THE USE OF A GAS CHROMATOGRAPH TO OBTAIN DRYING RATES DATA THROUGH SIMPLE LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS

Abstract

A method making use of a gas chromatograph was investigated to acquire bound solvent drying rates. The solid to be dried was used as stationary phase in a chromatographic column, and the TCD detector was used to follow the decrease of solvent content of the effluent as inert gas was flown through the column. The measurement of the break-through curve allows the evolution of drying rate with time or solvent content to be obtained. The comparison of the experimental results with numerical simulation leads to the determination, through parametric adjustment, of the internal mass-transfer coefficient as a function of the solvent content during the second stage of bound solvent drying period. This parameter can lead to the value of the diffusivity as a function of solvent content.

Keywords and Phrases:

• bound solvent
• drying kinetics
• internal mass-transfer