UEMK2411 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY I GROUP 09

TITLE OF EXPERIMENT

Tray Drying

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this experiment were to perform drying test on solids, to

investigate the effects of air velocity on drying rate and to perform heat and mass
transfer analysis of a drying process.

INTRODUCTION

Like evaporation, drying is a mass-transfer process resulting in the removal

of water or moisture from a process stream. While evaporation increases the
concentration of non-volatile components in solution, in drying processes the final
product is a solid. Drying processes reduce the solute or moisture level to improve
the storage and handling characteristics of the product, maintain product quality
during storage and transportation and reduce freight cost (less water to ship). Drying
of solids in certain cases like wood, ceramics and soap has a remarkable fathom of
the internal mechanism obtained that allows control of product standard. Surveys of
drying of solids have been made from the so-called external viewpoint, wherein the
effects of the external drying medium like air velocity, humidity, temperature and
wet material shape and subdivision are studied with respect to their influence on the
drying rate.

Tray dryer is used for drying solids by air or removes the moist vapours
which must be supported by trays. Trays are designed to force the air to follow a
longer zigzag route which increases the contact time between food and air, thus
improve its efficiency. Heating may be by an air current sweeping across the trays,
by conduction from heated trays or heated shelves on which the trays lie, or by
radiation from heated surfaces. It is most suitable in terms of cost and output when
the production rate is small.

MATERIAL AND EQUIPMENT

The equipment used in this experiment was the tray dryer unit. This unit is designed
to demonstrate the theoretical and practical aspects of solids drying.

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UEMK2411 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY I GROUP 09

Digital scale
Axial Fan

Control Panel
Drying Chamber

RESULTS AND CALCULATIONS

Part 1:

Initial mass of rice / dry sand 0.632 kg

mass of tray 0.253 kg
amount of water added 0.051 kg
total mass (wet sand + trays + holder) 0.936 kg
Moisture content percentage 7.467057101 %
cross sectional area of trays 0.0752 m^2
Axial fan Frequency 8 Hz
Heater temperature 65 deg C

T1 Dry T2 Wet T3 Dry

Time Mass, m T4 Wet Bulb
Bulb Inlet Bulb Inlet Bulb Outlet
(min) (kg) Outlet ( )
( ) ( ) ( )
0 0.936 41.7 30.5 37.2 27.5

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UEMK2411 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY I GROUP 09

10 0.928 45.9 36.8 40.7 29.5

20 0.92 45.8 38.2 40.9 30.5
30 0.904 40.0 37.0 39.0 31.3
40 0.898 38.7 36.8 38.7 30.8
50 0.891 47.1 38.8 42.6 31.3
60 0.884 47.5 37.5 42.9 32.0
70 0.879 48.2 36.8 46.7 32.0
80 0.874 48.4 35.0 45.9 35.6
90 0.868 47.9 39.2 45.3 31.0

Time Mass of Product Air Air humidity drying rate

(min) evaporated Moisture Humidity after tray (%) (kg/min)
water (kg) Content (%) before tray
(%)
0 0.000 7.47 45.10 47.92 0
10 0.008 6.37 56.03 44.35 0.0008
20 0.016 5.25 62.21 47.71 0.0008
30 0.032 2.92 82.46 58.22 0.0016
40 0.038 2.02 88.44 57.11 0.0006
50 0.045 0.94 59.88 45.36 0.0007
60 0.052 -0.16 53.35 47.11 0.0007
70 0.057 -0.96 48.56 36.39 0.0005
80 0.062 -1.77 41.80 51.31 0.0005
90 0.068 -2.76 58.63 36.65 0.0006

Calculations:

By using the sample from ,

Mass balance:

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UEMK2411 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY I GROUP 09

( )

( )

( )

Provided that is the total mass and is the tray mass.

( )

( ) [ ( )]

for sand is obtained from Table A-14 from the Fundamentals of Heat and Mass
Transfer 6th ed. by Frank P.Incropera.

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UEMK2411 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY I GROUP 09

Graph of Moisture Content(%) vs

Time(min)
8

6
Moisture Content(%)

0
0 20 40 60 80 100
-2

-4
Time(min)

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UEMK2411 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY I GROUP 09

Graph of Drying Rate(g/min) vs Moisture

Content(%)
1.8
1.6
1.4
Drying Rate(g/min)

1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
-4 -2 0 2 4 6 8
Moisture Content(%)

Part 2:

Initial mass of rice / dry sand 0.678 kg

mass of tray 0.253 kg
amount of water added 0.053 kg
total mass (wet sand + trays + holder) 0.931 kg
Moisture content percentage 7.250341997 %
cross sectional area of trays 0.0752 m^2
Axial fan Frequency 10 min
Heater temperature 65 ( )

Time (min) Mass, m T1 Dry T2 Wet T3 Dry Bulb T4 Wet Bulb

(kg) Bulb Inlet Bulb Inlet Outlet ( ) Outlet ( )
( ) ( )
8 0.924 50.2 36.2 47.6 32.1
9 0.917 47.0 39.0 44.2 30.8
10 0.91 38.7 32.6 33.7 29.5
11 0.908 43.3 34.3 40.4 30.0
12 0.902 46.2 37.5 42.5 30.5

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UEMK2411 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY I GROUP 09

Fan Mass of Product Air Humidity Air Drying g/min

Frequency evaporated Moisture before tray humidity rate
(Hz) water (kg) Content (%) after tray (kg/min)
(%) (%)
8 0.007 6.29 41.00 34.55 0.0007 0.7
9 0.014 5.34 61.07 38.86 0.0007 0.7
10 0.021 4.38 65.75 73.60 0.0007 0.7
11 0.023 4.10 55.02 47.35 0.0002 0.2
12 0.029 3.28 57.81 42.63 0.0006 0.6

The calculation for the mass of evaporated water, moisture content and drying rate is
the same and values will be provided in the tables.

( )

( ) [ ( )]

for sand is obtained from Table A-14 from the Fundamentals of Heat and Mass
Transfer 6th ed. by Frank P.Incropera.

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UEMK2411 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY I GROUP 09

Graph of Drying rate(g/min) vs Fan

frequency(Hz)
0.8
0.7
Drying rate(g/min) 0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Fan Frequency(Hz)

DISCUSSIONS

After conducting the experiment, the results obtained were tabulated and
plotted into graphs. For the part 1 of the experiment, we were required to dry the
sands in the tray drying equipment for about . Results were recorded in
an interval of . When plotting the graph of Moisture Content VS Drying
Time, the graph obtained found out to be having negative moisture content against
drying time. Theoretically, the graph will be having a trend of linearly decreasing.
However, the graph we obtained was decreasing and decreased further along the
drying time. This might due the moisture of the sand initially contained some water.
So when we dried the sand in the drying chamber for more than , we
obtained a negative value for the moisture content. This is due to the initial rate of
moisture that we took as a reference point.

Asides that, the graph of drying rate VS moisture content seems to be

fluctuating along the -axis. Theoretically, the graph should be having a trend that
will increase dramatically to a certain period. Then after that it will remain constant.
However, the plots we got were like unstable drying rate. This might due to some
reason that caused it to be. While conducting the experiment, the major problem that
we encountered was the heater on the tray drier. According to the lab manual, the
heater is supposed to heat up the air that being sucked into the chamber by the axial
fan. Therefore, it has a sensor that will cause it to automatically control the power
supply when the desired temperature reached and heat up against once the

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UEMK2411 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY I GROUP 09

temperature drops. However, the malfunction of the heater might leads to the
inaccuracy of the experimental results whereby the heater did not heat up when the
temperatures of the air flow drops until it has a very big gap with the set value. This
decreased the accuracy of the dry bulb temperature and the wet bulb temperature that
we need for calculations.

Based on the results tabulated, we need to find the percentage of air humidity
in the tray dryer. By having the values of wet bulb temperature and dry bulb
temperature, with the help of psychrometric chart, the air humidity can be found. In
our results, we used psychrometric calculator provided by Sugartech to find the air
humidity. Based on the calculations, we calculated that the dryer has only an
efficiency of which was extremely low for the efficiency.

For the Part 2 of the experiment, we manipulated the fan frequency to see the
effect of fan frequency on the drying rate. The results were recorded down for an
interval of for each set of fan frequency starting from to .
From the results obtained, a graph of Drying Rate VS Fan Frequency was plotted.
The graph plotted shows a constant drying rate across fan frequency. But when the
fan frequency was set to , the drying rate decrease instantaneously to .

This is because at that particular time, the tray dryer equipment became malfunction
again. The heater did not heat up the air flow to the temperature that we set which
was . This cause the air temperature to drop and thus the humidity inside the
chamber at that moment increase. When the air humidity in the chamber increased,
the evaporation of water from the sand hard to occur, thus the drying rate was low.
However, the heater automatically turned on again when we change the frequency to
. That was why the drying rate increase again after . Thus, after
performing the calculations, we obtained that the efficiency of the same tray drying
unit has a value of . It was much better compared to its efficiency of dryer in
Part 1.

There were some precautions that need to be taken into account during the
experiment. Firstly, the heater must be switched on and the fan must be turned on.
Next, the wet bulb temperature sensor must always being make sure it was wet
enough. In addition, when measuring the mass of the tray, sands and water, the
weigh balance reading must be stable before the reading was recorded as the balance

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UEMK2411 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY I GROUP 09

is too sensitive until a single movement on it will affect the results. Safety measure
had been taken when dealing with the tray dryer unit as it might be a very hot surface
especially the heating element, thus gloves are prepared in order to prevent burn
injuries.

CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, the objectives of the experiment were achieved. The drying

test was successfully performed on the solids used sands and the effect of air
velocity on drying rate were studied. Asides that, the heat and mass transfer analyses
of a drying process were performed by obtaining the values in the calculations.

REFERENCES
1. Drying of solids. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2011, from Classof1:
http://classof1.com/homework_answers/chemical_engineering/drying_of_soli
ds/

2. Henley, E. J., Seader, J., & Roper, D. (2011). Separation Process Principles
3rd Edition. Asia: John Wiley & Sons Pte Ltd.

3. Incropera, F. P., Dewitt, D. P., Bergman, T. L., & Lavine, A. S. (2005).

Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer. Asia: John Wiley & Son Inc.

4. Solids Drying. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2011, from GEA Barr Rosin:
http://www.barr-rosin.com/applications/solids_drying.asp

5. Fellows, P.J. (2000). Food Processing Technology - Principles and Practice

(2nd Edition). (pp: 309-340). Woodhead Publishing.
Online version available at:
http://www.knovel.com/web/portal/browse/display?_EXT_KNOVEL_DISPL
AY_bookid=213&VerticalID=0

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