DRYING

Drying denotes the separation of volatile liquids

from solid materials by vaporizing the liquid
and removing the vapour
Hot air is blown over wet solids. The water
evaporates, leaving a dry solid product.
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.
Drying - final removal of water, or another solute
often follows evaporation, filtration,
crystallisation.
Carried out for the following reasons:
(a) To reduce the cost of transport.
(b) To make a material more suitable for handling
e.g. soap powders, dyestuffs and fertilisers.
(c) To provide definite properties, e.g., maintaining
the free-flowing nature of salt.
(d) Drying or dehydration of biological materials,
especially foods, is used for preservation
Sometimes drying is essential part of the process,
e.g. in paper making or in the seasoning of timber
almost all drying processes involve the removal of
water by vaporisation -requires addition of heat.
The effective utilisation of the heat supplied is the
major consideration.

DRYER TYPES

Drying processes can be classified as batch -

material is inserted into the dryer and drying
proceeds for a period of time, or as continuous -
material continuously added to the dryer and dried
material continuously removed.

solids exposed to heated gas by various methods:

Blown across the surface - cross circulation

Blown through a bed of solids supported on a
screen - through-circulation
Dropped slowly through a slow moving gas stream
- rotary dryer
Blown through a bed of solids that fluidize the
particles - fluidized bed dryer
Solids enter a high velocity hot gas stream and
conveyed pneumatically to a collector - Flash
Dryer
Continuous Tunnel Dryers (Belt Dryer)
Cross flow of hot gas
rotary dryer consists of a hollow cylinder which is
rotated and slightly inclined toward the outlet. Wet
granular solids fed at the high end moves through
the shell as it rotates. Heating by direct contact
with hot gases in counter-current flow or by
indirect contact through the heated wall
The granular particles move forward slowly a short
distance before they are showered downward
through the hot gases as shown.
Drum Dryers
A drum dryer consists of a heated metal roll shown
in Fig. on the outside o[which a thin layer of liquid
or slurry is evaporated to dryness. The final dry
solid is scraped off the roll, which is revolving
slowly.

Spraying
(atomization)
of product increases
surface area of contact
with hot air for drying

spray dryer - liquid or slurry solution sprayed in to

a hot gas stream in the form of a mist of fine
droplets - water rapidly vaporized from droplets,
leaving particles of dry solid which are separated
from the gas stream. Three basic unit processes are
involved in spray drying: liquid atomization, gas-
droplet mixing, and drying from liquid droplets..
MOISTURE IN SOLID MATERIALS

Water contained within solids is in two forms,

unbound or free water and bound water.

Unbound water is free to be in equilibrium with

water in the vapour phase; thus, unbound water
exerts vapour pressure equal to that of pure liquid
at the same temperature. Unbound water is mainly
on the surface or held in the voids of the solid.

Bound moisture - Liquid physically and/or

chemically bound to solid matrix so as to exert a
vapour pressure lower than that of pure liquid at
the same temperature
can exist in several conditions:
(1) water in fine capillaries that exerts an
abnormally low vapour pressure because of the
highly concave curvature of the surface,
(2) water containing a high level of dissolved
solids, and
(3) water in physical or chemical combination
with the solids.
Solids containing bound water are called
hygroscopic;
Driving force of drying phenomena - Equilibrium
moisture of drying gas is less than in the material
to be dried
\

Equilibrium Moisture Content Of Materials

When a solid is exposed to a continual supply of

air at constant temperature and humidity, having a
fixed partial pressure of the vapour, p, the solid
will either lose moisture by evaporation or gain
moisture from the air until the vapour pressure of
the moisture of solid equals p. The solid and the
gas are then in equilibrium, and the moisture
content of the solid in equilibrium with the
surrounding conditions is known as equilibrium
moisture content E.M.C.
Equilibrium data for moist solids in contact with
humid air give valuable information about the
water capacity of the solids. The water content of
the solid is plotted as a function of the relative
humidity of air
Curves of the type shown are nearly independent
of temperature
.
The moisture content of a solid cannot be lower
than the equilibrium moisture content
corresponding the humidity of the incoming air.
e.g. for 50% RH air equilibrium moisture for
Wool =12.5 % and Newspaper = 5.5%

A non-porous insoluble solid, such as sand or

china clay, has an equilibrium moisture content
approaching zero

Bound Water.
Vapour pressure of
moist component
(water) is less than free
water
Moisture is bound to
the material in such a
way that lowers the
vapour pressure
Water is in capillaries,
cells and/or fibres,
keeping hold of the
water
Unbound Water
Vapour pressure of moist
component (water) is
constant
Equal to vapour pressure of
water at temperature of solid
material
Water is on the surface of
solid material, material does
not affect

e.g. a wood sample contains 34 kg H20/100 kg dry

solid, Determine the amount of bound and
unbound water

Free moisture, Xf Xf = X - X*
Moisture content in excess of the equilibrium
moisture content (hence free to be removed) at
given air humidity and temperature
e.g. a sample of silk contains 10 kg H20/100 kg dry
material, in contact with air of 50% relative
humidity and 25C. Determine the amount of
water removable by drying i.e. determine the free
moisture content
EXAMPLE 11.1
Air at 1 atm and 25C with a RH of 50% is to be
heated to 50C and then to be used in drying wet
crystals of the antibiotic cefazolin sodium. The wet
crystals contain 30 g of water per 100 g of dry
antibiotic. In the drying process, the air at 50C
and the crystals reach equilibrium with respect to
the moisture. Determine the following: the % of
bound and unbound water in the wet crystals
before drying, the moisture content of the crystals
after drying, and the water partial pressure at the
drying temperature
The equilibrium moisture curve for cefazolin
sodium in the Figure can be extrapolated to 100%
relative humidity to give a water content of 23
g/100 g dry weight. The water corresponding to
concentrations lower than 23 g/100 g dry weight is
bound water, because it exerts a vapour pressure
less than that of liquid water at the same
temperature. The balance of water contained in the
crystals is therefore unbound water. Thus,

Using the psychrometric chart at a temperature of

50C, relative humidity of the air is 13%. At this
relative humidity, from the EMC for cefazolin
sodium Moisture content of antibiotic after drying
= 8 g water / 100 g dry weight
assumed that the equilibrium curve is independent
of temperature for the temperature range in this
example
Now

From psychrometric chart at 13% relative humidity

and 50C,

so that the water partial pressure at 50C is

DRYING RATES
Drying Rate Curves for Convection Drying
drying rate curves are experimentally determined
Data obtained from a batch-drying experiment
W total weight of the wet solid (dry solid plus
moisture) at different times t hours in the drying
period.
converted to rate-of- drying. If W is the weight of
the wet solid in kg total water plus dry solid and
Ws is the weight of the dry solid in kg, then the
moisture content at time t, Xt

Then the free moisture content Xf in kg free

water/kg dry solid is calculated for each value of
Xt .
Xf = Xt - X*
a plot of free moisture content Xf versus time t in h
is made
To obtain the rate-of-drying curve from this plot,
the slopes of the tangents drawn to the curve in
Fig. can be measured, which give values of dX/dt
at given values of t. The rate R is calculated for
each point by