Experiment # 2

Tray Dryer

Objectives: Calculate the percentage moisture content of wet rice husk removed in a rotary drier by

varying the temperature of hot air.

Apparatus:

 Rotary Drier

 Weighing Balance

 Beaker

 Thermometer

 Stop watch

 Gloves.

Reagents:

Sand, Water

Theory:

The simplest form of the dryer in this category is a cabinet with a heater at the bottom that is laboratory

oven. The dryers are made of trays held in a cabinet which is connected to a source of air heated by an

electrical heater. The air temperature is usually controlled by a thermostat which is normally set between

50 and 70˚C. The air enters the bottom of the chamber below the trays and then rises, through the trays of

food being dried, and exits from an opening in the top of the chamber. In the Practical Action systems the

trays are designed to force the air to follow a longer zigzag route which increases the air/food contact time

and thus improve its efficiency. This system also reduces back pressure which means that cheaper, smaller
fans can be used. There are three basic types of tray dryer cabinets; batch and semi-continuous. Practical

Action has worked with the first two systems

Equipment:

The apparatus comprises of an air heated chamber in which air is drawn using a duct through a mesh guard

motor driven fan impeller. The air passes over an electrically heated element where the temperature of the

air is raised up and is then introduce to the chamber which contains wet material in a pan. After passing

over the drying trays, the air is discharged at atmosphere through an outlet duct section. The Experimental

Objectives of Tray Drier is to study the drying characteristics of a solid material under drying condition in

a tray dryer by varying.

 The hot air inlet temperature.

 The hot air inlet flow rate

Diagram:

Heater
Switches
On/off

Switch

Air
Outlet
Trays

Hot
Inlet Air

Air Heating

Chamber

Tray Dryer
Parts of Tray Dryer:

1. Trays

2. Hot Air Inlet

3. Air Heating Chamber

4. Heater Switches

5. Air inlet Duct

6. Air Outlet Duct

7. Air Blower

8. Heater Switches

Application:

A large number of manufacturing processes necessitate the drying of a product or material. Although there

are many different types and operating characteristics of industrial driers, the Tray Drier has been designed

to provide an experimental facility based on one of the most fundamental designs. The Tray Drier enables

the basic principles of drying to be investigated and may examine the effect solid structure and mass and

heat transfer associated with general drying behavior

Principle:

In tray dryer hot air is continuously circulated. Forced convection heating takes place to remove moister

from the solids placed in trays. As the water evaporates from the surface, the water diffuses from the interior

of the solids by the capillary action

Procedure:

1. Setup the apparatus.

2. Before running the experiment, make sure that no material is present on the tray of drier.

3. Prepare 2-3 Kg wet feed.

 4. Calculate the initial moisture content of the feed.

5. Turn on the heater and air blower and set the temperature and speed for flowing air.

6. Spread the wet feed on tray of the drier and place it on tray racks.

7. Note down the initial time or set the stopwatch to zero.

8. After 10 min, take out the tray from the rack.

9. Calculate the moisture content for product obtained from the tray after drying.

10. Calculate the moisture drop of the sand.

11. Repeat the above process by varying the temperature of hot air.

12. Compare the different results obtained.

Observation & Calculation:

Sr. # T OC Sand Moisture Wet Sample Dry Sample

Kg Kg Ww Wd

1 100 0.508 0.228 0.736 0.694

2 110 0.508 0.178 0.686 0.632

𝐖𝐰−𝐖𝐝
𝐌𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 = 𝐌𝐧 = × 100
𝐖𝐰

Mn = moisture content (%) of material n

Ww = wet weight of the sample, and

Wd = weight of the sample after drying

𝟎.𝟕𝟑𝟔−𝟎.𝟔𝟗𝟒
Mn1 = 𝟎.𝟕𝟑𝟔
× 100 = 5.70 %

𝟎.𝟔𝟖𝟔−𝟎.𝟔𝟑𝟐
Mn2 = 𝟎.𝟔𝟖𝟔
× 100

Mn2 = 7.87 %
Result:

At 100OC (Mn1) drying percentage was 5.7% that is less than the drying percentage of (Mn2) at 110 OC

that was 7.87%. 38% drying increased by increasing the temperature of 10OC.

Comments:

Drying is directly proportional to temperature. As much as we increased the temperature drying percentage

will also increase and that means moisture content will remove more with the increase of temperature.