SIMULTANEOUS HEAT AND

MASS TRANSFER
(SHMT)
7th Semester,
B.Sc. Chemical Engineering
Session 2014

Delivered by:
Dr. Usman Ali

Department of Chemical Engineering

University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore
 Drying Fundamentals

Drying is unit operation

Involves the removal of relative small amounts

of water or another liquid from solid material.

In drying Heat & Mass are transferred

Simultaneously.
 Purpose of Drying

To reduce the cost of transport.

To make the material more suitable for handling.

To provide definite properties to the solid.

To remove moisture which may lead to corrosion.

 Action in Dryers

Mechanically

Liquid removal
Thermally
 Moisture:

Moisture = mass of liquid / mass of solid

1. Dry basis

2. Wet basis
 General Terminology

Equilibrium moisture

Free moisture

Bound moisture

Unbound moisture
Types of Moisture
 General Terminology
 Humidity
 Saturated gas
 Saturation humidity
 Percentage humidity
 Relative Humidity
 Humid Heat
 Humid volume
 Dew point
 Classification of Drying
Equipments
 Mode of operation
 Heat input type
 State of material
 Operating Pressure
 Drying Temperature
 Drying medium
 Relative motion
 Stages
 Gas-Solids Contacting - Direct dryer

Cross-circulation Drying

Through-circulation Drying

Showering of Solid

Fluidized

Entrained
 Gas-Solids Contacting – Indirect Dryer

Solid is spread at stationary surface

Solids are moved at heated surface.

Solids slide by gravity on inclined heated surface or

carried upward for a time then slide
 Temperature pattern in Dryers

Temperature variation in dryer depends upon

o Nature of feed

o Liquid content of feed

o Temperature of heating media

o Drying time

o Allowable final temperature of dry solid

 For Batch Dryer
 Heating media is at constant temperature
 Temperature of wet solid rises from initial value to
vaporization temperature
 Non adiabatic dryer
Tv = B.P of liquid

 Adiabatic dryer
Tv = wet bulb temperature
For Batch Dryer
 For Continuous Dryer
Solid – same pattern as in Batch

Steady state operation

Tv is constant

Gas enter Thb & low humidity

o Cools rapidly at first then more slowly

o Humidity rises steadily

For Continuous Dryer
Heat Transfer Calculations
For Internal Heat Transfer
For flow through fixed or fluidized
bed of solid particles
For Internal Heat Transfer
Number of Transfer Unit
 Problem
Flourspar (CaF2) is to be dried from 6 to 0.4 percent
moisture dry basis in a countercurrent adiabatic rotary
dryer at a rate of 18000 lb/hr of bone dry solids. The
heating air enters at 1000 oF with a humidity of 0.03 and
a wet bulb temperature of 150 oF. The solids have a
specific heat of 0.48 Btu/lb-oF; they enter the dryer at 70
oF and leave at 200 oF. The maximum allowable air
velocity is 2000 lb/ft2-h.
(a) Assuming eq….. applies , what would be the diameter
and length of the dryer if Nt = 2.2? Is this a resonable
design?
(b) Repeat part (a) with Nt = 1.8.
Phase Equilibria
CONTD
 General Terminology : Again

Equilibrium moisture

Free moisture

Bound moisture

Unbound moisture
 Equilibrium Moisture

Equilibrium moisture content is the limiting moisture

to which a given material can be dried under specific
conditions of air temperature and humidity.
 Free Moisture
Moisture which is in excess of equilibrium moisture
content.

Free moisture content is that liquid which is

removable at a given temperature and humidity.
Free M.C = Total M.C – Equilibrium M.C
 Bound Moisture
Bound moisture in a solid is that liquid which exerts a
vapor pressure less than that of the pure liquid at the
given temperature.
Substance containing bound water are called
hygroscopic substance
Liquid may become bound
o by retention in small capillaries,
o by solution in cell or fiber walls,
o by homogeneous solution throughout the solid, and
o by chemical or physical adsorption on solid surfaces.
 Unbound Moisture
Unbound moisture in a hygroscopic material is that
moisture in excess of the equilibrium moisture
content corresponding to saturation humidity.

All water in a non-hygroscopic material is unbound

water.

Held in the voids of solid

 Cross Circulating Drying
Mechanism of drying:
o Nature of solid
o Gas solid contact
Solids
o Crystalline
o Porous
o Non-porous
 Rate of Drying

Constant Rate Period

Falling Rate Period

 Constant Rate Period
Mass transfer based or Heat transfer based,

For parallel air flow : For perpendicular air flow :

 Critical Moisture
Critical moisture content is the moisture content
when the constant-rate period ends.

Critical moisture content varies with

Thickness of material

Rate of drying
 Falling Rate Period
Rate of drying depends on:
o Nonporous solid and Diffusion theory
o Porous solid and Capillary theory
Nonporous Solid and Diffusion Theory
Porous Solid and Capillary Theory
Mass Transfer in Dryers
Drying Equipment
 Direct (convective) dryers:

a. Direct contacting of hot gases with the solids is employed for solids
heating and vapor removal.
b. Drying temperatures may range up to 1000 K, the limiting temperature
for most common structural metals.
c. At gas temperatures below the boiling point, the vapor content of gas
influences the rate of drying and the final moisture content of the solid.
With gas temperatures above the boiling point throughout, the vapor
content of the gas has only a slight retarding effect on the drying rate
and final moisture content. Thus, superheated vapors of the liquid
being removed (e.g., steam) can be used for drying.
d. For low-temperature drying, dehumidification of the drying air may be
required when atmospheric humidities are excessively high.
e. The lower the final moisture content, the more fuel per pound of water
evaporated, that a direct dryer consumes.
 Indirect (conductive) Dryers:
1. Heat is transferred to the wet material by conduction through
a solid retaining wall, usually metallic.
2. Surface temperatures may range from below freezing in the
case of freeze dryers to above 800 K in the case of indirect
dryers heated by combustion products.
3. Indirect dryers are suited to drying under reduced pressures
and inert atmospheres to permit the recovery of solvents and
to prevent the occurrence of explosive mixtures or the
oxidation of easily decomposed materials.
4. Indirect dryers using condensing fluids as the heating medium
are generally economical from the standpoint of heat
consumption, since they furnish heat only in accordance with
the demand made by the material being dried.
5. Dust recovery and dusty materials can be handled more
satisfactorily in indirect dryers than in direct dryer
Based on methods of solids handling
 Drying Equipment

Dryers for Solids and Pastes

Dryers for Solutions and Slurries
Dryers for Solids and Pastes
Tray Dryer
 TRAY DRYER

It consists of a rectangular chamber whose

walls are insulated.
Trays are placed inside the heating
chamber. The number of trays may vary
with the size of the dryer. Each tray is
rectangular or square and about 30in square
in area .
Trays are usually loaded from 2 to 6in
deep.
 Alternately the trays can be placed in
trucks on wheels , which can be rolled
into and out of chamber. Two such trucks
can be arranged inside dryer.
 Dryer is fitted with a fan for circulating
air over the trays. Electrically heated
elements are provided inside (rather than
outside) to heat the air.
 In the corner of the chamber, direction
vanes are placed to direct air in the
expected path.
The method is operated batch wise.
Loading and unloading can be done without
losses.
Only a fraction of the solid particles is directly
exposed.
The method is costly and time consuming (4 to
48hr per batch).
Valuable products like dyes and
pharmaceuticals as well as sticky materials,
plastic substances, granular mass or crystalline
materials, can be dried in a tray dryer.
Tray Dryer
Screen Conveyor Dryer
 Screen Conveyor Dryer
Material is slowly carried on traveling metal
screen through long chamber consisting of series
of sections of fans and heaters.
 Inlet : upward movement.
 Outlet : downward movement.
Coarse, granular, flaky, or fibrous materials can be
dried without pre-treatment while pastes and
filter cakes requires pre-treatment before
processing.
Steam consumption is low and there cost is
reasonable.
Screen Conveyor Dryer
Tower Dryer
 Tower Dryer
 A tower dryer consists of series of circular
trays mounted on central rotating shaft.
Solid feed on topmost tray is exposed to hot
gas or air then it is scraped off and dropped to
the next tray below.
Flow : Parallel or Countercurrent.
Tower Dryer
Rotary Dryer
 Rotary Dryer
 Revolving cylindrical shell, horizontal or slightly
inclined toward the outlet.
 Internal flights lift the solids and shower them down.
Direct contact rotary dryer.
Indirect contact rotary dryer.
Steam tube rotary dryer.
Direct-indirect rotary dryer.
 Flow : Parallel or Countercurrent.
 Air draft : Induced or Forced draft
 Applicable to all kinds of granular and crystalline
materials like salt , sugar………
 Rotary Dryer

Rotary dryers are designed on basis of heat transfer:

Rotary Dryer
`
Rotary Dryer
Screw-Conveyor Dryer
 Screw-Conveyor Dryer
Continuous indirect dryer ; consisting of
horizontal screw in a cylindrical jacketed shell.
Rate of rotation is slow ( 2 to 30 r/min).
It handle solids that are too sticky and too fine
for rotary dryer.
They permit recovery of volatile solvent
vapors from solvent-wet solids: meal from
leaching operations.
That’s why they are known as desolventizers.
Fluid-Bed Dryer
 Fluidized Bed Dryers
Systems in which the solid particles are
partially suspended in an upward moving gas
stream.
In this dryer hot air (gas) is passed at high
pressure through a perforated bottom of the
container containing granules to be dried.
The hot gas is surrounding every granule to
completely dry them. Thus materials or
granules are uniformly dried.
 Fluidized Bed Dryers
Two types of bed dryers are available,
vertical fluid bed dryer and
horizontal fluid bed dryer.

Efficient heat and mass transfer give high

drying rates, so that drying times are shorter
than with static bed dryers.
The free movement of individual particles
eliminates the risk of soluble materials.
 Fluidized Bed Dryers
The turbulence of the fluidized state may cause
excessive attrition of some particles, with
damage to some granules and the production of
too much dust.
The vigorous movement of particles in hot dry
air can lead to the generation of static electricity
charges and suitable precautions must be taken.
This dryer is properly used for drying of granules
in the production of tablets. It can be used for
three operations such as mixing, granulation and
drying.
Flash Dryer
 Flash Dryer
 A wet pulverized solid is transported for a few
seconds in a hot gas stream.
Drying takes place during transportation.
Rapid drying , no more than 3 to 4s
 Tgin = 650oC Ts = 50oC
Applicable to sensitive materials.
Sometimes pulveriser is also there to give
simultaneous drying and size reduction.
Flash Dryer
Dryers for Solutions and Slurries
Spray Dryer
 Spray Dryer
A slurry or liquid stream is dispersed into a hot
gas stream in the form of mist of fine droplets.
 Moisture rapidly vaporized leaving dry solid
product.
Flow : Parallel or Countercurrent or Combination
Droplets are formed by:
Pressure nozzle.
Two-fluid nozzle.
High speed spray disks
 Spray Dryer
 A dimensional equation for volume-surface
diameter:

Short drying time.

Desired consistency in product quality and
properties(bulk density , appearance, flow
prop.).
 Spray Dryer
Applicable to drying of highly heat sensitive
materials , and the production of solid or
hollow or porous particles.
They are bulky, large , highly inefficient and
not easy to operate.
Spray Dryer
Thin Film Dryer
 Thin Film Dryer
Two sections:
Vertical agitated evaporater
Dryer
Thermal efficiency is much high.
They are expensive and limited heat transfer
area.
They are useful in removing and recovering
solvents.
Thin Film Dryer
Drum Dryer
 Drum Dryer or Roller Dryer
The drum dryer consists of a horizontally
mounted hollow steel drum of 0.6 to 3.0 metres
diameter and 0.6 to 4.0 metres length, whose
external surface is smoothly polished.
Below the drum, feed pan is placed in such a way
that the drum dips partially into the feed.
On one side of the drum a spreader is placed and
on the other side a doctor’s knife is placed to
scrap the dried material.
A storage bin (or a conveyor ) is placed
connecting the knife to collect the material
 Drum Dryer or Roller Dryer
Steam is passed inside the drum. Simultaneously drum
is rotated at the rate of 1-10 revolutions per minute.
The liquid material present in the feed pan adheres as
a thin layer to the external surface of the drum during
its rotation.
The method gives rapid heat drying and mass transfer
are higher.
The entire material is continuously exposed to heat
source.
The equipment is compact with short heating time.
 Drum Dryer or Roller Dryer
Drum dryer is used for drying solution slurries
suspensions etc.
The products dried are milk products, starch
products, ferrous salts, suspensions of zinc
oxide, suspension of kaolin, yeasts, pigments,
malt extracts, antibiotics, DDT, calcium,
insecticides and barium carbonates.
Drum Dryer
 Freeze Drying
 Freeze drying is nothing but a conduction drying
method that is operated under vacuum followed by
heat transfer in the dryers.
Freeze drying also known as sublimation drying or
lyophilization or cold drying but commonly known as
“Freeze drying” and “Sublimation drying”.
This method known as freeze drying as based on
from the state of the material.This method also
known as sublimation drying as based on the
mechanism of drying.
 BASIC PRINCIPLE
 Sublimation drying consists simply of reducing both the
temperature & pressure below the triple point. As a result,any
heat transferred is used as latent heat and the ice sublimes
directly to the vapour state.The vapour so produced is quickly
removed by using power exhaust system.
 Considerations to be taken into account:
o The temperature must be below 273.1598 k. The usual range is
between -10 to -30ºc.
o Similarly,the pressure must be below 610 N/m2.The usual range is
between 10 to 30 N/m2.
TRIPLE POINT
 BASIC ELEMENTS
1.Freezing
2.Vacuum
3.Primary drying/Sublimation phase
4.Rate of drying
5.Secondery drying/Ordinary vacuum drying
6.Packaging
 BASIC ELEMENTS
Pre-freezing :The solution can be pre-frozen,
that is, before the start of the drying process,
and this is usually applied to large containers
such as blood bottles.
Vacuum : To reduce the pressure sufficiently it is
necessary to use efficient vacuum pumps,
usually two stage rotary pump-for the small
scale and ejector pump-for the large scale.
 BASIC ELEMENTS
Rate of drying : The rate of drying in freeze drying is very
low,the ice being removed at a rate of about 1 mm
depth/hour
Secondary drying : The primary drying process leaves
products with about 0.5 % moisture in the solid and this
is removed by secondary drying process.The usual
method is to raise the temperature often as 50 to
600c.The use of such a high temperature may seem
surprising in view of the remarks in the primary
drying,but the secondary drying period is ordinary
vacuum drying, the product is virtually free from
moisture & the risk of hydrolysis is become negligible.
 BASIC ELEMENTS
Packaging: In view of packaging of the freeze
dried products, special care must be done to
ensure protection from moisture.
Containers should be closed without contacting
the atmosphere
 Freeze drying
In this process, the material is first frozen and then dried by
sublimation in a very high vacuum, 10–40 N/m2, at a
temperature of 240–260 K.
During the sublimation of the ice, a dry surface layer is left,
though this is not free to move because it has been frozen,
and a honeycomb structure is formed.
With normal vacuum drying of biological solutions containing
dissolved salts, a high local salt concentration is formed at the
skin, although with freeze drying this does not occur because
of the freezing of the solid.
Thus, freeze drying is useful not only as a method of working
at low temperatures, but also as a method of avoiding surface
hardening.
 Freeze drying
Heat has to be supplied to the material to provide the heat of sublimation.
The rate of supply of heat should be such that the highest possible water
vapour pressure is obtained at the ice surface without danger of melting the
material.
During this stage, well over 95 per cent of the water present should be
removed, and in order to complete the drying, the material should be allowed
to rise in temperature, to say ambient temperature.
The great attraction of this technique is that it does not harm heat-sensitive
materials, and it is suitable for the drying of penicillin and other biological
materials.
Initially, high costs restricted the application of the process though economic
advances have reduced these considerably and foodstuffs are now freeze-
dried on a large.
 Freeze drying
A typical layout of a freeze-drying installation.
Heat is supplied either by conduction, or by
radiation from hot platens which interleave with
trays containing the product, and the sublimed
moisture condenses on to a refrigerated coil at the
far end of the drying chamber.
The use of dielectric-heating, though uneven
loading of the trays can lead to scorching, and
ionisation of the residual gases in the dryer results
in browning of the food.
Freeze drying
 Vacuum dryer

In vacuum dryer, material is dried by the

application of vacuum.
When vacuum is created the pressure is lowered so
that water boils at a lower temperature.
Hence water evaporates faster.
The heat transfer becomes efficient, i.e., rate of
drying enhances substantially.
• The construction of a vacuum dryer is shown
in the following figure. It is made of a cast
iron heavy-jacked vessel. It is so strong that it
can withstand high vacuum within the oven
and steam pressure in the jacket. The
enclosed space is divided into a number of
portions by means of 20 hollow shelves, which
are part of the jacket. These shelves provide
larger surface area for keeping the material.
The oven door can be locked tightly to give an
air tight seal. The oven is connected to a
vacuum pump by placing condenser in
between.
Vacuum dryer provides large surface area
for heat transfer.
Handling of the material, trays and
equipment is easy.
It is easy for switching over to the next
materials.
Hot water of desired temperatures can be
supplied.
Electrically heated hollow shelves can be
used.
In vacuum dryer, heat transfer coefficients
are low.
It has a limited capacity and used for batch
process.
It is more expensive than dryer. Labour and
running costs are also high.
Sometimes, there is a danger of over
heating as the material as the material is in
contact with steam heated surface for longer
period.
 SELECTION OF DRYING EQUIPMENT

 Properties of the material being handled

 Drying characteristics of the material

 Flow of material to and from the dryer

 Product qualities

 Recovery problems

 Facilities available at site of proposed installation

 Important Factors to Consider In
the Preliminary Selection
1. Properties of the material being handled
a. Physical characteristics when wet
b. Physical characteristics when dry
c. Corrosiveness
d. Toxicity
e. Flammability
f. Particle size
g. Abrasiveness
2. Drying characteristics of the material
a. Type of moisture (bound, unbound, or both)
b. Initial moisture content
c. Final moisture content (maximum)
d. Permissible drying temperature
e. Probable drying time for different dryers
 Important Factors to Consider In
the Preliminary Selection
3. Flow of material to and from the dryer
a. Quantity to be handled per hour
b. Continuous or batch operation
c. Process prior to drying
d. Process subsequent to drying
4. Product qualities
a. Shrinkage
b. Contamination
c. Uniformity of final moisture content
d. Decomposition of product
e. Overdrying
f. State of subdivision
g. Product temperature
h. Bulk density
 Important Factors to Consider In
the Preliminary Selection
5. Recovery problems
a. Dust recovery
b. Solvent recovery
6. Facilities available at site of proposed installation
a. Space
b. Temperature, humidity, and cleanliness of air
c. Available fuels
d. Available electric power
e. Permissible noise, vibration, dust, or heat losses
f. Source of wet feed
g. Exhaust-gas outlets
 Numerical
Planks of wood 25.4mm thick are dried from an
initial moisture content of 25 percent to a final
moisture content of 5 percent using air of
negligible humidity. If D’v for the wood is8.3x10-6
cm2/s, how long should it take to dry the wood?
 Numerical
Calculate the diameter and length of a an
adiabatic rotary dryer to dry 2800 lb/h of a heat
sensitive solid from an initial moisture content
of 15 percent to a final moisture content of 0.5
percent , both dry basis. The solids have a
specific heat of 0.52Btu/lb-oF enters at 80F and
must not be heated above 125F. Heating air is
available at 260oFand a humidity of 0.01lb of
water per pound of dry air. The maximum
allowable mass velocity of the air is 700 lb/ft2-h.
Numerical
Numerical