Fluidized bed dryers in terms of minimizing environmental impact and achieving the sustainable development goals

Abstract

The current paper aims to find scientifically valid approaches to improving the environmental safety of technologies for drying grain materials and granular fertilizers. The methodology for environmental and economic efficiency justification of the energy-saving multi-stage shelf dryers with a convective fluidized bed drying provides design and operational parameters control. Meta-analysis of energy-effective and eco-friendly dryers based on the bibliometric method and the Scopus database is used for this study. The results showed that pollutants concentration in the exhausts could be controlled by modifying the design and the required number of shelves, ensuring the required material residence time to achieve the desired moisture content. The production of electricity using alternative resources like biogas and biofertilizer produced from the anaerobic digestate allows for achieving several Sustainable Development Goals simultaneously. The Goals in scope include Goal 6 Clean Water and Sanitation, Goal 7 Affordable and Clean Energy, Goal 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Goal 12 Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal 13 Climate Action, and Goal 15 Life On Land.

Keywords:

• Fluidized bed
• energy efficiency
• multi-stage shelf dryers
• vertical sectioning
• ecological safety

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Sumy State University, Ukraine for supporting research work under the project “Technological bases of multistage convective drying in small-sized devices with utilization and heat recovery units”, funded by the Ministry of Science and Education of Ukraine.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Education of Ukraine under Grant “Technological bases of multistage convective drying in small-sized devices with utilization and heat recovery units”, number 0120U100476; Cultural and Educational Grant Agency of the Slovak Republic (KEGA) under Grant number KEGA 002TnUAD-4/2019; and Grant “Advancement and support of R&D for “Centre for diagnostics and quality testing of materials” in the domains of the RIS3 SK specialization”, number NFP313011W442.