Kinetics of drying inorganic spheres: Simultaneous modeling of moisture and temperature during the constant and falling rate periods

ABSTRACT

The kinetics of the dehydration of four sizes of spherical inorganic materials was studied experimentally with warm air using a fixed-bed dryer at laboratory scale. Following the evaluation of the effect of bed thickness, air mass rate, and air temperature on drying kinetics, a kinetic model consisting of two equations was proposed. The main novelty of this study resides in the possibility of utilizing a new model for simultaneous heat and mass transfer in an efficient manner for practical applications and appropriate system optimization, especially during the falling rate period.

KEYWORDS:

• Drying kinetics
• fixed-bed dryer
• moisture
• sphere
• temperature

Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to Fernando Valdés Sanz for his collaboration in the obtaining the experimental results.