Modeling the Mean Residence Time in a Rotary Dryer for Various Types of Solids

Abstract

The residence time in a pilot-scale rotary dryer was determined experimentally for four types of solids (fish meal, sand, soy meal, and sawdust) while varying the solids flow rate, the slope of the dryer, the speed of rotation, and the flow rate of gas with the objective to develop a correlation to predict the mean residence time for inclined and horizontal rotating dryers and to compare the developed models to the experimental data. Three models, two based on the product of operating variables and a neural network, are presented and compared. Results show that all models provide good estimates of the mean residence time, with the neural network providing more accurate predictions.

Keywords:

• Inclination
• Residence time
• Rotary dryer
• Types of solids

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and DICYT of the University of Santiago of Chile (USACH).