PRACTICAL WORK IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

DRYING

I/ OPERATING MODE

Note: It is very important to have everything in order before starting the procedure.
understood which probes corresponded to the indications of the display.
note thus:

T sec: air temperature at the entrance of the facility before heating

The humid: humidity temperature of the air taken at the entrance of the facility before
heating
It is hot. air temperature at the entrance of the dryer after heating
T exit: air temperature at the exit of the dryer
Humidity: relative humidity of the air at the dryer outlet

1/ Introduction of the mass to be dried:

The mass of wet alumina to be dried must be weighed after being taken from
5 glass vials of samples for water content analysis with the balance
to drying. The samples must be as representative as possible.

Due to scheduling reasons, it is imperative to carry out the analyses on time.

once the drying has started.

2/ Starting the installation:

• preparation of the wet thermometer: moisten the gauze with a squeeze bottle without
exaggeration. This operation needs to be repeated frequently.

•check that the computer is running for data acquisition and display
the screen allowing to monitor the evolution of temperatures. It is imperative to
first turn on the waste treatment bench (switch
general and general market.

Introduce the mass of wet alumina into the dryer: it is fundamental for
a success of drying that the solid is not compacted but only smoothed
Surface. Close the enclosure carefully.

The temperature probe placed in the chamber must not be introduced into the
solid. It is not used during the experiment.

open the valves to obtain a compressed air flow rate of 4.5 m3.h-1in the
 dryer: it is important to monitor this value during drying for the
readjust if necessary.

set a hot air temperature of 58 °C and turn on the heating

the air: it is essential to ensure that there is air circulation to avoid
damage the electrical resistance. This moment corresponds to the moment t = 0.

3/ Statement of values:

remarks:

It is important to understand that normally the temperature of humid air that

depends only on the air provided by the building's compressor, which must not vary.
The observed variations correspond to erroneous measurements due to
device. In fact, we will consider the lowest value for the operation.

The air temperature before heating should also vary only slightly for the
same reason.

Once the air heating instruction is reached, the temperature of the air after
heating should hardly vary.

It can be deduced from the three previous remarks that by observing wisely the
experimental procedure, we will be able to quickly settle for values
Fixes. Continuous monitoring of these three values is therefore unnecessary.

Note every 10 minutes and then every 5 minutes when the relative humidity
decreases, the temperature as well as the relative humidity of the air at the outlet.

4/ Stop the installation:

Drying is complete when the relative humidity of the outgoing air approaches 0.

Turn off the heating when the air temperature after heating is
at around 30 °C, the air circulation can then be stopped.

Take three solid samples for analysis.

II/ EXPLOITATION OF RESULTS

It is absolutely necessary to start the report before the end.

drying.

The report will include the following elements:

• determination of the humidity of the initial product and the final product. Deduce the
initial and final water masses contained by alumina.
From the moist air diagram, determine the relative and absolute humidity of
the air at the heating inlet and at the dryer inlet. According to the further explanations
high, these values will be considered constant throughout the duration of
drying. Then determine the enthalpy of the air before heating and at the entrance of
dryer.

trace from the data acquisition system and EXCEL the evolution in
function of time T sec, T humid and T hot. Check the assumptions.

Trace from the data acquisition system and EXCEL the evolution in
function of time of T output and humidity.

From the moist air diagram, determine the absolute humidity of the air at the
output of the dryer (this work is to be done at the same time as the
manipulation).

Based on the method explained in the appendix, determine the mass of water gained.
by the air during the chosen time intervals then the accumulated water mass in
function of time. Deduce the evolution over time of the water mass
contained by the solid. Draw this curve. Compare the final value with that
obtained by analysis.

• trace the drying kinetics (evolution of the speed of water disappearance from
solid).

Deduce from this curve two different drying types.

choose two moments where the drying speed is approximately constant and
determine from the humid air diagram the enthalpy of the air at the outlet
dryer. Compare with the value at the input and conclude. Examine for a moment
corresponding to a decreasing kinetics and provide an explanation.

deduce from your results the energy (in the form of heat) necessary to dry
in our final conditions 1 kg of the supplied wet alumina.

III/ ANNEXES

1/ Diagram of moist air

2/ Procedure for calculating the mass of water lost by the solid

3/ Diagram of the drying bench

 PROCEDURE FOR CALCULATING WATER MASS
LOST BY THE SOLID

The calculation is based on the assumption that the mass of water lost by the solid is
entirely transmitted to the air.

We use the following notations:

Qv,ρ: volumetric flow rate and density of dry air (not taking into account
water feed in very small quantity at the dryer entrance
(m3.h-1dry air.-3)
dt: small time interval (h)
dmwater: mass of water transmitted to the dry air between the moments t - dt and t (g of water)
W(t): mass of water transmitted to 1 kg of air during its passage through the
dryer at a given moment (g of water per kg of dry air). One can only
consider W(t) as constant over a very short time interval
small.

It is experimentally observed that the absolute humidity of the air at the exit of the dryer
varies over time; therefore W is a function of time.

We can write the following equation:

dmwater=Qvρdt W(t)

where the term Qv.ρ.dt corresponds to the mass of dry air passing through the dryer during
dt.

In the time interval [t -∆t; t] (∆t is an interval between two measurements

from the humidity of the air at the outlet), we calculate mwaterWhat is the mass of water transmitted to the air
sec:

t t
m water=QvρW(t) dt =QvρW(t) dt
t−∆t t−∆t

The integral I corresponds to the area of the function W(t) between t - ∆t and t.

The method therefore consists of first plotting the function W(t). The values
absolute humidity experiments of the air between the outlet and the inlet (assimilated to
a constant at the entrance) easily allows to obtain W(t) by difference.

As the function is not known analytically but only by

A few points, it will be necessary to use a numerical method for the calculation.
of the integral I (trapezoidal method).

We assimilate in this method the variation of W between the measurement times t and
∆t to a linear variation. The previous integral I is therefore the sum of the area of a
rectangle (sides ∆t and W(t)) and the half sum of the area of another rectangle (sides ∆t)
and W(t) - W(t -∆t). We then obtain:

1 1
I = W(t - ∆t)∆t + ∆t (W (t ) −W (t−∆t)) = Δt (W (t ) +W (t−∆t))
2 2

It is evident that the method is all the more accurate as the time interval is
small, meaning that two measurements are close together in time.

We can now summarize the calculation method in EXCEL:

1/ écrire deux colonnes: l'une pour les temps, l'autre pour les humidités absolues de
the air out

In a third column, subtract the value from the second column.

absolute humidity of the air at the entry. The third column therefore corresponds to W.

3/ in the fourth column, calculate the integral using the last formula.

4/ in the fifth column, multiply the terms of the fourth by Qv.ρ: we have
so calculate the mass of water gained by the air (that is to say the mass of water extracted from the
solid) in the measurement intervals.

5/ in a sixth column, we accumulate these values to have the evolution of the

mass of water gained by the air since the initial moment.

6/ in a seventh column, we subtract from the initial mass of water contained by

the solid the cumulative water masses of the sixth column: we obtain thus during
the amount of water contained by the solid over time.