Scale-up of paddle dryer based on experimental
drying kinetics data
Wenyi Deng
School of Environmental Science and Engineering
Donghua University
Shanghai 201620, China
dengwy@dhu.edu.cn
Abstract—The drying kinetis data of sludge in a paddle dryer
were utilised for scaling up of batch dryer and continuous dryer.
In the scaling up of batch dryer, the drying kinetics data can be
directly used for drying area calculation. The moisture content of
sludge at different drying time can also be easily determined. In
the scaling up of continuous dryer, the dryer was partitioned into
a series of drying units. Thus the the average drying rate in
different drying unit can be calculated based on the drying
kinetics data, as well as the important design parameters such as
drying surface area, evaporation capacity and moisture
distribution in continuous dryer.
Keywords- drying kinetics; batch; continuous dryer; scale-up
I. INTRODUCTION
The production of sewage sludge from wastewater
treatment plants (WWTP) has been continuously increasing
for many years in China. At present, over 9.18 millions tones
of dry solid sludge are produced in China per year. Most of the
sewage sludge from WWTP in China is applied directly or
[1]
indirectly to agriculture land or disposed by land filling . For
sewage sludge treatment, usage and disposal, a low moisture
content within the material is usually required. Mechanical
solid-liquid separation devices such as filters or centrifuges
are not always sufficient to insure a high dehydration, then a
thermal drying step is often necessary. Thermal drying of
sewage sludge is a very important intermediate stage to all
disposal method, as it is able to stablize the sludge, reduce its
volume and abate the odor of the product.
978-1-4244-7161-4/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE
Yaxin Su
School of Environmental Science and Engineering
Donghua University
Shanghai 201620, China
suyx@dhu.edu.cn
Plenty of reports can be found on drying kinetics of sludge[2-9].
However, only a few reports on application of experimental
drying kinetics data to scale-up of sludge dryer can be
found[10, 11]
. In China, more and more paddle dryers are
adopted for sludge drying in recent years. In spite of a number
of industrial applications, their design remains empirical. In
this study, scale-up of batch and continuous paddle dryer
based on experimental drying kinetics data was studied.
II. SLUDGE DRYING KINETICS
The drying kinetics of sludge can be obtained from
experiments or theoretical simulation. Fig.1 and Fig.2 show
the typical drying kinetics of sludge from drying experiments
of sewage sludge in a paddle dryer. As shown in the figures,
the drying process of sewage sludge in the paddle dryer can
be separated into three phases, i.e. pasty, lumpy and
particulate phase. When sludge is introduced into the dryer, its
phase is lumpy. After a few minutes, with the increase of the
bulk temperature and agitation of the paddles, it becomes
pasty. The torque of dryer shafts and the sludge drying rate
can well illustrate the evolution of the sludge phase. It can be
found that there were two falling rate periods during sludge
drying process. The one is located in the pasty and lumpy
phase where sludge drying rate decreases rapidly due to heat
transfer effect deterioration of the paddle dryer. The other is
located in granular phase where sludge is completely dried.
Based on our previous research, the drying kinetics of
sludge in the paddle dryer can also be simulated by the
penetration model[12, 13]. The foundation of the model rests on
the description of the random particle motion effect. The
steady mixing is replaced by a sequence of unsteady mixing
steps. During a fictitious period tR, the bulk is static.
Thereafter, an instantaneous perfect macro-mixing of the bulk
occurs, followed by the same static period again. This is the
so-called penetration theory[14]. For its application to drying, a
drying front is assumed to penetrate from the hot surface into
the bulk during the static period. When this period ends, the
bulk is perfectly mixed and thereafter the drying front moves
again into the bulk. tR is postulated to be a function of the time
scale of the mixing device and is defined as the ratio of the
stirrer speed to the mixing number, Nmix. For several dryer
groups, the Froude number, Fr, is used to correlate
Drying rate is assumed to be a purely heat transfer controlled
process.
Fig.1 Typical drying kinetics of sludge in a paddle dryer
Fig.2 Drying rate vs time
III. SCALE-UP OF BATCH DRYER
The batch dryer is a kind of paddle dryer that operated in
batch-wise. Fig.3 shows a batch paddle dryer of bench scale.
The moisture content of sludge in the batch dryer can roughly
be regarded as homogeneous. Therefore, as shown in Fig.1,
the drying rate in the batch dryer can be determined given the
moisture content of sludge. thus the drying kinetics data can
directly be utilised to guide the scale-up of the batch dryer by
following equations:
A=
( M 0 − M e ) md (1)
t
³0
D(t )dt
t
A³ D(t ) dt
Mt = M0 − 0 (2)
md
Where A is the hot surface area of dryer; M0 and Me are,
respectively, the initial and the final moisture content of
sludge; D(t) is the drying rate of sludge at the time of t; md is
Nmix[15]. dry solid content in dryer; Mt is the moisture content of sludge
after drying for t min. It should be noted that the sludge
volume in dryer will shrink with decrease of moisture content.
Therefore, the contact area between sludge and the hot surface
of dryer will also decrease with drying process. Fig.4 shows
relations between sludge volume and effective drying surface
area. It can be found that the sludge volume is almost
proportional to the effective drying surface area. As a
consequence, the hot surface area calculated by eq.(1) should
be multiplied by a factor that take into account the reduction
of effective drying surface area.
Fig.3 Batch paddle dryer of bench scale
 Fig.4 Relations between sludge volume and effective drying surface area Where mevp, min and mout are, respectively, the evaporation
capacity, the handling capacity and the output of the dryer; D
IV. SCALE-UP OF CONTINUOUS DRYER
is the average drying rate of the dryer; n is the number of the
Continuous sludge dryer is a kind of dryer that wet sludge drying unit. The D can be regarded as a constant value when
is continuous introduced into the dryer and the dried sludge is the dryer is in stable operation. It should be noted, like the
continuous discharged out of the dryer. It should be noted that case in the batch dryer, that the drying area A should also be
the continuous dryer is much more commonly used than the multiplied by a factor that take into account the reduction of
batch dryer in sludge drying industry. The commonly used effective drying surface area. Fig.6 shows the distribution of
indirect dryers such as Nara-type paddle dryer, rotaplate moisture content in the paddle dryer with 25 drying units.
indirect dryer, vertical multi-tray dryer, thin film dryer, etc.[16],
are all continuous dryers. It is obvious that the moisture
distribution of sludge in the continuous dryer is much
different from that of the batch dryer. The moisture content of
sludge in the continuous dryer decreases along the length of
the dryer (from the inlet to the outlet). Therefore, the drying
rate in the continuous dryer will also change along the length
of the dryer (as shown in Fig.1).
Despite of the great difference between the contact dryer
and the batch dryer, the typical drying kinetics as shown in
Fig.1and Fig.2 can also be used for scaling up of continuous Fig.5 Continuous paddle dryer
dryer. Fig.5 shows the configuration of a continuous
Nara-type paddle dryer. As shown in the figure, the paddle
dryer can be regarded as a combination of a series of drying
units. It can be assumed that the forward velocity of sludge VS
in the dryer is constant. The average drying rate of sludge in
the drying unit can be determined by the following equations:

Distance from sludge inlet to drying unit i

t= (3)
VS
Average drying rate in drying unit i = D(ti) (4)
Fig.6 Sludge moisture content at different drying unit
The drying time t can be determined by eq.(3), thus the
average drying rate is also determined (as shown in Fig.2). On V. CONCLUSION
the other hand, as shown in Fig.1, the average moisture Drying kinetics of sludge in the paddle dryer can be
content of sludge Mi in the drying unit i can also be abtained from experiments or theoretical simulation. The
determined by the average drying rate. The total drying area A drying kinetics can be presented as a function of moisture
can be calculated as follows: content or drying time, depending on the convenience of
mevp (5) scaling up calculation. Since batch dryer is run batch-wise, the
A=
3600 D design parameters of the batch dryer can be easily calculated
from the drying kinetics data. In the scaling up of the
mevp = min − mout (6)
cintinuous dryer, the dryer was partitioned into a series of
n
1 (7) drying units. Based on the assumption that the sludge forward
D= ¦ D(ti )
n i =1 velocity in the dryer was constant, the average drying rates
and moisture contents in drying units can be calculated based
on the drying kinetics data. The drying parameters in drying Environment Journal, 1995. 9(3): 306-316.

units finally lead to the determination of design parameters of [7] A. Reyes, M. Eckholt, F. Troncoso, et al. Drying kinetics of sludge from

the continuous dryer. a wastewater treatment plant. Drying Technology, 2004. 22(9):
2135-2150.
NOMENCLATURE
[8] P. Arlabosse, S. Chavez, C. Prevot. Drying of municipal sewage sludge:
2
A Drying surface area, m From a laboratory scale batch indirect dryer to the paddle dryer.
Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2005. 22(2): 227-232.
D(t) Drying rate, kg H2O/(m2 s)
[9] J. Adamiec. Drying of waste sludges in a fluidized bed dryer with a
D Average drying rate, kg H2O/(m2 s)
mixer. Drying Technology, 2002. 20(4): 839-853.
md Drying solid content, kg [10] Y. Yamahata, H. Izawa, Experimental study on application of paddle
dryers for sludge cake drying, in Drying 1984, Proceeding of the 4th
mevp Evaporation capacity, kg H2O /h
International Drying Symposium, IDS'84. 1984: Kyoto. p. 719-724.
min Handling capacity, kg/h
[11] D. Lecomte, O. Fudym, C. Carrere-Gee, et al. Method for the design of a
mout Output of dry product, kg/h contact dryer-application to sludge treatment in thin film boiling.
Drying Technology, 2004. 22(9): 2151-2172.
Me Moisture content at the end, kg H2O/kg dry solid
[12] W.Y. Deng, X.D. Li, J.H. Yan, et al. Emission and drying kinetics of
Moisture content of original sludge, kg H2O/kg
Mo paper mill sludge during contact drying process. J Zhejiang Univ Sci A,
dry solid
2009. 10(11): 1670-1677.
Moisture content at the time of t, kg H2O/kg dry
Mt [13] W.Y. Deng, J.H. Yan, X.D. Li, et al. Measurement and simulation of the
solid
contact drying of sewage sludge in a Nara-type paddle dryer. Chemical
n The number of drying unit Engineering Science, 2009. 64(24): 5117-5124.
[14] E.U. Schlünder, N. Mollekopf. Vacuum contact drying of free flowing
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
mechanically agitated particulate materials. Chemical Engineering and
The work was supported by the Fundamental Research
Processing, 1984. 18(2): 93-111.
Funds for the Central Universities which is gratefully
[15] N. Mollekopf, Wärmeübertragung an mechanisch durchmischtes
acknowledged.
Schüttgut mit Wärmesenken in Kontaktapparaten. 1983, University of
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