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INDEX
SR NO SUBJECT PAGE NO
1. INTRODUCTION 2–5
2. THEORY OF DRYING 6-7
3. DESCRIPTION OF APPARATUS 8
4. EXPERIMENTAL MANUAL 9 -14
5. SAMPLE CALCULATIONS 15 - 19
6. LINE DIAGRAM 20
7. WIRING DIAGRAM 21

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INTRODUCTION:

Drying a solid means the removal of relatively small amounts of water or

other liquid from the solid material to reduce the content of residual liquid to an
acceptable low value. Drying is usually the final step in series of operations, and the
product from a dryer is often ready for final packaging.
Water or other liquids may be removed from solids mechanically by presses
or centrifuges or thermally by vaporization. This manual is restricted to drying by
thermal vaporization. It is generally cheaper to reduce the liquid content as much as
practicable before feeding the material to a heated dryer.
The liquid content of a dried substance varies from product to product;
occasionally the product contains no liquid and is called bone – dry. More
commonly, the product does contain some liquid. Dried table salt, for example,
contains about 0.5 % water, dried coal about 4 %, and dried casein about 8 %.
Drying is a relatively term and means merely that there is a reduction in liquid
content from an initial value to some acceptable final value.
The solid to be dried may be in many different forms – flakes, granules,
crystals, powders, slabs, or continuous sheet – and may have widely differing
properties. The liquid to be vaporized may be on the surface of the solid, as in drying
salt crystals; it may be entirely inside the solid, as in solvent removal from a sheet of
polymer; or it may be partly outside and partly inside. The feed to some dryers is a
liquid in which the solid is suspended as particles or is in solution. The dried product
may be able to stand rough handling and a very hot environment or it may require
gentle treatment at low or moderate temperatures. Consequently, a multitude of
types of dryers are on the market for commercial drying. They differ chiefly in the
way the solids are moved through the drying zone and in the way, heat is
transferred.

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CLASSIFICATION OF DRYERS:

There is no simple way of classifying

drying equipments. Drying equipment
can be classified according to the
following design and operating features:
1. Batch or Continuous
2. Physical state of the feed: liquid,
slurry, and wet solid.
3. Method of conveyance of the
solid: belt, rotary, fluidized.
4. Heating system: conduction,
Figure – 1: Simple Batch Dryer
convection, radiation.

Except foe a few specialized applications, hot air is used as the heating and mass
transfer medium in industrial dryers. The air may be directly heated by the products
of combustion of the fuel used (oil, gas, or coal) or indirectly heated, usually by
banks of steam heated finned tubes. The heated air is usually propelled through the
dryer by electrically driven fans.
Batch dryers are normally used for small – scale production and where the drying
cycle is likely to be long. Continuous dryers requires less labor, less floor space; and
produce a more uniform quality product.
When the feed is solids, it is important to present the material to the dryer in a
form that will produce a bed of solids with an open, porous, structure.
For pastes and slurries, some form of pretreatment equipment will normally be
needed, such as extruction or granulation.
The main factors to be considered when selecting a dryer are:
1. Feed condition: solid, liquid, paste, powder, crystals
2. Feed concentration, the initial liquid content

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3. Product specification: dryness required, physical form

4. Throughput required
5. Heat sensitivity of the product
6. Nature of the vapor: toxicity, flammability
7. Nature of the solid: flammability (dust explosion hazard), toxicity.

The basic types used in chemical process industries are: tray, band, rotary,
fluidized, pneumatic, drum and spray dryers.
When wet sample is placed in contact with air, water evaporates from its surface
and diffuses as vapor through the air film that covers the surface. The concentration
of moisture at the surface is decreased, a concentration difference is setup and
moisture then diffuses from the interior to the surface of the slab or it moves to the
surface as rapidly as it can vaporize from the surface, the rate of drying is
independent of the moisture content of the slab and is constant providing that the
air velocity, temperature and humidity do not change.
During this constant rate period the rate of drying is controlled by the rate of
vapor diffusion through the air film and is, therefore, dependent upon the humidity
difference across the film and the thickness of the film.
However, when the moisture content becomes less than a certain value known as
the critical moisture content, moisture can no longer move to the surface as rapidly
as it could be vaporized from the surface. The drying rate begins to fall and continues
to fall with decreasing moisture content until the equilibrium moisture content is
reached and no further drying is possible under the particular drying conditions.

TERMS USED IN DRYING - DEFINITIONS:

• MOISTURE CONTENT, WET BASIS:The moisture content of a solid or solution is

usually described in terms of weight percent moisture, and unless otherwise

qualified this is ordinarily understood to be expressed on the wet basis, i.e. as,

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(kg moisture / kg wet solid) 100 = [(kg dry solid + kg moisture)] 100 = 100 X /
(1+X).
• MOISTURE CONTENT, DRY BASIS:
This is expressed as kg moisture / kg dry solid = X.
Percentage moisture, dry basis = 100 X.
• EQUILIBRIUM MOISTURE X*:
This is the moisture content of a substance when at equilibrium with a given
partial pressure of the vapor.
• BOUND MOISTURE:
This refers to the moisture contained by a substance, which exerts an equilibrium
vapor pressure less that of the pure liquid at the same temperature.
• UNBOUND MOISTURE:
This refers to the moisture contained by a substance, which exerts an equilibrium
vapor pressure equal to that of the pure liquid at the same temperature.
• FREE MOISTURE:
Free moisture is that moisture contained by a substance in excess of the
equilibrium moisture: X – X*. Only free moisture can be evaporated, and free –
moisture content of a solid depends upon the vapor concentration in the gas.

Equilibrium Moisture
Curve
1.0

Bound Unbound
Relative Humidity of Gas

Moisture Moisture

Equilibrium
Moisture Free Moisture

0 X* X
Moisture
FORCED DRAFT TRAY Content,
DRYER kg moisture / kgMANUAL
EXPERIMENTAL dry solid

Figure – 2: Types of Moisture

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THEORY OF DRYING:

There are various modes of drying a material in various types of dryers. In the
present experiment, we study the cross – circulation drying in an adiabatic or direct
dryer. In this case, hot gas (air) is blown over a bed of wet solid (brick particles
wetted with water) under constant drying conditions by maintaining the
temperature, humidity and the velocity of the air across the drying surface constant.
A drying curve is then obtained by plotting drying rate against moisture content of
the solid. In drying, it is necessary to remove free moisture from the surface and also
moisture from the interior of the material. Thus, there is interplay of the surface
evaporation, inter - -particle and intra – diffusion processes during the drying of a
material. This gives rise to several distinct periods in the drying curve as the moisture
content of the solid is reduced from the high value to its final value, as given below:

Period – I0:
An initial period during which the drying rate may increase or decrease rapidly
drom an initial value and the drying conditions are adjusting themselves to the
steady state condition, which is the next period. This period is of relatively short
duration and in some experiments may be unobservable. Therefore, this period is
neglected in the mathematical analysis of the process.
Period – I:
An early stage of drying during which drying rate remains constant value, that
is, is independent of the moisture content. This period may be absent if the initial
moisture content of the solid is less than a certain minimum.
Period – II:
During this period, the drying rate decreases more or less linearly with
continued decreases of water content.

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Period – III:
This stage immediately follows period – II but is not always clearly
distinguishable from it. The drying rate in this zone decreases further, but generally
in a non - -linear fashion with the moisture content.

The moisture content at which the drying rate falls for the first time is the first
critical moisture content, and the moisture content at which the drying rate falls, for
the second time is the second critical moisture content. In case of non – porous solid,
due to the absence of intra – particle moisture and hence intra - particle diffusion,
the constant - rate period is followed by only one falling rate – period. So that there
is only one critical moisture content.

Drying continues until equilibrium moisture content in the solid is attained.

Nature of the drying curve depends on the nature of the solid (porous / non –
porous), and the temperature, humidity and flowrate of the drying medium

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DESCRIPTION OF APPARATUS WITH TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

The equipment consists of a drying chamber, MS insulated with glass wool

and cladded with SS sheet in which tray rack (SS, Nonmagnetic, rustproof) & tray (1
Nos., SS (Nonmagnetic, Rustproof) is to be hanged. The drying chamber is provided
with toughened glass door and handle.

Hot air to the drying chamber is drawn with the help of a blower and before
entering it is heated by heaters of Nichrome wire (input to the heaters could be vary
with the help of controller).

Flow control valve is provided for varying the Flowrate of air through the
heating chamber.

Wet and Dry bulb thermocouples types are mounted at either ends of the
drying chamber to measure the humidity of the entering and leaving air. Wet bulb
thermocouple is provided with proper water storage facility in the back portion.

The loss of moisture shall from the material to be dried is continuously

monitored with the help of an electronic balance (1 kg cap.  1 gm accuracy, LED
display, 230 V AC power supply) and is to be mounted directly over the heating
chamber.

The control panel consists of Digital Temperature Controller, Temperature

Indicator, on/ off starter switch for blower and MCB for heater with Indictor lamps
(mains) & fuse. Space for manometer mounting.

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EXPERIMENTAL MANUAL
AIM:
To find the rate of drying for given porous / nonporous material.

UTILITY:
230 v AC power supply, dryer assembly, water, brick particles (or sand or CaCO 3
powder), physical balance.

PROCEDURE:
• Switch on the power supply to the unit and press the ON/OFF key provided on
the digital weighing scale. The scale will indicate the weight of the trays and
tray cage. Press TARE switch.
• Open the drying chamber and take out the tray. Measure the surface area of
the trays.
• Prepare the sample whose drying characteristics are to be determined by
taking about 2-3 kg of material (usually fine sand) and adding about 10 % of
solvent (usually water).
• Fill the tray and spread the material evenly throughout the cross section of
the tray.
• Fill the bulb provided on the back of the tray dryer with water upto topmost
level to provide continuous water (wetting agent) to the wick of wet bulb
thermocouples provided at either ends of the drying chamber.
• Switch ON the blower and adjust the predetermined flow rate of air using the
flow control valve. When a steady state is reached, record the manometer
reading calculates the flowrate of air.
• Switch ON the heater. Adjust the temperature of air by using digital
temperature controller provided for heater on control panel.

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• After achieving a fairly high & stable temperature note down the decrease in
weight displayed on the digital weighing scale after an interval of 5 minutes.
Also note down the wet & dry bulb temperatures of air entering and leaving
the drying chamber on digital temperature indicator.
• After certain time no loss of weight is observed for prolonged period of time,
switch OFF the heaters as well as weighing scale. Take out the trays after it is
cooled.
• Switch OFF the Blower. Remove the sample from the trays and clean them
with the help of cotton cloth first and then with water. Allow them to get sun
dried. Also clean the drying chamber with the cotton cloth, if there is any
spillage of material while operation.
• Repeat the experiment by either varying the flow rate for the same sample or
take different sample with the same conditions of air flow rate and compare
them with the initial results.

SETTING OF DRYING CHAMBER TEMPERATURE BY DIGITAL TEMPERATURE

CONTROLLER:
• Press SET key for 2 seconds.
• You are in SET MODE.
• Display 1 will show SEt.
• Display 2 will indicate current value of set point.
• You can change current value of set point by following PROCEDURE.
 Increase the parameter by  key.
 Decrease the parameter by  key.
 Press ENT key to store it in memory or press SET key for next step.
If no key is pressed for 5 seconds previous value of parameter is retained and
controller goes in control mode.

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PRECAUTION:
➢ Never run the equipment without blower ON for more than 1 minute,
immediately after switching on the MCB provided for the heaters, switch ON
the blower.
➢ While shutting down the tray dryer, we need to keep the blower on to cool
down the drying chamber and heaters so as to minimize the damage to the
heaters and drying chamber.

OBSERVATIONS:
• Cross sectional area of the trays = _____ m2
• Drying Chamber Temperature = _____ C
• Weight of the material (fine sand) taken Ls = _____ gm (1)
• Weight of the solvent (water) added W = _____ gm (2)
• Total initial weight of the sample = _____ gm (1) + (2)
• Velocity of Air = _____ m/sec

OBSERVATION TABLE:

Water Wt. Loss in

Inlet Air Temp. Outlet Air Temp.
Sr. Time weight, Indicated weight of
(C) (C)
No. (min) W on the LED Material
Dry Wet Dry Wet
(gram) (Gram) (Gram)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

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CALCULATION:
Moisture content (X t) is one of drying terms.
As time → ∞, X t → X*
Where X* is Equilibrium Moisture Content.
R = - (LS / A) (dX / dt) → (1)
Xt = W / LS → (2)
Where:
R: Rate of drying [kg water/m2 hr].
LS: Weight of dry solid [kg dry solid].
W: Weight of water [kg water].
A: Surface area [m2].
Xt: Moisture content at time t [kg water/kg dry solid].

• Air flow rate over the trays

= Air velocity over the trays * C/s area of the dryer
=
• Loss in weight with time
= (Wt. of the sample at first reading – Wt. of the sample at last time)
=
= ___________
• Plot the weight of the sample against time. Graphically differentiate this curve to
obtain the drying rate.

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CALCULATION TABLE:
Moisture Rate of Drying,
Water Sample Content dX/dt R
wt., weight, Time (kg water/kg ((moisture (kg water/m2 hr) Free
X
W W (Minute) dry solid) content-5) / (sample wt / Water
(gram) (gram) (water wt / (0 -5)) Area of tray) *
sample wt) (dX/dt)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)

• Free water content (gm / gm dry stock)

= (Wt. Sample - wt. of dry material) /wt. of dry material
=
= ___________
• Plot the drying rates (column (7)) against the free water content (column (8)).
• Plot the drying rates (column (7)) against time () (column (3)).
• Drying coefficient during the constant rate period:
Kg’ = dw/Adθ (1/Hw – Hg)
Where,
Dw/Adθ = Drying rate, gm water evaporated per hour per cm2
Kg’ = Drying coefficient, gm water evaporated per hr per cm2 per unit
humidity difference

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Hw = Saturation humidity of air at the wet bulb temperature, gm water per gm dry air
Hg = Humidity of the drying air, gm water per gm dry air
The humidity diff. (Hw - Hg) is calculated from the
Equation = 0.26 (tg – tw) / λw
Where,
tg = Dry bulb temperature, oC (Average Value)
tw = Wet bulb temperature, oC (Average Value)
λw = Latent heat of evaporation of water at tw

CONCLUSION:

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SAMPLE CALCULATIONS:
OBSERVATIONS:
• Cross sectional area of the trays = 0.119 m2
• Drying Chamber Temperature = 75 C
• Weight of the material (fine sand) taken Ls = 1095 gm (1)
• Weight of the solvent (water) added W = 75 gm (2)
• Total initial weight of the sample =1170 gm (1) + (2)
• Velocity of Air = 1.539 m/sec

TABLE 1: DATA OF WATER WEIGHT WITH TIME

Loss in
Water Wt. weight of
Inlet Air Temp. Outlet Air Temp.
Sr. Time weight, Indicated Material
(C) (C)
No. (min) W on the LED (Gram)
Dry Wet Dry Wet
(gram) (Gram) (Free
Water)
1. 0 75 1170 0 96 79 78 58
2. 5 72 1167 3 96 80 79 58
3. 10 67 1162 5 98 80 79 59
4. 15 62 1157 5 98 81 79 59
5. 20 56 1151 6 98 80 79 59
6. 25 48 1143 8 98 81 80 59
7. 30 39 1134 9 97 81 78 59
8. 35 29 1124 10 97 80 78 60
9. 40 19 1114 10 98 81 49 59
10. 45 10 1105 9 97 80 78 58
11. 50 5 1100 5 97 81 79 60
12. 55 0 1095 5 98 81 79 60

CALCULATIONS:
At t = 0 minute:
From equation (2):
Xt = W/Ls

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= 75/1095
= 0.068493 kg water/kg dry solid
X* = Xt (t = ∞) = Xt (t = 60 min) = W (t = 60 min) / LS = 0 / 1095
= 0 kg water/kg dry solid.
X = Xt – X* = 0.068493 – 0 = 0.068493 kg water/kg dry solid.
dX/dt = [X (t = 0 min) – X (t = 5 min)] / [(t = 0 min) – (t = 5 min)]
= (0.068493 – 0.065753) / (0 – 5) = - 0.000548
From equation (1):
R = - (LS / A) * (dX / dt) = - (1095 / 0.119) * (-0.000548)
= 5.042521 kg water/m2 hr.

TABLE 2: THE REST OF CALCULATION

Moisture Rate of Drying,

Water Sample Content dX/dt R
Time
wt., weight, (kg water / ((moisture (kg water/m2 Free
(Minute X
W W kg dry solid) content-5) / hr) (sample wt Water
)
(gram) (gram) (water wt / (0 -5)) / Area of tray)
sample wt) * (dX/dt)
(1) (2 ) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)
75 1095 0 0.068493 0.068493 0.9863014 9075.63053 0
72 1095 5 0.065753 0.065753 0.9868494 9039.20879 3
67 1095 10 0.061187 0.061187 0.9877626 9089.07603 5
62 1095 15 0.056621 0.056621 0.9886758 9097.479 5
57 1095 20 0.052055 0.052055 0.989589 9105.88197 6
51 1095 25 0.046575 0.046575 0.990685 9115.96702 8
43 1095 30 0.039269 0.039269 0.9921462 9129.41251 9
34 1095 35 0.03105 0.03105 0.99379 9144.53824 10
24 1095 40 0.021918 0.021918 0.9956164 9161.34418 10
14 1095 45 0.012785 0.012785 0.997443 9178.15197 9
9 1095 50 0.008219 0.008219 0.9863014 9075.63053 5
5 1095 55 0.004566 0.004566 0.9868494 9039.20879 5

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Air flow rate over the trays

= Air velocity over the trays * C/s area of the dryer
= 1.539 * 0.119
= 0.18314
Loss in weight with time
= (Wt. of the sample at first reading – Wt. of the sample at last time)
= 1170 - 1095
= 75 grams
• Plot the weight of the sample against time.

• Free water content (gm / gm dry stock)

= (Wt. Sample - wt. of dry material) /wt. of dry material
= (1170 – 1095) / 1095
= 0.06849 gm/gm dry stock

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• Plot the drying rates (column (7)) against the free water content (column (8)).

Plot the drying rates (column n (7)) against time () (column
(3)).

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• Drying coefficient during the constant rate period:

Kg’ = dw/Adθ (1/Hw – Hg)
= 75 (1 / 1.05884)
= 70.83
Where,
Dw/Adθ = Drying rate, gm water evaporated per hour per cm2
Kg’ = Drying coefficient, gm water evaporated per hr per cm2 per unit humidity difference
Hw = Saturation humidity of air at the wet bulb temperature, gm water per gm dry air
Hg = Humidity of the drying air, gm water per gm dry air

The humidity diff. (Hw - Hg) is calculated from the Equation = 0.26 (tg – tw)/λw
= 0.26 * (86.79 – 69.71) / 4.194 (from the Latent heat chart)
= 0.26 * (17.08/4.194)
= 0.26 * 4.07248
(Hw - Hg) = 1.05884
Where,
tg = Dry bulb temperature, oC (Average Value)
tw = Wet bulb temperature, oC (Average Value)
λw = Latent heat of evaporation of water at tw

CONCLUSION:
The moisture is decreasing with the time and by the time it becomes totally dry.

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FORCED DRAFT TRAY DRYER EXPERIMENTAL MANUAL