10 and 100 m.
Runs have been carried out in a batch mode using air
at 23 C (saturation moisture content 0.02 kg water kg1 air).
Thus, 0.5 kg of wet sand (7% moisture) have been added to
a bed containing 7 kg of dry sand (stagnant bed height, 27 cm)
and the gaseous outlet stream has been monitored throughout the drying process. The air owrate used in the drying has
been 40 m3 h1 . The evolution of the air moisture content at
the outlet of the dryer is compared with the calculated one
using the model.

3.

Process modelling

A model has been developed for the simulation of the drying

process in conical spouted beds provided with a non-porous
draft tube. The modelling of this type of draft tube is simpler than the porous draft tube because gas transfer between
the annulus and spout takes place only at the lower part of
the contactor, whereas in the case of the porous one the gas
transfer between the spout and annulus region occurs along
the entire tube surface. The model is based on unsteady state
mass balances applied to the solid and gaseous phases in the
different regions of the spouted bed dryer: spout, annulus and
fountain.
Fig. 2 shows the volume elements dened for establishing
the mass balances in the model. The spout and the annulus
regions have been divided into four different volume elements
of the same height, the rst being in both cases the upper
one in contact with the fountain and the fourth the lower one

chemical engineering research and design 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 20542062

2057

With all the bed particles at the same temperature, namely, the
adiabatic saturation temperature, the value of Ysat will remain
constant throughout the bed.
In the fourth element, the air enters from the spout and not
from the lower volume element, Fig. 2, but the inlet owrate
is the same as in any other element, Gf.
Similarly, in the case of the sand, the mass balance for
water in any element in the annulus is as follows:
Van (1 a )s

dXan
= W(Xa(n1) Xan ) Ka aan (Ysat Yan )
dt
(1 a )Van s g

(3)

where Xan is the moisture content of the solid (kg water per kg
of dry solid) and W is the solid mass owrate (kg s1 ). In the
rst volume element, the inlet solid ow rate is that coming
from the fountain, W.
Likewise, the mass balances for water in the gaseous phase
volume elements dened in the spout region are:
Vsn s g

dYs
= G(1 f )(Ys(n+1) Ys ) + Ks asn (Ysat Ysn )
dt
(1 s )Vsn s g

For the fourth element, the inlet ow rate is that fed into
the contactor, G.
For the solid phase, the mass balance in an element of the
spout region is as follows:

Fig. 2 Scheme of the spouted bed dryer showing the

volume elements in the different zones and the gas and
solid ows.

Vsn (1 s )s

at the bottom of the contactor. In the case of the fountain,

the whole volume has been considered a perfect mix element.
Given that the volume elements in both the spout and annulus
are all of the same height, those at the bottom of the annulus have smaller volume than the upper ones. This is by no
means a problem for the simulation, but rather an advantage,
given that as the gas rises through the annulus the gradient
for the mass transfer decreases due to the progressive saturation of the gas. Consequently, a similar mass transfer rate
is achieved in each volume element by using this type of volume elements. The fountain is assumed to have a paraboloidal
shape, Fig. 2. Its base is the upper surface of the bed and its
height has been calculated experimentally and theoretically
according to a procedure based on a force balance, which will
be described below.
The mass balances for water in the gaseous phase volume
elements dened in the annular region are:
dYan
Van a g
= Gf (Ya(n+1) Yan ) + Ka aan (Ysat Yan )
dt
(1 a )Van s g

(4)

(2)

where Van is the volume of the element (m3 ), a the porosity, g and s the densities of the gas and solid (kg m3 ), Ya
the moisture content (kg water kg1 dry gas), Ysat the equilibrium concentration at the particle surface, G the gaseous mass
owrate (kg s1 ), f the fraction of the total gas owrate that
crosses the bed through the annulus, Ka is the overall mass
transfer coefcient (m s1 ) based on the unit surface area of
the particles, and aan is the interphase surface area (m2 kg1 ),
i.e., the contact surface between the gaseous and solid phases.

dXsn
= W(Xs(n+1) Xsn ) Ks asn (Ysat Ysn )
dt
(1 s )Vsn s g

(5)

In the fourth element, the solid ow enters from the corresponding annular element, but its rate is the same as that
crossing the whole annulus, W.
The gaseous streams leaving the upper elements of the
annulus and spout enter the fountain. Both gaseous streams
become mixed in this region and then leave the dryer. The
mass balance for water in the gaseous phase in the fountain
is:
VF F g

dYF
= GfYa1 + G(1 f )Ys1 GfYF + KF aF (Ysat YF )
dt
(1 F )VF s g

(6)

The solid owrate leaving the upper element in the spout

enters the fountain and, after remaining for a given time, it
falls back onto the upper surface of the annular region. Accordingly, the mass balance for water in the solid phase of the
fountain is as follows:
VF (1 F )s

dXF
= W(Xs1 XF ) KF aF (Ysat YF )(1 F )VF s g (7)
dt

Solving the mass balances for all the volume elements given
by Eqs. (2)(7) provides the evolution of moisture content
throughout the bed for both the gaseous and solid phases.
At the start of the simulation, the moisture content in the
solid in the different regions of the contactor is the same and
equal to the initial moisture content of the sand. Regarding

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chemical engineering research and design 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 20542062

gas moisture content, the air moisture content at t = 0 is that

corresponding to ambient conditions, 0.005 kg water kg1 air.
An essential parameter of this model is the interphase area
or wet area. This area depends on the solid moisture. When
the sand has a high moisture content this area is the full surface area of the particle. During the drying process this area
decreases as the sand moisture content falls. Critical moisture
content can be dened as the lower value that maintains the
whole surface wet. The decrease in the wet surface brings the
constant rate period to an end. Consequently, the mass transfer rate to the gaseous phase decreases and the falling rate
period starts. Drying in the constant rate period is controlled
by the mass transfer from the sand surface to the air, whereas
the drying controlling mechanism in the falling rate period is
the internal diffusion of water inside the particle. The value
of critical moisture content has been experimentally obtained
by monitoring the evolution of both air and sand moisture
content during the drying process. Thus, when we observed
the start of the falling rate period by monitoring air moisture
evolution at the outlet, we extracted samples of sand from
the bed and determined the average moisture content of the
solid at this time. This value is referred to as the sands critical
moisture content. For the material used it is around 0.0023 kg
water per kg of dry solid. A linear dependence of wet surface
area with moisture content has been assumed. When the sand
moisture content is higher than the critical value the wet surface area is the total area but when the moisture content is
lower than the critical value, the surface area decreases proportionally to water content until zero value is reached when
the sand has been fully dried. The evolution of wet surface area
with the solid moisture content is obtained using the following
empirical equation:

X > Xc ,

a = 65 m2 kg1

X < Xc ,

a = 65X/Xc m2 kg1

(8)

not uniform in the cross section of the contactor. In fact, a

non-porous draft tube gives way to a high gas velocity in the
core of the fountain and, consequently, the particles reach
high positions in the fountain, whereas the gas velocity in
the peripheral region of the fountain is low and the particles
are draw back onto the annulus by gravity. The behaviour of
the conical spouted bed without a draft tube or tted with
an open-sided draft tube (Altzibar et al., 2008, 2009) is signicantly different, given that the gas distribution in the fountain
is highly uniform from lower heights over the bed surface.
These considerations are essential for predicting the fountain
height and particle trajectories in the fountain.
The mass transfer coefcients are estimated by two different equations. For the annulus, with its low particle Reynolds
numbers (below 1000), the packed bed equation of Thoenes
and Kramers (1958) is appropriate, given that it is used for
both gas and liquid ow over Reynolds numbers between 10
and 1000:
Sh = (1.81 0.18) Sc1/3 Re1/2

where Sh is the Sherwood number, Sc the Schmidt number

and Re the Reynolds number.
For the assessment of the mass transfer coefcient in the
spout and fountain regions, which are dilute regions with a
higher gas velocity than the annulus, an appropriate equation
is that of Rowe and Claxton (1965), commonly used for uid
beds:
Sh =

Kdp
= A + B Sc1/3 Re0.55
Dv

(10)

where K is the mass transfer coefcient, dp is the particle

diameter, and Dv is the diffusivity of steam into air. A and B
parameters depend on bed voidage and are dened as follows:
A=

A further parameter of this model is the fraction of the

gas ow rate, f, that crosses the bed from the spout into the
annulus region. The gas distribution in spouted beds can be
modied by inserting an internal device. The use of a nonporous draft tube limits the gas cross-ow from the spout
into the annulus through the entrainment zone (bottom of
the contactor). Consequently, the gas distribution between the
annulus and the spout is constant along the contactor. The
value of the parameter f depends on the operating conditions,
especially bed height, solid particle diameter and height of
the entrainment zone in the draft tube (Cunha et al., 2009;
Ishikura et al., 2003; Nagashima et al., 2009; Neto et al., 2008;
Wang et al., 2010a). These variables have a major inuence on
pressure drop in the annulus, which is the controlling hydrodynamic parameter for gas cross-ow from the spout into the
annulus.
The anemometer allows obtaining the gas velocity at the
upper surface of the bed, especially on the annulus surface,
although it may also give a good indication of the velocity in
the spout zone. Accordingly, the gas distribution at the bottom
of the bed and, consequently, the fraction of the gas ascending through the annulus and spout may be estimated. For the
experimental conditions used for drying, approximately 20%
of the total air owrate crosses the bed from the spout into
the annulus. The anemometer has also been used to estimate
the gas velocity in the fountain. We have observed that up
to a height of 0.7 m over the bed surface the gas velocity is

(9)

B=

2
1/3

[1 (1 )
2
3

(11)

(12)

According to Mathur and Epstein (1974), Eqs. (9) and (10) can
be simplied because the Schmidt number takes the value 0.6
for airwater vapour systems in the spout and annulus.
Bed voidage in the annulus has been assumed to be that
of the loose bed (0.35), and for the spout and fountain regions
it have been determined based, on the one hand, on the fact
that at steady state the amount of solid that rises through
the spout is equal to that falling through the annular region,
and on the other, on the knowledge of the solid ow rate and
particle residence times in these zones. Thus, the solid mass
ow rate has been determined from total bed weight and average cycle time, which has been experimentally measured by
monitoring a traced particle in the fountain. The cycle time
obtained experimentally for a bed mass of 7.5 kg is 20 s and,
consequently, the solid mass owrate is 0.375 kg s1 .
The rst step is to ascertain the residence times of the
solid in the spout and fountain core, which are calculated from
the velocity of particles in these regions. The annulus particles enter the spout at the bottom of the spout and so their
vertical component is zero. They are then entrained by the
gas in the spout and their velocity increases. When the particles reach the fountain their velocity decreases due to the
lower gas velocity as fountain level is higher. Consequently,

chemical engineering research and design 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 20542062

2059

the main force acting on the particle at the top of the fountain
is gravitational. In addition, the particles leave the fountain
core and enter the periphery of the fountain, where gas velocity is lower, being drawn back onto the annulus surface by
gravity.
Particle velocity in the spout and fountain is calculated by
means of a balance of forces acting on a single particle. The
expressions of this balance as a function of height and time
are:
2

g(s g )
dv
3 Cd g (u v)
=

dz
4
dp s
s

(13)

g(s g )
3 Cd g (u v)
dv
=

dt
4
dp s
s

(14)

The drag coefcient is calculated by the expression:

Cd =

24
(1 + 0.15Re0.687 )
Re

(15)

Eq. (13) is integrated from the bottom of the spout to its top,
which is the bed surface located at 0.27 m from the bottom.
The velocity of the gas in the spout is constant due to the
use of a solid draft tube. Fig. 3 shows the evolution of particle
velocity across the spout region. As observed, peak velocity is
obtained at the outlet of the spout, 1.4 m s1 . The residence
time of the solid in the spout is obtained by integrating Eq.
(13), so the time for which velocity reaches a value 1.4 m s1 is
the time the particle remains in the spout, 0.32 s.
Gas velocity has been measured at different levels in the
fountain by means of the anemometer described above. This
velocity peaks at the bottom centre of the fountain and
decreases as the particle rises. The values obtained using the
anemometer show that gas velocity over the bed surface is
uniform at a height of approximately 0.7 m. According to this
observation, a linearly decreasing prole has been assumed
for the gas in the fountain axis, from the maximum value at
the outlet of the spout to the minimum one (cross-sectional
supercial velocity) at a height of 0.7 m. Once the gas velocity prole is known, the evolution of particle velocity along the
fountain axis is obtained by solving Eqs. (13)(15) with this prole. The height of the fountain is that corresponding to zero
particle velocity, which is 0.37 m for the stagnant bed height

Fig. 3 Evolution of particle velocity across the spout

region.

of 0.27 m. This value is consistent with the value measured

experimentally (approximately 0.40 m). The particle velocity
in the fountain downward zone or fountain periphery is determined by assuming that only gravitational forces are relevant
in this region of low gas velocity.
Once the particle velocity prole is known in the fountain
core and periphery, particle residence time can be calculated
in this region. Fig. 4 shows the velocity of the particle and its
longitudinal position with time. The residence time estimated
for the particles in the fountain is 0.68 s.
The amount of sand in the spout and fountain at any time is
obtained by multiplying the residence time in the corresponding zone by the mass ow rate. Once these amounts have been
determined, the overall bed voidage in each zone is calculated
as:
=1

Ms
Vs

Fig. 4 Particle velocity and its longitudinal position with time in the fountain.

(16)

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chemical engineering research and design 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 20542062

Fig. 5 Comparison of the experimental values of gas

moisture at the outlet of the contactor with those calculated
using the model.

where Ms is the mass of sand in the zone (spout or fountain) and V the volume of the corresponding zone. The values
estimated are 0.85 for the spout and 0.98 for the fountain.
The voidage for the fountain is rather high but this is consistent with the experimental observation that ne particles
like those used in this study produce very high and narrow
fountains.

4.

Results of the model

A program written in Matlab 7.0 has been used to solve the

model. The subroutine Ode23 has been applied to solve the
differential equations (Eqs. (2)(7)). The results provided by the
model are those concerning the evolution throughout time
of the moisture content of gaseous and solid phases in the
different regions of the conical spouted bed dryer.
Fig. 5 compares the experimental results obtained in a
previous paper (Altzibar et al., 2008) and the values calculated for the evolution of the outlet gas stream moisture
content with time. According to the model, the calculated
moisture content is that corresponding to the fountain
region.
As observed, the tting is satisfactory, especially during the
constant rate period, although a longer period than the experimental one is predicted by the model. It is noteworthy that
the model is able to accurately predict the end of the drying period, which is essential information in a batch drying
process.
Fig. 6a shows the evolution of air moisture content predicted by the model in the four elements of the annulus. As
observed, moisture content in the annulus air increases with
bed level, i.e., from the lower element to the upper one. Thus,
there is hardly any mass transfer from the sand into the air
in the upper element of the annulus, which is because the
gaseous stream is very close to saturation. The situation is
different in the spout region, Fig. 6b. In this case, moisture
content reaches lower values than in the annulus, and it is
far from equilibrium moisture content even in the upper element in the spout. The cause of that difference is the shorter

Fig. 6 Evolution of gas moisture content with drying time

in the four volume elements dened in the annulus, (a) and
in the spout, (b).

residence time in the spout compared to the annulus. Thus,

80% of the gas crosses the bed through the spout region but
the volume of this region is much smaller than that of the
annulus.
The moisture content in the fountain is intermediate
between the annulus and the fountain (Fig. 5). In fact, the
gaseous streams from the spout and annulus mix in the fountain and, moreover, there is also a signicant mass transfer in
this region.
Fig. 7 shows the experimental and simulated data corresponding to the evolution of sand moisture content during the
drying process. Only the values corresponding to the fountain
are shown because there is no signicant difference between
the evolution of sand moisture in the different regions in the
spouted bed dryer. This has been experimentally proven and
is explained by two facts: (i) the sand drys in 20 min and so the
change in sand moisture content is slow, (ii) the sand is continuously circulating in the bed, which also helps to temper the
differences in moisture content between the different dryer
zones. Consequently, the sand moisture content at a given
time is almost the same at all positions in the bed.

chemical engineering research and design 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 20542062

Fig. 7 Experimental and simulated moisture contents of

the solid in the fountain throughout the drying process.

5.

Conclusions

Conical spouted beds tted with a draft tube perform well

when drying ne solids, and are an interesting alternative to
standard but more expensive and less efcient rotary dryers.
A model based on mass balances has been built to predict the
performance of the conical spouted bed with a non-porous
draft tube in the process of drying building sand. The model
predicts the evolution of moisture content in both gaseous and
solid phases with time. It is noteworthy that it accurately predicts the end of the drying period. The air leaving the annulus
is close to saturation, but that leaving the spout is not. Nevertheless, the high fountains of ne particles contribute to
saturating the air leaving the spout. The moisture content in
the solid at a given time is similar in the three zones, which
indicates that the solid is well mixed.

Acknowledgements
This research was carried out with the nancial support of the
University of the Basque Country (Project GICO7/24-IT-220-07)
and of the Ministry of Science and Education of the Spanish
Government (Project CTQ2007-61167).

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