Drying

Dr Shina Gautam
Associate Professor
Chemical Engineering Department,
shina.gautam@srict.in

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 CONTENTS

• Introduction

• Drying equilibrium

• Moisture content & types of moisture

• Classification of dryers

• Drying rate curve

• Drying time

• Effect of conduction and radiation on drying rate

• Material and Energy balance

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 Vaporization: ( S/L to G)

Evaporation: (L to G) – At Boiling point of Solution ( Thus lower than the Boiling

point of Liquid)
Boiling: (L to G) – At Boiling point of Liquid
Sublimation : (S to G)

Which parameter affects evaporation ?

Temp (heat), Humidity (Saturation of air – RH ), An air Movement (Speed)

Drying Comes under Evaporation Process

❖ But there is some difference between drying and evaporation

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Difference between drying and evaporation

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 Introduction
• Drying is the operation by which moisture is removed in relatively small
quantities from solid or solid like materials by evaporation. – Surface
Phenomena
❑ How evaporation Take place ?

✔ Heat is transferred from the bulk of the gas phase (heating medium) to the
solid phase.
✔ Mass is transferred from solid phase to the gas phase in the form of liquid
and vapor through various resistances.

❑ Thus in drying, mass and heat transfer operation occur simultaneously.

• In process industries, drying generally follows operations such as evaporation,
filtration or crystallization.
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 Removal of water ( Other than Drying )

• Different from mechanical operations like squeezing, pressing,

centrifugation, decantation, filtration, etc.

• Dehumidification, adsorption and evaporation processes can be

employed for removal of moisture.

• Dehumidification: water vapor present in a gas stream is removed

by condensation.

• Adsorption: solid adsorbent such as silica gel or activated alumina

to remove water vapor from gas stream.

• Evaporation : water is removed by vaporization from solutions.

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 Some advantages of the Removal of water ( Moisture)
• Reducing the moisture content reduces the cost of transport of material.

• Material should have a certain moisture content for processing, pelletizing or

molding.

• Most pharmaceuticals and fine chemical require drying to a certain moisture

content to facilitate satisfactory packaging.

• Micro-organisms responsible for food spoilage can’t survive, grow and

multiply in the absence of water and drying is therefore used as a
preservation technique for food and biological materials.

• Removal of liquid contaminants such as benzene and organic solvents from

solids can also be treated as drying

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 Difficulties in drying operation

• Contamination of the pharmaceutical products

• Damage to the crystalline solids
• Shrinkage as in the drying of paper
• Loss of flavor in the drying of fruits
• Case hardening (Soap, clay)

• Quality of dried product largely depends on operating conditions prevailing condition

of dryer.
• Choice of drying condition is very important in design and operation of dryer.

These should be avoided by proper choice of conditions in drying

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Modes of heat transfer and mass transfer during Drying

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 Modes of heat transfer in drying

1. Convection from a hot gas in contact with the material,

2. Conduction from a hot, solid surface in contact with the material,
3. Radiation from a hot gas or hot surface in view of the material,

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Drying based on heat input

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Types of Drying

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 Mechanisms of Drying

Drying of solids takes place in three stages:

1. Transport of the liquid from the interior of the solid to the surface
2. Evaporation of the liquid at the surface
3. Transport of the vapour away from the surface

DIAGRAM: Drying steps for a

particle

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A wet solid weighs 50 kg and contains 10 kg moisture. Express the moisture
concentration on wet and dry basis.

Moisture content on wet basis : 20 %

Moisture content on dry basis : 25 %

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Moisture content of wet solids
A wet solid is to be dried from 80% to 5% moisture, wet basis. Compute the moisture
to be evaporated, per 1000 kg of dried product.

Dry solid in product = 1000 X 0.95 = 995 kg

Moisture to be evaporated = 995 (4 – 0.0527) = 3750 kg

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DRYING EQUILIBRIUM

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Basic Terminologies
Unbound water :
Unbound water: This water exists as a liquid and exerts its fully vapour pressure, it
can be removed readily by evaporation. During a drying process this water is easily
lost but the resulting solid is not completely free from water molecules.

Bound water :
Liquid physically and/or chemically bound to solid matrix so as to exert a vapor
pressure lower than that of pure liquid at the same temperature. Such moisture is
described as “bound” and is more difficult to remove than unbound water.

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Basic Terminologies
Equilibrium moisture content (X*):
The moisture content present in a solid under steady-state ambient conditions is
termed the eq. moisture content. Its value changes with temperature, humidity
and the nature of the solid. This is the moisture content of a substance when at
equilibrium with a given partial pressure of the vapour.

Free Moisture:
Moisture content in excess of the equilibrium moisture content (hence free to be
removed) at given air humidity and temperature (X-X*)

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Hysteresis

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Initial moisture content of the solid is 20 % on wet basis.

Water removed per kg of dry fibre is = 0.25-0.094 = 0.156 kg water

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 Here, X1 = 0.33
X* = 0.10

Free moisture = X1 –X* = 0.23 kg moisture/kg dry solid

Bound moisture = 28 kg
Unbound moisture = 33- 28 = 5 kg

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 Mechanisms of Batch Drying

Moisture content vs. time

AB – material is warming (to an equilibrium temperature)

BC – constant drying rate: “Constant Drying Rate Period”
CD – rate of drying decreases: “Falling Rate Period”

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 Mechanisms of Batch Drying

GRAPH: typical N (drying rate) vs. X (moisture contents)

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 The following points should be considered before the selection of
the suitable drying method:

• Heat sensitivity of the material to be dried.

• Physical characteristics of the material.
• Nature of the liquid to be removed.
• The scale of the operation.
• Available sources of heat (steam, electrical).

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The general principles for efficient drying can be summarized as
follows
1 Large surface area for heat transfer.
2 Efficient heat transfer per unit area (to supply sufficient latent heat of
vaporization or heat of sublimation in case of freeze-drying).
3 Efficient mass transfer of evaporated water through any surrounding
boundary layers, i.e. sufficient turbulence to minimize boundary layer
thickness.
4 Efficient vapour removal, i.e. low relative humidity of air at adequate
velocity.
It is convenient to categorize pharmaceutical driers according to the heat
transfer method they use, i.e. convective, conductive or radiant.

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Thank you!

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