Design and modeling of an experimental rotary dryer of olive stone.

Francisco J. Gómez-de la Cruz(1), Fernando Cruz-Peragón(1), Pedro J. Casanova-

Peláez(1), José M. Palomar-Carnicero(1).
(1)
University of Jaén, Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, 23071, Jaén (Spain).
Tel.: +34 953213002; E-mail address: fjgomez@ujaen.es

Abstract.

Olive stone is a by-product obtained in the olive oil extraction process. During the crushing and
milling stages, the endocarp of the olive is fragmented. Crushed olive stone is separated from olive oil
mill wastes in the olive oil mills by means of mechanical procedures. Mainly, olive stone is being used as
biomass product to generate thermal energy for space heating in commercial building, residential and
homes. Olive stone moisture content ranges from 20% to 30% (wet basis). Drying of olive stone is
fundamental for two reasons. First, to improve the biomass product quality increasing the combustion
yield, and second, to eliminate possible problems in heating boilers due to water vapor condensations.
The vast majority of this by-product is dried in rotary dryers. To improve the drying efficiency of olive
stone in these dryers, we have designed and modeled an experimental rotary dryer and this work describes
the whole process.

1. Introduction – The main by-product obtained in the olive oil extraction is the alpeorujo. It is formed
by a mixture of olive cake and aqueous sludge. In the olive oil extraction process, approximately 80% is
alpeorujo and 10% of this waste is olive stone which is separated by means of mechanical procedures.
Olive stone is separated from three different ways: during the olive oil extraction process, by recovering
from the olive paste or by recovering from virgin or exhausted pomace [1]. Generally, olive stone (the
endocarp of the olive) is accompanied by the pulp (the mesocarp of the olive) and other very fine
particles. In Andalusia (Spain), the average annual production of olive stone ranges from 360000 tons per
year [2].

Mainly, olive stone is being used as biomass product to generate thermal energy for space
heating in commercial building, residential and homes [3]. This biomass product is being consolidated as
one of the best biofuels for thermal energy generation in biomass boilers. Furthermore, the cost per kg is
low compared with other energy sources such as diesel and natural gas, being a tough competitor with
respect to other biomass fuels. Energy released can be regarded as clean. The low Nitrogen and Sulphur
percentages minimizes the NOX and SO2 emissions that are found in acid rain and contribute to the
destruction of the ozone layer [4]. Olive stone has a net calorific value between 18.62 and 19.77 MJ/kg
[5]. This indicates that approximately two kg of olive stone release the same energy that one liter of
diesel. The price of wet olive stone is about 50 or 60 €/ton.

Olive stone moisture content ranges from 20% to 30% (wet basis). Drying of olive stone is
fundamental for two reasons. First, to improve the biomass product quality increasing the combustion
yield, and second, to eliminate possible problems in heating boilers due to water vapor condensations.
Moreover, drying improves the storage and transportation conditions. In this sense, the drying of olive
stone guarantees a biofuel with better energy characteristics than other biomass products with high
moisture contents.

Knowledge of the moisture content in the olive stone is vital for designing and controlling the
drying conditions. First, to optimize the drying times and to increase the production of dry olive stone,
and second, to avoid the loss of volatiles, and even, the combustion of olive stone. Taking into account
the drying kinetics of olive stone [6,7], we have designed and modeled an experimental rotary dryer with
the objective of improving the drying efficiency of olive stone in these dryers.
2. Experimental – The equipment consists of a trommel, a main blower that originates the drying air
flow, a secondary blower connected to aspiration tube which allows for measuring the air velocity, a
cyclone that allows for recovering the suspended particles, a set of electrical resistances to heat the drying
air flow, a feed hopper that is connected to an Archimedes screw which supplies the by-products, a gears
system that produces the trommel rotation, an outlet gases pipe and finally, an Archimedes screw that
allows to obtain the final dry product. All equipment is controlled by a control panel acting on electrical
resistances and electric motors. The rotary dryer expects to dry a production of 120 kg/h from an initial
moisture content of 25 % until its equilibrium moisture content, 8 % (wet basis). A mean drying air
velocity of 1 m/s is required throughout the trommel length and the initial drying air temperature should
be established in 250 ºC. Table I shows the data for process design calculation for drying of olive stone in
the experimental rotary dryers.

Table I. Data for process design calculation of the experimental rotary dryer.
Drying conditions
Inlet drying air temperature, Ta,in (ºC) 250
Outlet drying air temperature, Ta,out (ºC) 110
Inlet solid temperature, Ts,in (ºC) 20
Outlet solid temperature, Ts,out (ºC) 80
Room temperature, T0 (ºC) 27
Solid flow rate, 𝑚̇𝑠 (kg/h) 120
Initial moisture content, Hin (wet basis) 0.25
Final moisture content, Hout (wet basis) 0.08
Specific heat capacity at constant pressure of water, c Pw (kJ/kg·K) 4,22
Specific heat capacity at constant pressure of water vapor, c Pv (kJ/kg·K) 1,84
Specific heat capacity of solid, cPds (kJ/kg·K) 1,6
Latent heat of vaporization of water, 𝜆 (kJ/kg) 2257
Specific heat capacity at constant pressure of air, cPa (kJ/kg·K) 1
Density of the solid, 𝜌𝑠 (kg/m3) 500
Humidity of the inlet air, Yin (dry basis) 0,01
Rotary dryer parameters
Trommel speed, N (rpm) 5,5
Trommel slope, S (%) 1,74
Dryer holdup, H* (%) 10
Permitable air mass velocity, uP (kg/s·m2) 1
Percentage of the dryer cross section represents a free area for the air to pass, j (%) 85
Heat loss factor, 𝛾 (%) 15

The heat transferred to produce the drying of olive stone for steady-state conditions is calculated as [8]:

𝜕𝑄𝑠 𝜕𝑄𝐿 𝜕𝑄𝑣 𝜕𝑄𝐻

𝑄 = (1 + 𝛾) ( + + + ) (1)
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡

Where 𝑄 is the total heat transferred in the rotary dryer (W), 𝛾 is the heat loss factor and
𝜕𝑄𝑠 𝜕𝑄𝐿 𝜕𝑄𝑣 𝜕𝑄
, , and 𝐻 are the heat received by the solid which is invested in raising its temperature (W),
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡
the heat received by the liquid which is invested in raising its temperature before vaporizing (W), heat for
evaporation (W) and heat for reheating which is invested in raising the vapor temperature (W),
respectively. These heats can be calculated as follows:

𝜕𝑄𝑠
= 𝑚̇𝑑𝑠 · 𝑐𝑃,𝑑𝑠 · (𝑇𝑠,𝑖𝑛 − 𝑇𝑠,𝑜𝑢𝑡 ) (2)
𝜕𝑡

𝜕𝑄𝐿
= 𝑚̇𝑑𝑠 · 𝑋 · 𝑐𝑃,𝑤 · (𝑇𝑠,𝑖𝑛 − 𝑇𝑠,𝑜𝑢𝑡 ) (3)
𝜕𝑡

𝜕𝑄𝑣
= 𝑚̇𝑤,𝑒𝑣 · 𝜆 (4)
𝜕𝑡

𝜕𝑄𝐻
= 𝑚̇𝑤,𝑒𝑣 · 𝑐𝑃,𝑣 · (𝑇𝑎,𝑖𝑛 − 𝑇𝑎,𝑜𝑢𝑡 ) (5)
𝜕𝑡
 In this sense, the air mass rate 𝑚̇𝑎 required in order to transfer sufficient amount of heat for the
drying can be obtained as:
𝑄
𝑚̇𝑎 = (6)
𝑐𝑃,𝑎 (𝑇𝑎,𝑖𝑛−𝑇𝑎,𝑜𝑢𝑡 )

Then, the trommel diameter is calculated by the following equation:

4·𝑚̇
𝐷=√ 𝑎 (7)
𝜋·𝑗·𝑢 𝑃

where 𝑗 is the percentage of the dryer cross section represents a free area for the air to pass and 𝑢𝑃 is the
permitable air mass velocity (kg/s·m2).
Residence time and Volume of rotary dryer can be obtained simultaneously from the expression
proposed by Perry and Chilton (Eq. (8)) [9] and the expression proposed by Mujumdar ((Eq. (9))) [10],
respectively as:
0.23·4·𝑉
𝜏= (8)
𝑆·𝑁0.9 ·𝜋·𝐷3

𝜏·𝑚̇𝑠,𝑜𝑢𝑡
𝑉= (9)
𝐻 ∗ ·𝜌𝑠

In these equations 𝑉 is the volume of dryer (m3), 𝑆 is the trommel slope, 𝑁 is the trommel speed (rpm), 𝐷
is the diameter of the trommel (m), 𝜏 is the residence time (minutes), 𝑚̇𝑠,𝑜𝑢𝑡 is the outlet solid flow rate
(kg/s), 𝐻 ∗ is the holdup of the dryer and 𝜌𝑠 is the density of the solid (kg/m3).
The trommel length can be calculated easily as:
4·𝑉
𝐿= (10)
𝜋𝐷2

On the other hand, volumetric heat transfer coefficient can be obtained considering the co-
current rotary dryer as a heat exchanger from the Eq. (11) as follows:

𝜕𝑄𝑠 𝜕𝑄𝐿 𝜕𝑄𝑣 𝜕𝑄𝐻

+ + +
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡
𝑈= (11)
𝑉·𝐿𝑀𝑇𝐷

where 𝑈 is the Volumetric heat transfer coefficient (W/m3·K) and 𝐿𝑀𝑇𝐷 is the log mean temperature
difference (K). And therefore, the empirical parameters 𝐾 and 𝜐 can be found from the Eq. (12):

𝐾·𝐺 𝜐
𝑈= (12)
𝐷

where 𝐺 is the drying air flow rate per unit area (kg/h·m2).
Drying air velocities in the inlet and outlet of the rotary dryer can be calculated as:

𝑚̇𝑎 = 𝜌𝑎 (𝑇, 𝑌) · 𝑣 · 𝐴 (13)

The humidity of the outlet air can be obtained as:

𝑚̇𝑤,𝑒𝑣
𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝑌𝑖𝑛 + (14)
𝑚̇𝑎

Finally, the thermal efficiency of the dryer can be calculated as:

𝜕𝑄𝑠 𝜕𝑄𝐿 𝜕𝑄𝑣 𝜕𝑄𝐻

+ + +
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡
𝜂= (15)
𝑚̇𝑎 ·𝑐𝑃,𝑎 (𝑇𝑎,𝑖𝑛−𝑇0 )
3. Results and Discussion – After establishing the drying conditions, the main parameters of the
geometry and the energy required to dry the by-product in the experimental rotary dryer have been
calculated. Likewise, the heat loss in the trommel has been taken into account. Table II shows the results
of process design calculations in the design and modeling of the experimental rotary dryer of olive stone.

Table II. Results of process design calculations of the experimental rotary dryer.
Parameters calculated
Trommel Diameter, 𝐷 (m) 0,49
Trommel length, 𝐿 (m) 3,5
Volume, 𝑉 (m3) 0,66
Residence time, 𝜏 (minutes) 20
Drying air flow rate per unit area, G (kg/h·m2) 2920
Solid flow rate per unit area, F (kg/h·m2) 636
Total energy required to dry with heat loss, Q (kW) 21,42
Heat loss in the trommel, Qloss (kW) 2,66
Log mean temperature difference, 𝐿𝑀𝑇𝐷 (K) 98,2
Volumetric heat transfer coefficient, U (kW/m3·K) 0,29
𝐾 and 𝜐 parameters 13 and 0,46
Humidity of the outlet air, 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑡 (dry basis) 0,047
Inlet drying air velocity, 𝑣𝑖𝑛 (m/s) 1,2
Outlet drying air velocity, 𝑣𝑜𝑢𝑡 (m/s) 0,91
Thermal efficiency, 𝜂 (%) 55

4. Conclusions – Rotary dryers are equipment very suitable for drying of olive stone. In this sense, an
experimental rotary dryer has been designed and modeled with the aim of improving the drying
conditions in the southern region of Spain. This equipment will serve to perform new experiments that
improve the optimization and control processes in the drying of olive stone as well.

Acknowledgments - This work has been conducted with the financial support of the Spanish “Consejería
Andaluza de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa” through the research projects AGR-6131 (“Modelado y
Control de secadero rotativo de orujo”) and AGR-6509 (“Producción de biocombustible utilizando
hueso de aceituna y residuos de poda de olivo”) as part of the research program “Proyectos de
Excelencia de la Junta de Andalucía 2010-2014”. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial
support provided. The authors gratefully acknowledge to the company “Ecoloma Biocombustibles S.L.”
and to the olive oil mill “S.C.A San Ginés y San Isidro” the contribution of the wet olive stone as well.

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