Types of Driers

Direct Heat Dryers

Batch Continuous

Indirect Heat Dryers

Batch Continuous

Direct Driers
Batch Driers
Cabinet Drier Truck Drier

Cabinet Drier

 Used for drying solids which must be supported on trays Ex: Pasty materials, lumpy solids Cabinet containing removable trays on which the solid to be dried is spread Steam heated air is blown across and between the trays Inert gas even super heated steam rather than air is used

Two Truck Drier

 Trays are stacked upon the trucks which are pushed into the drier cabinet over pairs of rails Several trucks may be accomodated The gas velocity is maintained within 0.3-3m/s About 80-95% of the air is recirculated to maintain high gas velocity Stagnant pockets cause poor drying Fresh air is drawn through a dust filter

 Advantages: Low cost, less space requirement, ease of cleaning and accessibility Disadvantages: High operating cost, cost for loading and unloading, stagnant pockets

 Continuous Driers
Tunnel Truck Drier Belt or Band or Conveyor Drier Rotary Drier Flash or Pneumatic Drier

Tunnel Truck Driers

Trucks loaded with trays move through a long tunnel Trucks are put one after another at a regular time interval and are pulled by chains The time required to travel is the drying time Tracks or rails are provided Fans are provided on the tunnel wall to blow the hot air

Steam coils are used for air heating

Belt Conveyor
A perforated moving belt A screen or perforated steel belt Minimum size of the openings is 30mesh The belt moves into a drying cabinet and hot gas passes through the layer Uniform rate of feeding and distribution of the solid is required Through circulation

Gas velocity is 0.25m/s and 1.5m/s Bed of thickness is 3-15cm Solid ranges from 15-80kg/m2 The steam consumption for heating is 2kg per moisture moved Suitable for coarser particles granules pellets, nuts, fruits cereals and sliced carrots

Belt or Conveyor Drier

Rotary Drier
Consists of a slowly rotating slightly inclined cylindrical shell fed with the moist solid at the upper end Hotgas is flowing is parallel or countercurrent to the moving solid

Rotary Drier

 Workhorse of chemical driers Widely used class of continuous driers Suitable for free flowing non sticky and granular materials All crystals after crystallization and washing Drying of table salt, sodium sulphate, drying of sand Drying rate is intermediate between tray driers and fluidized bed driers

 Flights always keep the solids in the flow of air Straight, 450 and 900 flights

Pneumatic Drier

Pneumatic Conveyor
Consists of a vertical conveyor pipe into which the wet solid is fed near the bottom through a screw feeder Hot air enters the drier at a point below the solid feed point at a velocity of 20-30m/s A small time 1-10s usually around 3s is allowed for the drying

It is also called flash drier

 Solid temperature is not raised that much Often the solid temperature is at the wetbulb temp of the gas Heat sensitive or easily oxidizible materails like proteins and animal feed are dried Ideal for the removal of surface moisture like polymer beads Cyclone separates the solid from the gas

 Inlet gas temp is high Modified versions are used for the drying of corn, clays etc Unsuitable for large or heavy particles No separate arrangement is necessary for transporting the dried product

Indirect Driers
Batch Driers
Agitated Pan Drier Vacuum Tray Drier Freeze Drier

Agitated Pan Drier

Bowl or a shallow cylindrical vessel 1-3m in diameter with a slow moving stirrer 2-20rpm Heating is done by steam or hot fluid flowing through a jacket Vapor may be vented or condensed Suitable for both granular and pasty materials Type of agitator and its rpm depend upon the material

Freeze Drier
It is used for dehydrating heat sensitive and perishable materails like seafood, meat, fruits, vegetables, pharamaceuticals etc Material is first frozen so that the liquid (water) gets separated by crystallization in the form of ice It is vacuum shelf unit operated at Pabs less than 0.8mm Hg Temperature is -200C or even less

 The ice crystals in the solid sublimate under vaccum and the vapor is condensed at about -600C. Driving force for sublimation of ice is the difference between the sublimation vapor pressure and the condensed pressure Drying rate is low as 0.2-2kg/m2.h

Shrinkage of the material does not occur and freezed product can be instantly and fully rehydrated

 Continuous Driers
Steam tube Rotary Drier Drum Drier Spray Drier

 Loss of heat through the gas is less Where a clean and inert heating atmosphere is to be maintained Drying of terephthalic acid is used Degradation of the material is avoided

Drum Drier

 One or two steam heated rotating drums The feed, a solution or a slurry forms a thin layer on the drum Film thickness is controlled by a blade in a single drum unit or by the gap in twin drum unit Air may be blown over the surface for the removal of moisture Dry product is scrapped off as flakes

 Drying rate is high about 10-30kg/m2.h Time is 3-12s Used for materials that are too thick for a spray drier and too thin for a rotary drier Suitable if the feed rate is too small

Spray Drier

Spray Drier
Used to dry the atomized droplets of a feed that may be solution or a slurry of fine particles Big drying chamber 15m diameter and 35m tall Feed is introduced through the atomizer Hot gas may be at 7000C and generally 2502800C

 Drying of the droplets dispersed in the hot gas occurs in a very short time of seconds Atomization is the feed is done by rotating disk Liquid is fed onto the disk at the centre Size of the droplets ranges from 10-20microns