Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 1857}1869

Heat and mass transfer in batch #uidized-bed drying of porous

particles
Zhao Hui Wang, Guohua Chen*
Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology Research Institute, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon,
Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
Received 15 March 1999; received in revised form 24 July 1999; accepted 28 July 1999

Abstract
A coupled heat and mass transfer model is developed for batch #uidized-bed drying of moist porous particles considering the
temperature, moisture saturation and pressure distributions in the particle. The model equations are solved numerically based on
physical properties of apple. The heat and mass transfer mechanisms in the #uidized-bed drying process are analyzed. The results
show that capillary #ow and vapor di!usion play di!erent roles in moisture transfer in the particle during di!erent drying periods.
The internal heat transfer can greatly a!ect the drying process while the e!ect of gas pressure distribution is insigni"cant. Due to the
coupled e!ects between gas and particles, the state of gas in the #uidized-bed changes substantially along the bed height and a!ects the
heat and mass transfer in the particle signi"cantly. A new parameter called bed area factor is derived and analyzed. It is important in
determining the drying e$ciency in the design and operation of #uidized-bed dryers. The e!ects of particle parameter and inlet gas
conditions on heat and mass transfer in the #uidized-bed drying process are discussed through the analyses of drying characteristics. ( 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Bed area factor; Dehydration; Mathematical modeling; Porous media

1. Introduction
Due to the high heat and mass transfer coe$cients and
the large exchange area between the particles and gas,
#uidized-bed drying has a high drying rate and a short
drying time. Its use for granular materials is now well
established, and there are numerous #uidized-bed dryers
operating in the food and chemical engineering processes. In contrast with this industrial development, the
fundamental research on #uidized-bed drying has not
made parallel progress. The design of an industrial
#uidized-bed dryer is still very much an art based upon
empirical knowledge (Hovmand, 1995).
There are a signi"cant amount of works on the twophase dynamics of particles and gas as well as heat and
mass transfer between them conducted for the #uidizedbeds (Kunii & Lenvenspiel, 1991; Kwauk & Li, 1996).
Many experimental studies have been carried out on the

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 00852-2358-7138; fax: 00852-23580054.

E-mail address: kechengh@ust.hk (G. Chen)

drying characteristics of resin and sand (Chandran,

Subba Rao & Varma, 1990), black pepper, green pepper
and mustard (Thomas & Varma, 1992), ragi, mustard
and poppy seed (Srinivasa Kannan, Thomas & Varma,
1995), red spring wheat (DiMattia, Amyotte & Hamdullahpur, 1996), soya meal, sawdust and "sh meal (Alvarez
& Shene, 1996). For drying of food and bioproducts, the
internal transport phenomena of the particles play a very
important role in the design and operation of #uidizedbed dryers. Since it is very di$cult to measure the internal properties of particles under drying, mathematical
modeling becomes the important tool for this purpose.
The simplest model is the lumped temperature and
moisture models (Arai et al., 1980; Hoebink and Rietema,
1980a), where attention was simply paid to the heat and
mass transfer balance in the gas and between the gas and
particles (Kerkhof, 1994; Joulie, Barkat & Rios, 1997).
The receding core model of moisture transfer considers
the particle as two distinct regions, i.e., dry and wet
regions (Sazhin, Oygenblik, Dorokhov & Kafarov, 1986;
Thomas & Varma, 1992; Schwarzbach & Schlunder,
1993). Di!usion model has been used to quantify the
moisture transfer in the porous particle under drying in

0009-2509/00/$ - see front matter ( 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 0 9 - 2 5 0 9 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 4 4 6 - 7

1858

Z. Hui Wang, G. Chen / Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 1857}1869

Nomenclature

St
h

a ,a ,a
1 2 3
A
P
A
B
b ,b ,b
1 2 3
c
c ,c ,c
1 2 3

St
m

D
d
P
f
f
A
f
h
f
m
h
H
*H
IQ
m
j
j
K
D
K
r
N
Nu
P
P
!5.
P
c
Pr
q
q
r
R
g
R
v
R
P
Re
RH
S
S
#3
Sc
Sh

coe$cients of mass transfer equations

surface area of a single particle, m2
#ow area of #uidized-bed, m2
coe$cients of heat transfer equations
speci"c heat capacity, J/(kg K)
coe$cients of pressure distribution equations
di!usivity, m2
particle diameter, m
fraction of moisture content left in the particle to the initial moisture content
area factor of #uidized-bed
modi"ed Stanton number of heat transfer in
#uidized-bed (f "St f )
h
hA
modi"ed Stanton number of mass transfer
in #uidized-bed (f "St f )
m
mA
speci"c enthalpy, J/kg
height of #uidized-bed, m
evaporation heat, J/kg
evaporating intensity, kg/(m3 s)
mass #ux, kg/(m2 s)
mass #ux vector, kg/(m2 s)
permeability, m2
relative permeability
total number of particles in the #uidized-bed
Nusselt number (Nu"a d /j )
h P g
pressure, Pa
atmospheric pressure, Pa
capillary pressure, Pa
Prandtal number (Pr"c k /j )
g g g
heat #ux, J/(m2 s)
heat #ux vector, J/(m2 s)
space axis, m
gas constant of air, m2/(s2 K)
gas constant of vapor, m2/(s2 K)
particle radius, m
Reynolds number (Re"ud o /k )
P g g
relative humidity, 100%
saturation
critical saturation
Schmidt number (Sc"k /o D)
g g
Sherwood number (Sh"a d /D)
m P

a #uidized-bed (Hoebink & Rietema, 1980b; Zahed

& Epstein, 1992; Zahed, Zoo & Grace, 1995; Van
Ballegooijen, Van Loon & Van Der Zanden, 1997).
Tsotsas (1994a,b) modeled the heat and mass transfer
processes in batch #uidized-bed drying by using the normalized falling rate * moisture relationship for a single
particle and by accounting the bubbling e!ect. Recently,
Groenewold and Tsotsas (1997) re"ned the model of
Tsotsas (1994a) by introducing the back-mixing e!ect of
gases to account for the decrease of Sherwood number in

*
1
*
2
*
3
u
<Q
f
<
P
=
z

Stanton number of heat transfer

(St "N/Re Pr)
h
Stanton number of mass
transfer(St "Sh/Re Sc)
m
temperature, 3C
di!erence between the temperatures at
the particle surface and center, 3C
di!erence between the average gas
temperatures and the particle surface
temperature, 3C
di!erence between the temperatures of
inlet and outlet gas, 3C
super"cial of gas, m/s
volumetric #ow rate of gas in #uidizedbed, m3/s
volume of a single particle, m3
initial particle mass, kg
axis along bed height, m

Greek letters
a
h
a
m
e
e
B
j
k
o
p
q
q
d

heat transfer coe$cient, W/(m2 K)

mass transfer coe$cient, m/s
porosity (e"1!e )
s
voidage of #uidized-bed
thermal conductivity, W/(m K)
dynamic viscosity, kg/(m s)
mass density, kg/m3
surface tension, kg/s2
time, s
drying time, s

Subscripts
f
g
in
l
out
s
v
0
over bar

gas in #uidized-bed
gas in the material
inlet
liquid
outlet
solid matrix
vapor
initial
average value in #uidized-bed

#uidized-bed from that predicted by the correlation of

a single particle.
Since the gas solid dynamics in the #uidized-bed or the
heat and mass transfer in the porous particles constitute
a complicated problem by itself, the comprehensive heat
and mass transfer analysis of particles under #uidization
is even more di$cult to tackle. Of all the analytical works
mentioned in the previous paragraph, the #uidized-bed
dynamics were not considered except two studies
(Hoebink and Rietema, 1980b; Zahed et al., 1995). The

Z. Hui Wang, G. Chen / Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 1857}1869

other mathematical models of the #uidized-bed drying

contributes the e!ects of the #uidization dynamics to the
expressions of heat and mass transfer coe$cients between gas and particles while considering the particles
being well mixed. Such simpli"cation does not diminish
the importance of modeling of the internal transport
phenomena of the particles because there is still a lack of
comprehensive analysis on this subject.
The moist particle can generally be considered as
a water-"lled porous medium. Thus the moisture content
can be expressed as a degree of saturation or simply
saturation. It has been recognized that three basic mechanisms of moisture transport exist in the moist porous
media, i.e., capillary #ow, vapor di!usion and evaporation}condensation (Huang, 1979; Wang & Chen,
1999a). The heat and mass transfer processes in moist
porous media have been analyzed typically by Luikov
(1975) and Whitaker (1977), but the application of their
analyses in #uidized-bed drying is not available. The
limitation of applying the existing analysis on convective
drying of moist porous media to the #uidized-bed drying
(Wei, Davis, Davis & Gordan, 1985; Abid, Gibert
& Laguerie, 1990) lies in that the surrounding conditions
around the particles are coupled with the particles' varying state. How the distributions of saturation, temperature and gas pressure inside the particle a!ect the heat
and mass transfer in the #uidized-bed drying needs to be
analyzed in detail.
The present work develops a mathematical model for
batch #uidized-bed drying. The #uidized-bed dynamics
are simpli"ed as a well-mixed non-bubbling mode. The
present model considers the general heat and mass transfer in the moist porous particles and the coupled heat and
mass transfer between the particles and gas in the
#uidized-bed. The model is solved numerically and
the e!ects of the parameter internal distributions and the
external coupled e!ects are analyzed. The drying characteristics under di!erent operating conditions are predicted and discussed.

1859

It should be noted that vapor is also one component of

the gas. Because vapor concentration varies greatly during drying, it is singled out in addition to the analysis of
gas behavior. The heat #uxes in the solid matrix, gas and
liquid phases are
q "!j e ) +,
(4)
s
s s
q "!j e ) +#j h ,
(5)
g
g g
g g
q "!j e ) +#j h .
(6)
l
l l
l l
Then the mass balance in the material for vapor, gas and
liquid can be described by
Vapor:

Gas:

L(e o )
g v "!+ ) j #IQ ,
v
m
Lq

L(e o )
g g "!+ ) j #IQ ,
g
m
Lq

Liquid:

L(e o )
l l "!+ ) j !IQ .
l
m
Lq

(7)

(8)

(9)

The heat transfer equation in the material can be obtained as

L(oh)
"!+ ) (q #q #q ).
s
g
l
Lq

(10)

While e o ;e o and e o ;e o , applying the relationg v

l l
g g
l l
ships
P
o " g ,
g R
g
P "P !P ,
l
g
c
e #e #e "1,
s
g
l
the following equations can be obtained for a
dimensional spherical particle as illustrated in Fig.

(11)
(12)
(13)
one1 by

2. Mathematical modeling
2.1. Heat and mass transfer in a particle
Based on the Darcy's law and Fick's law, the mass
#uxes of vapor, gas and liquid in the porous material can
be expressed as
K
j "! g o ) +P !D e ) +o ,
v
g
v g
v
k v
g
K
j "! g o ) +P !D e ) +o ,
g
g
g g
g
k g
g
K
j "! l o ) +P .
l
l
k l
l

(1)
(2)
(3)

Fig. 1. Physical model of #uidized-bed drying of moist porous

particles.

1860

Z. Hui Wang, G. Chen / Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 1857}1869

neglecting the convective heat transfer within the material:

A
A

B
B

A
A

B
B

LS
L
1 L
1 L
LS
"
a r2
#
a r2
,
a
1 Lq r2 Lr 2 Lr
r2 Lr 3 Lr

(14)

L
L
LS
1 L
1 L
b
"
b r2
#
b r2
,
1 Lq
r2 Lr 2 Lr
r2 Lr 3 Lr

(15)

LP
LS
L
g "c
c
#c
.
1 Lr
2 Lr
3 Lr

(16)

The expressions of the coe$cients are available elsewhere

(Wang and Chen, 1999b).
2.2. Initial conditions
D " ,
q/0
0
SD "S .
q/0
0

(17)
(18)

2.3. Boundary conditions at the particle center

Due to the symmetry, there are additional boundary
conditions written as
LS
Lr

L
Lr

"0,

(19)

"0.

(20)

r/0

r/0

2.4. Heat and mass balance in the yuidized-bed

In gas}solid #uidized-bed operation, two-phase dynamics is very complicated. With respect to the particular emphases on the e!ects related to the internal
transport processes of materials, here we assume that the
particles are well mixed in the plug #ow #uid and distributed uniformly in the #uidized-bed so that all the particles have the same state at any time and the gas #ow can
be considered pseudosteady with time. The heat conduction and vapor di!usion in the gas #ow are neglected. In
addition, the #ow rate of vapor removed from the particles to the gas is considered negligible as compared to
the total gas #ow rate in the bed.
At any location z in Fig. 1, the di!erential equation of
heat balance between gas and particles can be written as
N
a A ( !D P ) dz"!o c <Q d ,
h P f
r/R H
f f f
f

(22)

where
<Q "uA .
f
B

"D P #( !D P ) e~fh ,
f*/
r/R
f065
r/R
o
"o D P #(o !o D P ) e~fm ,
vf065
v r/R
vf*/
v r/R
where

(24)
(25)

f "St ) f ,
(26)
h
h A
f "St ) f ,
(27)
m
m A
NA
P .
(28)
f "
A
A
B
Considering the total heat and mass balances between
the particles and gas from the inlet to outlet, the average
temperature and vapor density of gas #ow can be calculated and used as reference quantities in the present
study. Since
a A (M !D P ) N"!o c <Q ( ! ), (29)
h P f
r/R
f f f f065
f*/
a A (o D P !o6 ) N"<Q (o
!o ),
(30)
m P v r/R
vf
f vf065
vf*/
substituting Eqs. (24) and (25), respectively, into Eqs. (29)
and (30), one obtains
1!e~fh
,
(31)
f
h
1!e~fm
.
(32)
o6 "o D P #(o !o D P )
vf*/
v r/R
vf
v r/R
f
m
With and o known, the relative humidity of gas can
vf
be determined.
M "D P #( !D P )
f
r/R
f*/
r/R

2.5. Heat and mass transfer at the interface between

the particle and gas yow
Using the average temperature and vapor density of
the gas as references, the interfacial conditions can be
written as
(q #q #q )D P !j D P ) *H"a (D P !M ),
l
g
s r/R
l r/R
h r/R
f
(33)
(34)
( j #j )D P "a (o D P !o6 ),
m v r/R
vf
l
v r/R
(35)
P D P "P .
!5.
g r/R
Here, the pressure of gas in the #uidized-bed is assumed
to be atmospheric. The values of a and a are deterh
m
mined from

(21)

and the mass balance equation is

N
a A (o D P !o ) dz"<Q do ,
vf H
f vf
m P v r/R

Integration of Eqs. (21) and (22) gives

(23)

Nu"2#1.8Re1@2Pr1@3,

(36)

Sh"2#1.8Re1@2Sc1@3,

(37)

where the gas super"cial velocity is used in the Reynolds

number calculation. Eqs. (36) and (37) were obtained
from analysis of heat and mass transfer in a "xed bed
(Ranz, 1952), but are also widely applied to the #uidizedbed drying (Kunii & Lenvenspiel, 1991).

Z. Hui Wang, G. Chen / Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 1857}1869

1861

Table 1
Physical properties of apple
Symbol

Value

Unit

Reference

c
g
c
l
c
s

1006
4180
1810

J/(kg K)
J/(kg K)
J/(kg K)

D
*H
K
D
S
#3
e

2.56]10~5
2.44309]106
1]10~19
0.3
0.7

m2/s
J/kg
m2
*
*

j
g
j
l
j
s
k
g
k
l

0.025
0.65
0.78
1.83]10~5
0.458509!5.30474]10~3
]#2.31231]10~5]2!4.49161
]10~8]3 #3.27681]10~11]4
1.29
1000
1600
0.121978!0.0001683]

J/(s m K)
J/(s m K)
J/(s m K)
kg/(m s)
kg/(m s)

Eckert and Drake (1972)

Eckert and Drake (1972)
Vagenas, Drouzas & MarinosKouris (1990)
Eckert and Drake (1972)
Eckert and Drake (1972)
assumed
assumed
Zogzas, Maroulis & MarinosKouris (1994)
Eckert and Drake (1972)
Eckert and Drake (1972)
Vagenas et al. (1990)
Eckert and Drake (1972)
Eckert and Drake (1972)

kg/m3
kg/m3
kg/m3
kg/s2

Eckert and Drake (1972)

Eckert and Drake (1972)
Zogzas et al. (1994)
Eckert and Drake (1972)

o
g
o
l
o
s
p

The permeabilities of the porous particle for liquid #ow

and gas #ow are, respectively,

3. Physical properties
In the present work, the physical properties of apple,
Table 1, are used in the simulation. All the data were
obtained from credible references except K and S . The
D
#3
value of K was selected as 10~19 m2 because it is a typiD
cal value for similar fruits. S "0.3 was assumed in this
#3
calculation according to the experimental data of similar
material (Wang & Tu, 1995). The heat capacity and
thermal conductivity are obtained using the volume average method as
oc"o c eS#o c e(1!S)#o c (1!e),
(38)
l l
g g
s s
j"j eS#j e(1!S)#j (1!e).
(39)
l
g
s
On the basis of Kelvin's equation, the vapor density in
the material is
P()
o "
e~Pc @ol Rv T,
(40)
v R
v
where P() is the saturated vapor pressure function of
temperature and the capillary pressure can be written as
(Leverett, 1941)

e
P "J(S)p
.
c
(41)
K
D
The Leverett function J(S) was obtained by Perre and
Moyne (1991) as
0.020023
0.009547
J(S)"
#
!0.12S#0.4415.
S
S!1.028

(42)

K "K K ,
l
D rl

(43)

K "K K ,
g
D rg

(44)

where the relative permeability of liquid #ow is (Chen

and Pei, 1989):

K "
rl

S!S 3
#3 , S'S ,
#3
1!S
#3
0,
S)S .
#3

(45)

The relative permeability of gas in the material is

K "1!K .
rg
rl

(46)

4. Numerical results
4.1. Heat and mass transfer for a typical operation
4.1.1. Heat and mass transfer in a particle
Eqs. (14)}(20) and (31)}(35) were solved numerically
with the "nite di!erence method. The typical operating
conditions are listed in Table 2. The numerical error was
tested with various grids. The grids of 200 were selected
because only less than 0.1% di!erence was found between the results obtained with the grids of 200 and 400
for the typical operating conditions.

1862

Z. Hui Wang, G. Chen / Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 1857}1869

Table 2
Typical operating conditions
Symbol

Value

f*/
RH
*/
d
P
f
A
u
P
!5.

0
S
0

803C
10%
2 mm
10
2 m/s
1.01325]105 Pa
203C
1

Fig. 3. Pressure pro"les in the particle during drying. q(s): 1}0; 2}5;
3}30; 4}60; 5}90; 6}120; 7}150; 8}180.

Fig. 2. Saturation pro"les in the particle during drying. q(s): 1}0; 2}5;
3}30; 4}60; 5}90; 6}120; 7}150; 8}180.

Fig. 2 shows the saturation distribution in the particle

at di!erent drying time. During early stage of drying, the
capillary #ow of water plays the major role with the
internal mass transfer resistance being very small. The
dehydration of the particle results in a decrease in saturation with the value at the surface dropping much faster
than at the center. After 30 s, the saturation at the particle surface decreases below the critical value, S "0.3.
#3
From (45), one can see that the relative permeability of
liquid #ow becomes zero for the region at S(S . Thus,
#3
liquid water has to be evaporated within the particle and
moisture has to be transported to the particle surface in
gas phase. Vapor transport becomes the controlling step
of moisture transfer in the material. Further drying produces three distinct regions: the capillary #ow region
close to the particle center, the evaporation}condensation region near the surface, and a transition region in
between. The `Sa-shaped saturation pro"le indicates that
a large internal mass transfer resistance exists. After falling to S , the particle surface saturation quickly ap#3
proaches the equilibrium saturation, a value reached all
over the particle after 180 s drying. It should be noted

that towards the end of drying, the desorption isotherm

would be better than the vapor density relationship determined by the Kelvin's equation. However, no e$cient
desorption isotherm was found for such large variation
ranges of moisture and temperature.
Fig. 3 shows the variation of gas pressure pro"les in
the particle during drying where the ordinate values are
the pressure di!erence from the particle surface. During
the "rst 5 s, the pressure is smaller at the center than that
at the particle surface, indicating that the gas #ow is in
the opposite direction of the liquid #ow. Gas is simply
pushed in to take up the space of the transported water.
Once the saturation at the surface reaches its critical
value, the gas pressure distributions can be separated
into three regions in accordance with Fig. 2. The gas
pressure distribution is #at in capillary #ow region,
sharply decreasing in transition region, and slightly decreasing in evaporation}condensation region. Although
the distinction between the latter two regions is not as
clear as for saturation seen in Fig. 2, a large pressure drop
is predicted in the transition region and evaporation}condensation region because most vapor is created
there and has to be transported to the particle surface by
vapor di!usion and gas convection. The pressure di!erence between the surface and center becomes larger during drying with a value of more than 0.03 atm reached
before the saturation at the particle center drops to its
critical value. At the end of drying, there is no net vapor
transport between gas and particle, and the pressure
within the particle becomes uniform as expected.
Fig. 4 shows the temperature variations at di!erent
positions in the particle during the drying process. During the "rst several seconds, the particle temperature
increases rapidly from the initial value of 203C. The
length of this so-called rising period depends on the
initial temperature and particles holdup. Usually, it is so

Z. Hui Wang, G. Chen / Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 1857}1869

Fig. 4. Temperature variations during drying. 1} ; 2} ; 3} ;

f*/
f
f065
4}r/R "1; 5}r/R "0.5; 6}r/R "0.
P
P
P

short that it is neglected in most of the analyses. After

reaching about 433C, a value slightly higher than the wet
bulb temperature due to the capillary actions, the particle
temperature rises slowly until the surface temperature
begins to deviate from the value measured at other two
locations in the particle. With respect to Fig. 2, Fig.
4 shows that the temperatures at the locations in capillary action region have nearly the same value. This period is the "rst falling rate period and covers about 25 s.
There is little temperature di!erence within the particle
during the "rst two periods indicating little internal heat
transfer resistance.
As soon as the transition region is developed, the
temperature in this region rises quickly and the drying
process enters the second falling rate period. During this
period, the particle surface temperature increases more
rapidly than the particle center resulting in an increase in
the temperature di!erence * , with more than 103C
1
found towards the end of drying. This indicates that a big
internal heat transfer resistance exists in the evaporation}condensation region and in#uences the drying
process. At the end of drying, the particle center temperature rises quickly and all the temperatures in the particle
approach the same value of the inlet air temperature,
803C, as they should. The second falling rate period is the
major part of the drying process in this operation. The
variations of * and * will be analyzed sub2
3
sequently when the coupled e!ects between the particles
and gas in the bed are discussed.
4.1.2. Ewects of the distributions of temperature
and pressure
The distribution of saturation, temperature and gas
pressure in the particle show that these three parameters
play di!erent roles in the heat and mass transfer in the
particle during di!erent drying periods. Obviously, the

1863

Fig. 5. Variations of moisture fraction with time for di!erent models:

(1) present model (j "0.078 W/(m K)); (2) present model
s
(j "0.78 W/(m K)); (3) lumped temperature model (j "10000 W/(m
s
s
K)); (4) lumped gas pressure model (j "0.78 W/(m K)); (5) lumped
s
temperature and gas pressure model (j "10 000 W/(m K)); and
s
(6) lumped gas pressure model (j "0.078 W/(m K)).
s

saturation distribution should be considered in the study

just like the previous simulations on di!usion limited
processes (Hoebink & Rietema, 1980; Zahed & Epstein,
1992; Zahed et al., 1995; Van Ballegooijen et al., 1997). In
order to study the exact in#uences of the distributions of
temperature and pressure, the drying process is simulated
with lumped gas pressure model, lumped temperature
model and lumped gas pressure and temperature model,
respectively.
The lumped pressure model can be obtained by setting
c and c in Eq. (16) to be zero. Fig. 5 shows that for the
2
3
present operating conditions, the e!ects of gas pressure
distribution in the material are so small that no obvious
di!erence appears between the distributed parameter
model developed in this paper and the usually applied
lumped gas pressure model, curves 2 and 4. This result
indicates that vapor di!usion is the major mechanism for
vapor transfer in the material and the gas pressure has
little e!ect on the water transport of capillary #ow and
gas convection.
The lumped temperature model corresponds to the
situation where j is in"nitely large, such as 10 000 W/(m
s
K) in Eq. (15). Fig. 5 shows that during the rising rate and
"rst falling rate periods, the moisture fraction predicted
by the lumped temperature model is as good as that by
the distributed parameter model. The deviation only
appears in the second falling rate period when a larger
temperature di!erence is found in the particle. The "gure
shows that there is about 10% di!erence in drying time
between the two models, curves 2 and 3. Since it has
established that the in#uence of gas pressure distribution
is negligible, the results obtained with the lumped gas
pressure and temperature model, curve 5, are identical
with those by the lumped temperature model, curve 3.

1864

Z. Hui Wang, G. Chen / Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 1857}1869

Fig. 6. Pressure pro"les at di!erent drying times in case

j "0.078 W/(m K). q(s): 1}0; 2}20; 3}50; 4}80; 5}120; 6}160; 7}200;
s
8}220.

Fig. 7. Variations of relative humidity during drying. 1}RH ; 2}RH;

065
3}RH .
*/

Apparently, larger temperature di!erence in the particle will cause greater deviation of the lumped temperature model from the distributed parameter model. Such
a large temperature di!erence can be created either by
a small thermal conductivity of the solid particle, or
a large particle diameter. For a material with thermal
conductivity of 0.078 W/(m K), it takes much longer time
than for apple as indicated by curves 1 and 2 in Fig. 5.
The calculation results in the following part of this work
show that it will take more than 3.5 times long time to
dry the same weight of wet particles at diameter of
5 instead of 2 mm.
It is interesting to see that the distribution of gas
pressure in the thermally less conductive particle, Fig. 6,
is very much di!erent from that seen in Fig. 3. During the
initial period, the pressure at the particle center is slightly
higher than that at the surface. Thus, the gas in the
capillary region #ows from the material to the surrounding. Then the inside pressure close to the surface becomes
negative and a minimum pressure was predicted which
means that the gas #ow is in the direction of moisture
#ow near the particle center while opposite to this direction near the surface. With the gas #owing from the
surface to center at the end of drying, the pressure distribution approaches uniformly.

of heat transfer in the #uidized-bed dryer and the capacity of gas to supply heat in the #uidized-bed. As for
moisture transport in the #uidized-bed dryer, the average
and outlet relative humidities of gas are used in the
following analyses.
Fig. 4 also shows temperature variations of the gas
during drying. The gas temperature drops from 803C at
inlet to about 503C at outlet in the "rst falling rate period
and the di!erence * is more than 303C. It indicates
3
that the heat transfer intensity is very high accompanied
by a high drying rate. In the second falling rate period,
* keeps decreasing which suggests that the heat ex3
change intensity becomes weaker although the capacity
of the gas to supply heat gets larger.
During the drying process, heat transfer resistances in
the bed include the coupled internal heat transfer resistance in the particle and external heat transfer resistance
between the particle and gas. In Fig. 4, it is seen that
during the "rst falling rate period, * is almost zero
1
while * is more than 153C. Obviously, the heat trans2
fer is externally controlled in this period. When the drying is in the second falling rate period, * increases
1
until shortly before the end of drying while * de2
creases all the time until it reaches zero. At about 128 s,
both * and * have the same value. Thus, it can be
1
2
concluded that both the internal and external heat transfer resistances control the drying process in the second
falling rate period. This is in accordance with the e!ect of
temperature distribution analyzed previously.
The predicted mass transfer behavior is consistent with
that of heat transfer. Fig. 7 shows the variation of gasrelative humidity during drying. It is impressive to note
that the outlet-relative humidity is more than 40% during the "rst falling rate period. During the second falling
rate period, the outlet-relative humidity keeps decreasing
according to the temperature variation. The "gure also

4.1.3. Coupled ewects between particles and gas

In general, the state of gas in the #uidized-bed dryer
changes when heat and mass transfer take place between
the gas and particles because of the "nite capacity of gas.
Based on the assumptions of well-mixed particles and
plug gas #ow, this paper analyzes the transport mechanisms using * and * . The value of * represents
2
3
2
the heat transfer potential outside the particle in comparison with * , which re#ects the internal heat trans1
fer resistance. The value of * represents the intensity
3

Z. Hui Wang, G. Chen / Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 1857}1869

1865

shows that the average relative humidity of gas in the bed

is about 0.25 during the "rst falling rate period. Considering the moisture pro"les in Fig. 2, it is suggested that the
mass transfer is controlled by the external resistance in
this period because the vapor density at the particle
surface is greater than the vapor density of outlet gas and
much greater than the average vapor density in the
#uidized-bed. During the second falling rate period, the
temperature and vapor density of the outlet gas approach those values at the particle surface. The internal
mass transfer resistance becomes more dominant in affecting the drying process.
4.2. Ewects of operating conditions
4.2.1. Ewects of bed area factor f
A
The dimensionless numbers, f and f in Eqs. (26) and
h
m
(27), are the values of the modi"ed Stanton numbers of
heat and mass transfer by the #uidized-bed area factor,
f "NA /A , the ratio of heat and mass transfer area in
A
P B
the #uidized-bed to gas #ow area through the #uidizedbed. Here, f is a measure of the total heat transfer rate by
h
convection to the rate of heat supplied in the #uidizedbed. Similarly, f is the measure for mass transfer. The
m
factor f considers the e!ects of the amount of solids
A
holdup, particle dimension and #ow area so it is a bed
characteristic parameter. In fact, f is the heat and mass
A
exchange area between the particles and gas per unit
cross section area of the #uidized-bed. This factor can
also be expressed for the spherical particle as
6H(1!e )
B .
f "
A
d
P

(47)

For a given operation, although the bed voidage and

height may vary during the drying process, their product,
H ) (1!e ), is a constant. As a result, f does not change
B
A
with the gas}particle dynamical characteristics in the
drying process. Since f is an important and yet simple
A
parameter we derived here, a detailed analysis of its
e!ects is given in this section.
Fig. 8 shows the relative humidity variations of outlet
gas at di!erent f values. Since the particle diameter is
A
"xed at 2 mm and the super"cial velocity at 2 m/s, the
variation of f then re#ects the number of particles holdA
up per cross-sectional area of #uidized-bed. An increase
in f would mean an increase of particles to be dried at
A
a given volumetric gas #ow rate. Referring to Eqs. (26)
and (27), one can see easily that an increase in f would
A
result in increases in f and f , which in turn results in
h
m
decreases in
and o
as seen in Eqs. (24) and (25).
f065
vf065
Such decreases result in an increase in the relative humidity value of the exhaust gas.
For the cases of small f , f "0.1 and 1, the outletA A
relative humidity values are very close to that of inlet gas.
Consequently, most part of the drying process is control-

Fig. 8. Relative humidity variations of outlet gas at di!erent f . f :

A A
1}0.1; 2}1; 3}10; 4}100; 5}1000.

Table 3
Drying times at di!erent f
A
f
A

q,s
d

q /f , s
d A

0.1
1
10
100
1000

109
113
163
940
9020

1090
113
16.3
9.4
9.02

led by internal heat and mass transfer. For such cases

larger quantities of particles can be charged into the
#uidized-bed dryer, otherwise the drying operation is
ine$cient. As for f "100, the e!ect of "nite moisture
A
carrying capacity of gas becomes apparent. The "rst
falling rate period becomes longer because of the relatively small heat supplying and moisture carrying capacities
of gas. Thus the saturation and temperature distributions
are more uniform in the particle and it takes a longer
time for the particle surface to reach the critical saturation. Hence the drying process is mostly controlled by the
external transport. The calculation shows that the initial
temperature of particles plays an important role here.
For example, it takes more than 10 s for gas to heat the
material in the #uidized-bed at f "100. In this case,
A
preheating the particles before charging them into the
#uidized-bed is e!ective to reduce the drying time.
Despite that drying time is short for small value f , the
A
amount of wet material in the #uidized-bed is also small.
Thus more batches of drying are required to dry a given
amount of wet materials. The above results established
that there may be an optimal f for drying a given
A
amount of wet material. To "nd out such optimal f , the
A
drying times for di!erent f were determined for the
A

1866

Z. Hui Wang, G. Chen / Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 1857}1869

#uidized-bed, Table 3. The drying time is so determined

that the total moisture left in the particle is 1.5% of its
initial value. Shown in Table 3 are also the ratios of the
drying time q to f , which represent the drying time per
d
A
particle. For example, the total drying time in 10 batches
at f "100 is 4% longer than one batch at f "1000. If
A
A
the f of #uidized-bed is 0.1, then 120.8 times long is
A
necessary. When f "1, only 12.53 times would be reA
quired. Thus the particles are dried in one batch at f "1
A
will save about 90% drying time as compared with the
operation in ten batches at f "0.1. Further increases of
A
f from 1 to 10 results in a saving of drying time by over
A
85%. It seems that if the operation allows, the higher the
value of f , the shorter the drying time required for
A
a given amount of wet material. It has to be noted that
such an advantage of increasing f is not signi"cant when
A
f is over 100. Of course, larger f would mean higher bed
A
A
height and require a better control of #uidization dynamics. Thus an optimal f has to be determined based on
A
drying time as well as energy cost, product quality, etc.
4.2.2. Ewects of particle parameter
Particle diameter can sometimes be adjusted for di!erent #uidized-bed drying operations. The e!ect of particle
diameter is analyzed at the following two operating conditions: "xed f and "xed holdup of particle mass =. The
A
values listed in Table 2 are selected as reference data.
A "xed f gives the same total heat and mass transfer
A
area between the particles and gas for a given #uidizedbed which is useful in understanding the transport phenomena academically, while the "xed particle holdup
gives a varying exchange area but is practically useful.
Before discussing the predicted results, it is useful to
examine the relationship between f and =. As noted
A
earlier that f "NA /A , while N"=/o< ; A "pd2 ;
P
A
P B
P P
< "1 pd3 , then f "1/d ) 6=/oA . Thus the variP 6 P
A
P
B
ation of = with d at a "xed f , as well as f with d at
p
A
A
p
a "xed = can be calculated as shown in Table 4. It is
useful to note that the values of = under the same
f refers to the mass of particles dried in one batch. For
A

example, at f "10 and d "1, there are 1.97 kg/A

A
p
B
particles dried in one batch. Thus if 3.93 kg/A of parB
ticles are to be dried, it would need two batches, or
62]2"124 s. Following this logic, the total drying time
of a given particle holdup at f "10 are calculated and
A
also listed in Table 4.
The results in Table 4 clearly show that drying time
decreases with the decreasing diameter, as expected.
Thus, the e$ciency increases at smaller diameter operations. The signi"cant di!erence in the magnitude of the
change of drying for the two conditions requires further
analysis. At a "xed f , the decrease of d means the
A
p
decrease in internal transfer resistance accompanied by
the decrease in solids holdup. Thus for the same heat and
mass transfer area and decreasing drying load, the dramatic decrease of drying time is understandable. At
a "xed solids holdup, the decrease of particle diameter is
accompanied by an increase in f or heat and mass
A
transfer area, which in turn would reduce the drying time.
Apparently, the internal transfer resistance is insigni"cant when particle size is below 1 mm, therefore further
decrease of particle size does not show appreciable drop
in drying time. It is expected that the drying time in one
batch at varying f is not very much di!erent from the
A
total drying time in a few batches at f "10 except for
A
the largest particle considered.
The initial moisture saturation is another parameter to
be considered in drying. It can vary for di!erent materials
or in multistage drying. In the present study, four initial
saturation conditions are used in the simulation, i.e., 0.25,
0.5, 0.75 and 1.0. It is assumed that moisture is initially
distributed uniformly. With the decrease of moisture in
the particle, the second falling rate period becomes longer
compared with the "rst falling rate period. As a result, the
e!ects of internal heat and mass transfer on the drying
process are more signi"cant. In the case of S "0.25, the
0
"rst falling rate period disappears because no capillary
#ow exists in the particle. Fig. 9 shows the relative humidity variations of outlet gas. The smaller the initial
saturation, the smaller the relative humidity. Thus, the

Table 4
Drying times at di!erent d
P
d , mm
P

5
2
1
0.5
0.2
0.1

f "10
A

="3.93 kg/A
B

f "10, ="3.93 kg/A

A
B

=, kg/A
B

q,s
d

f
A

q,s
d

total q , s
d

9.83
3.93
1.97
0.983
0.386
0.197

688
163
62
26
9.4
4.6

4
10
20
40
100
200

609
163
101
92
90
90

275
163
124
104
94
92

Z. Hui Wang, G. Chen / Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 1857}1869

Fig. 9. Relative humidity variations of outlet gas at di!erent initial

saturations. S : 1}1; 2}0.75; 3}0.5; 4}0.25.
0

1867

Fig. 10. Variations of moisture fraction with time at di!erent gas

velocities u(m/s): 1}0.5; 2}1; 3}2; 4}5; 5}10.

drying rate is smaller and the e!ects of internal transport

resistance become larger.
The drying time can be determined from Fig. 9 when
the relative humidity does not change. It is found that
although the drying time increases with initial saturation,
the rising tendency becomes weaker in the mean time.
The drying time for S "0.5 is about 2 of that for
3
0
S "1.0. The main reason is the capillary #ow e!ect for
0
the situation of high saturation. The e!ect of initial saturation on internal transport resistance is related to the
critical saturation value.
4.2.3. Ewects of inlet gas conditions
The operating conditions of inlet gas include gas velocity, relative humidity and temperature. Although the
#uidization may not be available at too small or too large
values of gas velocity and the di!erent gas velocities can
yield coupled e!ects on gas bubble size in #uidized-bed
dynamics and hence gas and solids mixing properties, the
present paper simulated the heat and mass transfer in the
drying process from 0.5 to 10 m/s.
Fig. 10 shows that when the gas velocity is small,
0.5 m/s, increasing the gas velocity is very e!ective in
increasing the drying rate. Nearly half of the drying
process is in the "rst falling rate period or externally
controlled. Thus, the drying time can be shortened with
the decrease of f and f by increasing the gas velocity. In
h
m
the case of u"10 m/s, the particle surface saturation
approaches its equilibrium value in 20 s. The second
falling rate period becomes the major part of the drying
process.
The relative humidity of inlet gas is another important
parameter to consider. In order to avoid the dewing
phenomenon at high inlet-relative humidity values, the
calculations in this part assume that the particles are
preheated to the initial temperature of 503C before charg-

Fig. 11. Variations of moisture fraction with time at di!erent inlet

relative humidities. RH : 1}40%; 2}30%; 3}20%; 4}10%.
*/

ing into the #uid bed dryer. Fig. 11 shows that the drying
rate increases greatly with the inlet-relative humidity
decreasing. Therefore, comprehensive optimization
should be carried out between reducing drying time by
decreasing the air humidity and conserving energy by
reusing the outlet hot air.
Considering the product quality, the maximum tolerable temperature by the material is usually employed as
the inlet gas temperature in practice. Here, an absolute
humidity value of 0.02 (kg water/kg dry air) is used in
order that the drying is available under the conditions in
the range of 40}1003C for this simulation. The calculation shows that although the particle surface temperature rises quickly during the second falling rate period
and the material may be damaged by overheating
for higher inlet air temperature operations, the particle

1868

Z. Hui Wang, G. Chen / Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 1857}1869

surface temperature remains small for a rather long period. Therefore the inlet gas temperature can be of a high
value initially and changed to the maximum tolerable
temperature afterwards. In this study, 603C is considered
as the safe temperature for apple. At "1003C, the
f*/
particle surface temperature is not more than 603C until
q"47 s when 60% of the total moisture in the particle
has been removed. While for "803C, hot air can be
f*/
used for 92 s and 77% of the moisture is removed during
this time. If the maximum tolerable temperature 603C is
used as the inlet gas temperature, the time to remove 60
and 77% moisture is, respectively, 112 and 160 s. Thus it
establishes that biomaterials can be dried faster and
retain good quality using high drying temperature, provided that the hot gas is used for the right amount of
time. The present model provides a useful tool for the
determination of this time value.

5. Conclusions
Di!erent moisture transport mechanisms in the material play di!erent roles in di!erent drying periods of
#uidized-bed drying of moist porous particles. The lumped temperature model is not valid in #uidized-bed drying of moist porous particles because of the signi"cant
internal heat transfer resistance, especially for low thermal conductivity materials. However, the pressure distribution e!ect on heat and mass transfer in drying is
insigni"cant. The transport processes in the particle are
signi"cantly a!ected by the coupled heat and mass transfer between the particles and gas in the #uidized-bed.
A new variable called bed area factor is derived from the
di!erential equations and its potential in the design and
operation of #uidized-bed drying is demonstrated. With
the increase of the value of this bed area factor, the e!ect
of "niteness of gas becomes signi"cant. However, the load
of materials should be increased to raise the drying e$ciency when the bed area factor is small. For a given load
of particles, the drying time reduces with particle diameter
decreasing until a critical value is reached. Temperature
programming can signi"cantly shorten the drying time of
biomaterials while retaining the product quality.

Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the "nancial support from
BRI of HKUST and ISF Fund of H.K.S.A.R. Government

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