Modeling and Drying of Carton Packaging Waste in a Rotary Dryer

Abstract

This research aims at modeling the rotary drying of carton packaging waste and analyzing the energy performance of the process. Drying data were obtained in a semi-pilot rotary dryer, 0.45 m diameter and 2.7 m rotating drum long, operating with an air velocity of 1 m/s and air inlet temperature of 90°C and 10 rpm. Under the operating conditions employed, the analysis of the data showed that the energy performance of the drying process increased from 5 to 75% as the inlet wet solid feed rate increased from 1.8 to 19 kg/h. In addition, at this latter wet-solid feed rate, the reduction of the air velocity in the dryer to 0.8 m/s also led to an increase in the performance of drying process from 80 to 94%. Furthermore, with a 95% confidence interval, the model used was adequate to predict the air and solid temperature as well as the air humidity and the solids moisture content.

Keywords:

• Drying efficiency
• Energy efficiency
• Long-life packaging
• Recycling
• Rotary dryer
• Solid waste

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are grateful to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for its financial support in carrying out this research. One of the authors (M.S. Bacelos) expresses his gratitude to Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) for the Ph.D. scholarship awarded (Proc. n° 06/50614-1).