Ch.

E-348
Simultaneous Heat & Mass Transfer (SHMT-II)
Drying of Solids & Classification of Dryers

1
Drying Equipment
 The dryer may be:
A- Static bed drying:
The material is static while hot air is moving above it.
Disadvantages of static bed:
1. Size reduction is needed
2. Conc. will differ from bottom to surface
B- Moving bed drying:
The material to be dried is moving inside hot air.
Drying occurs from all surfaces so it has a faster rate.
Advantages of moving bed:
1. ↑ drying rate (10 - 20 times faster).
2. Each granule acts as a single bed.
2
Tray Dryers

 Batch tray dryer

 It operates by passing hot air over the surface of wet solids
in the trays inside the oven
 Thermal efficiency of air is improved by: recirculating the
air over the heater
 Handle any type of material
 Cheaper
 Easy to operate

3
Screen Conveyor Dryers

 Continuous dryer
 It operates by travelling metal screen through a long
chamber or tunnel
 Handle variety of materials
 Low cost
 Steam consumption is very low
 Easy to control the drying conditions

5
Screen Conveyor Dryer

6
Tower Dryers

 Continuous dryer
 It operates by showering of material to be dried
 Tower dryer consists of a stack of slowly rotating circular
trays
 Material is fed onto the top tray
 After one revolution the material is wiped onto the next
lower tray where the operation is repeated
 The trays are contained in an enclosure in which heated air
or gas is circulated by internal fans
 For Free Flowing, non-sticky, non-dusting products
7
Tower Dryers

Handle variety of materials

 High cost
 Difficult to control the drying conditions
 It occupy small floor space
 The solvent can be recovered
Annular shelves rotate at 1 rpm
 Capacity up to 10TPH

8
 Turbo Dryer
• The handling of sticky materials-
turbo-dryer.
• wet solid is fed in a thin layer to
the top member of a series of
annular shelves each made of a
• number of segmental plates with
slots between them.
• These shelves rotate and, by
means
• of suitably placed arms, the
material is pushed through a slot
on to a shelf below.
• The shelves are heated by a row
of steam pipes, and in the centre
there are three or more fans
which suck the hot air over the
material and remove it at the top.
9
10
Spray Drying
 Classification of spray dryer
◦ Height-to-diameter ratio (2:1 or 5:1)
◦ Air flow type
◦ Atomizer type
 Rotary or centrifugal disk
 High pressure nozzle
 Pneumatic atomizer

12/29/24 | 11
Spray drying procedure
Red arrows shows
heated air
Blue arrows represents
liquid droplets
forming particles

12/29/24 | 12
Spray dryer

13
Spray drying stages
 Three fundamental stages are
involved to accomplish spray
drying

1. The liquid feed is atomized into fine

droplets
2. Liquid evaporation from the droplet,
resulting in final (dried) product
3. The dried product is separated from
the gas stream and collected in a
vessel
12/29/24 | 14
Advantages of spray
drying
 Food encapsulation
 Production of hollow particles
 Production of porous material
 Control of physical properties
 Production of micrometer-sized low
melting point materials
 Flexible process
 Temperature sensitive materials
can be dried
12/29/24 | 15
Industrial uses of spray
drying
 Pharmaceutical industry
 Food industry e.g.
◦ Egg drying
◦ Animal feeds
◦ Juices
◦ Yeast & yogurt
◦ Milk
◦ Cake mixes
◦ Creamers
 Material processing
◦ Powder particles of metals & semiconductors

12/29/24 | 16
Spray dryer
ATOMIZATION
 Producing droplets of specific size and surface
area by atomization is the most critical step in
the spray drying process.
 The degree of atomization, under a set of spray
drying conditions, controls the drying rate, and
therefore the required particle residence time,
and therefore the spray dryer size.
 All of the atomizing techniques can give good
average particle size control, but there are
major differences in the particle size distribution
created.

17
Spray dryer
 Pressure Nozzle Atomization
 A spray is created by forcing the fluid through an orifice. The
energy required to overcome the pressure drop is supplied by
the spray dryer feed pump.
 The narrowest particle size distribution is possible with this
technique.
 The average particle size produced, for a given feed, is a
function of the flow per nozzle and the spraying pressure.
 Spraying pressure depends on feed characteristics and desired
particle size, and can range from 300 to 3,000 psig.
 The most energy efficient of the atomization techniques.
 Requires a positive displacement, high pressure feed pump,
such as a plunger pump or a piston/diaphragm pump.
 With multiple nozzle spray dryers, a problem with one nozzle
does not shut operations down.

18
Spray dryer
 Two-Fluid Nozzle Atomization
 A spray is created by contacting two fluids, the feed
and a compressed gas.
 The atomization energy is provided by the
compressed gas, usually air.
 The contact can be internal or external to the nozzle.
 A broader particle size distribution is generated.
 The average particle size produced for a given spray
dryer feed is primarily a function of the feed flow per
nozzle, and the compressed gas rate and pressure.
 Can typically use any type of spray dryer feed pump.

19
Spray dryer
 Centrifugal Atomization
 A spray is created by passing the fluid across or
through a rotating wheel or disk.
 The energy required for atomization is supplied by the
atomizer motor.
 A broader particle size distribution is typically
generated.
 The average particle size produced for a given feed is
primarily a function of the diameter and RPM of the
wheel.
 Capital cost of the atomizer is typically high.
Comparatively larger diameter spray dryer can
increase capital cost. As with any high speed rotating
machine, maintenance costs are high.

20
Rotary Dryers

 Continuous dryer
 The rotary dryer is a type of industrial dryer employed to
reduce or minimize liquid moisture content
 Dryer is made up of a large, rotating cylindrical tube, usually
supported by concrete columns or steel beams
 It can handle variety of materials
 Efficiency is higher
 Power consumption is lower

21
Working Principle of Rotary Dryers

 The dryer slopes slightly so that the discharge end is lower

than the material feed end in order to convey the material
through the dryer under gravity
 The material to be dried enters the dryer & as the dryer
rotates the material is lifted up by a series of internal fins,
lining the inner wall of the dryer.
 When the material gets high enough to roll back off the fins,
it falls back down to the bottom of the dryer, passing through
the hot gas stream as it falls
 Radial flights/fins serve to agitate the material and to
provide uniform mixing and drying

22
Fins In Rotary Dryers

23
Working Principle of Rotary Dryers

 The gas stream can either be moving towards the discharge

end, or towards the feed end from the discharge end
The gas stream can be made up of a mixture of air &
combustion gases from a burner, in which the dryer is called a
(direct) heated dryer
 The gas stream may consist of air or another gas that is
preheated
 Thermal efficiency of the dryer is very high and heat loss
through the cylinder wall is minimal

24
Rotary Dryer

25
Steam Tube Rotary Dryer
Application of Rotary Dryers

 Metallic oxides
 Powdered materials
 Insulation materials
 Metal powders
 Carbon black pigment
 Industrial chemicals
 Food industry
 Mineral drying

28
Limitation of Rotary Dryers

Wet and sticky products cause clogging of the inlet and

transfer section of the dryer drum

29
Drum dryer

30
Solids Handling in Dryers

 Most industrial dryers handle particulate solids

 In adiabatic dryers, the solids are exposed to the gas by the
following ways:
[Link]-circulation Drying
[Link]-circulation Drying
[Link] are showered downward and gas upward
[Link] bed Drying
[Link] are completely entrained and then mechanical
separated
[Link] Drying
31
Solids Handling in Dryers

In Nonadiabatic dryers, the solids are exposed to the hot

surface or source of heat by the following ways:
[Link] or slowly moving horizontal hot surface
[Link] are moved over a heated surface
[Link] are moved by gravity over an inclined heated surface

32
33
Principles of Drying

 There is no single theory of drying that covers all materials

and dryer types
 No unified approach
 General principles
 Dryer are not designed by user
 Dryer are designed by manufacturer

34
Stages in Drying System

Pre-drying Post-drying
Drying
Stages Stages

• Feeders • May involve • Cooling

• Pre-forming chemical reactions. • Agglomeration
(extrusion) • Solvent recovery
• Backmixing (if applicable)
• Metering • Grinding
• Blending • Gas cleaning
• Mechanical (cyclone, filters,
dewatering scrubbers, etc.)
storage • Product
collection
packaging
Temperature Patterns in Dryers

 The way in which temperatures vary in a dryer depends

upon the
 Nature and liquid content of the feedstock
 Temperature of heating medium
 Drying time
 Allowable final temperature of dry solids

36
Thank You

37