b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 1 6 3 e1 7 1

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Research Paper

Mass transfer during forest biomass particles

drying in a fluidised bed

Rogelio M. Moreno a,*, Gregorio Antolı́n b, Alejandro E. Reyes c

a
Instituto de Materiales y Procesos Termomeca
nicos, Universidad Austral de Chile, Casilla 567 Valdivia, Chile
b
Departamento de Ingenierı́a Quı́mica y Tecnologı́a del Medio Ambiente, Universidad de Valladolid, 47011,
Valladolid, Spain
c
Departamento de Ingenierı́a Quı́mica, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Casilla, 10233, Santiago, Chile

article info
The drying of biomass particles is an important industrial process where heat and mass
Article history: transfer simultaneously occur. Following on from our previous work on convective heat
Received 25 September 2019 transfer, here we report experimental results obtained by analysing the mass transfer
Received in revised form between the gas and the surface of the wood particles, during drying in a mechanically
1 August 2020 stirred fluidised bed. It is assumed that, during the constant drying rate period, the
Accepted 3 August 2020 moisture concentration of the gas on the surface of the particle is constant. The results
Published online 27 August 2020 have allowed us to obtain a correlation between the Sherwood number and the Reynolds
number in the range of Rep between 102 and 257; the proposed correlation Shgp ¼ Shgp (Rep)
Keywords: predicts the surface mass transfer coefficient with an average deviation of 30% in relation
Fluidised bed to experimental data.
Mass transfer © 2020 IAgrE. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Particles drying
Forestry biomass
Gasesolid fluidised bed
Gasesolid mass transfer

operate efficiently moisture levels need to be significantly

1. Introduction
The drying of biomass particles is an important component in
the development of industrial technologies related to the
exploitation of forest biomass, such as biomass combustion or
gasification, densification and the manufacture of particle
boards.
Research on drying materials is important due to its high
energy consumption. In the case of biomass, the problem is
the high initial moisture content of the feedstock which nor-
mally exceeds 100% d.b. For most industrial processes to
reduced below these levels.
The mass transfer between the surface of a wet particle
and a fluid receiving the moisture released by the solid, is
governed by an equation which is analogous to the Newton
equation for convection in heat transfer phenomena, that is:

mv ¼ kgp Ap ðcv;s  cv;∞ Þ (1)

where: mv is the water vapour mass flow transferred be-
tween the solid and the gas in kg s1; kgp is the surface mass
transfer coefficient between the solid and the gas in m s1;

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: rmoreno@uach.cl (R.M. Moreno), greant@eii.uva.es (G. Antolı́n), alejandro.reyes@usach.cl (A.E. Reyes).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2020.08.003
1537-5110/© 2020 IAgrE. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
164 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 1 6 3 e1 7 1

Nomenclature Dcml Logarithmic-mean difference of concentration of

2 vapour in moist air, kg m3
A Cross section of the empty bed, m
l Molecular mean free path, m
Ap Superficial area of an arbitrary particle, m2
mg Gas viscosity, N s m2
cv Mass concentration of water vapour in the moist
rg Gas density, kg m3
air, kg m3
rp,0 Dry particles density, kg m3
cv,i Mass concentration of water vapour in the moist
La Stirrer height, m
air at the entrance of the bed, above the 
mda Dry air mass flow rate in the bed, kg s1
distributor, kg m3 
mv Water vapour flow rate between the solid and the
cv,o Mass concentration of water vapour in the moist
gas, kg s1
air at the exit of the bed, kg m3
N Rotational speed of stirrer, s1
cv,s Mass concentration of water vapour in the moist
p Air pressure, Pa
air on the particle surface, kg m3
pcA Critical pressure of the component A, atm
cv,∞ Mass concentration of water vapour in the moist
pcB Critical pressure of the component B, atm
air outside the boundary layer, kg m3
PMA Molecular weight of the component A, kg kmol1
dp Weight mean diameter of biomass particle, m
PMB Molecular weight of the component B, kg kmol1
DAB Binary diffusivity for system A-B, m2 s1
R2 Explanation variance
Dp Diameter of the equivalent-volume sphere, m
Sp Particle surface area per unit volume of solids, m2
Dv Diffusivity of the vapour in the air, m2 s1
m3
hgp Gas-particle heat transfer coefficient, W m2 K1
t Time, s
kg Gas thermal conductivity, W m1 K1
T Temperature, K
kgp Gas-particle mass transfer coefficient, m s1
TcA Critical temperature of the component A, K
Knp Knudsen number, l/Dp
TcB Critical temperature of the component B, K
wa Humidity ratio of moist air d.b., kg kg1
U Superficial gas velocity, m s1
Nugp Nusselt number, hgp Dp/kg
Umf Minimum fluidisation velocity, m s1
Rep Reynolds number, rg U Dp/mg
va Specific volume of moist air, m3 kg1
Scg Schmidt number, mg/rg Dv
Vp Particle volume, m3
Shgp Sherwood number, kgp Dp/Dv
w Moisture content in the biomass d.b., kg kg1

Ap, is the surface area of an arbitrary particle in m2; cv,s is the

mass concentration of water vapour of the gas at the surface 2. Review on biomass drying in fluidised bed
of the particle in kg m3; and is cv,∞ the mass concentration of
water vapour in the moist air outside the boundary layer in 2.1. Mass transfer in particulate systems
kg m3.
Equation (1) is also useful in mathematical modelling of the In the case of gasesolid particulate systems, using Bucking-
drying process because it allows convective boundary condi- ham's Theorem p dimensionless analysis of convective mass
tions in the differential equation to be established that can transfer can show that Sherwood's number adopts a generic
predict the distribution of moisture concentration in the form similar to that of the Nusselt number in heat transfer,
solids during the drying process. that is:
The objective of this research is the experimental deter- kgp Dp
mination of the convective mass transfer coefficient kgp for the Shgp ¼ ¼ cRem n
p Scg (2)
DAB
drying of forest biomass particles in a fluidised bed. Its value is
difficult to predict analytically due to the complexity of the where: Shgp is the Sherwood's number; Dp is the diameter of
phenomenon, since it depends on the transport properties of the sphere of volume equivalent to that of the particle in m;
the fluid, the dynamic characteristics of the flow around the DAB is the molecular diffusion coefficient of component A in a
solid, the flow patterns in the particle bed and the geometry of binary mixture AB in m2 s1; Rep is the Reynolds number of the
the system. particle and Scg is the Schmidt number of the gas.
Thus, as in gas-particle heat transfer, kgp must be deter- For the problem of convective drying in fluidised beds, the
mined experimentally, in which there is difficulty in binary mixture concerned is moist air (i.e. dry air and water
measuring the value of the moisture concentration in the gas vapour) where the component A is water vapour, ie DAB ¼ Dv
cv,∞. In this research, during the constant drying rate period and thus:
the moisture concentration in the air at the surface of the


kgp Dp rg UDp m mg n
particle cv,s is assumed to be constant. Shgp ¼ ¼c (3)
Dv mg rg Dv
 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 1 6 3 e1 7 1
where: rg is the density of the air in kg m3; U is the superficial
velocity of the air in the bed in m s1; mg the dynamic viscosity
of the air in N s m2; and Dv is the molecular diffusion coef-
ficient of water vapour in moist air.
In the case of a spherical particle located in a gaseous fluid
moving at an externally imposed velocity U, it has negligible
natural convection effects and the experimental correlation
proposed by Froessling (1938) can be used:


 sawdust, soybeans and fish feed.
rg UDp 1=2 mg 1=3
Shgp ¼ 2:0 þ 0:60
mg rg Dv
for 0.6 < Scg ¼ mg/rg Dv < 2.7 and 2 < Rep ¼ rgUDp/mg < 800.
For fixed beds, Ranz and Marshall (1952) reported an
expression for the calculation of the Sherwood number for
large particles (Rep > 80) in liquid and gas systems. When
applied to gaseous systems, the equation can be written as:
Shgp ¼ 2:0 þ 1:8Rep1=2 Sc1=3
g (5)
For gaseous system fluidised beds, Kunii and Levenspiel
(1969) highlighted the complexity of the phenomenon and
the measurement of the mass transport coefficient due to the
presence of bubbles, whose presence in the bed produces hot
air masses that by-pass and do not touch the particles. As in
heat transfer, in the Rep low range, the Sherwood number falls
sharply with respect to the 2.0 value as predicted by Eq. (5) and
that this corresponds to the limit case of an isolated spherical
particle transferring mass, with the medium in resting con-
dition (i.e. pure diffusion). For these ranges, the use of the
correlations derived by Richardson and Szekely (1961) are
proposed:
Shgp ¼ 0:374Re1:18
p para 0:1 < Rep < 15
Shgp ¼ 2:01Re0:5
p para 15 < Rep < 250
For gaseous fluidised bed systems, there is some research
on the coefficients of mass transfer, such as the work of
Ciesielczyk (1996) who determined mass transfer coefficients
in the constant drying rate period of the drying process.
In a subsequent work investigating the drying of particles
in a vacuum fluidised bed, Kozanoglu, Vilchez, Casal, and
Arnaldos (2001) report a correlation of the form:
Shgp ¼ 5882Re3:07
p Knp
2:94
where Knp corresponds to the Knudsen number defined as:
l
Knp ¼
Dp
where: l is the mean free path of the molecules in m.
The dependence of the mass transfer on the Knudsen
number replacing the normal dependence with the Schmidt
number can be justified in this case by the low pressures to
which the product is subjected during the drying, since, as it
decreases the pressure, the free path of the molecules is also
modified.
As in heat transfer, in the phenomenon of mass transport,
there are large discrepancies between the correlations, due to
variations in the properties of the fluidised solids, to as-
sumptions regarding the type of fluidisation regime (steady
165
state or transient) and type of pattern of flow (plug flow or
back mix flow), as well the method used to calculate differ-
ences in water vapour concentration in the gas phase adjacent
to the particles, which appear in the calculation equations.
Alvarez and Shene (1996) obtain the effective diffusive co-
efficients of mass transfer in the interior of the solid using
experimental drying curves. It was concluded that the effec-
tive coefficient is in the range of 2  1011 to 1  109 m2 s1 for
The above studies are focused on the phenomenon of
(4)
moisture flow inside wood particles and wood chips, respec-
tively, assuming that mass transfer occurs by diffusion and
does not cover the analysis of the convective mass transfer
phenomenon in the interface gasesolid.
Vasic, Grbavcic, and Radojevic (2014) studied the drying
process through experimental data and proposed calculation
methods for the effective diffusion coefficient.
The study of mass transport inside solids requires knowl-
edge of the convection mass transfer coefficient kgp. This is
particularly required when modelling with the Fick equation
and boundary conditions that consider the external resistance
of the gas-solids transfer. This type of models with external
resistance are especially important in processes in which a
large part of the drying process takes place under conditions
of constant drying rate, where the kgp convective coefficient
plays an important role. The results of Turanjanin, Stakie, &
Vodnik (1998) and Moreno, Antolin, & Reyes (2016) confirm
that the drying process in wood particles develops mainly
with constant drying rates.
2.2. Drying of forest biomass
(6)
One of the few reported studies on sawdust drying in units of
(7) particle beds was carried out in the USA by Malte, Dorri,
Emery, Cox, and Robertus (1983). In this research, particles
larger than those considered in this study were studied,
reaching particles of up to 10 mm and operating temperatures
between 350 and 550 K. Turanjanin, Stakie, & Vodnik (1998)
experimentally obtained drying curves in fluidised bed
under different operating conditions and with different spe-
cies found in Yugoslavia. The initial moisture content was
1 kg kg1 d.b. and concluded that the kinetics of sawdust
drying in fluidised bed units is strongly influenced by the
(8)
operating temperature, and that there are no significant dif-
ferences when experimenting with different materials.
Zabaniotou (2000) studied the drying of forest biomass in
(9) Greece, in a rotary dryer, using a combination of experimental
results with a mathematical model composed of three stages:
a preheating stage, a drying stage at a constant drying rate and
another stage with a rate of decreasing drying.
Pang (2000) simulated the drying process of wood fibres
found in New Zealand, to obtain fibres with a moist content
percentage close to 9e11% that are used in the manufacture of
MDF boards (medium density fibreboard). It was shown that
the drying can be divided into three stages: for moist content
above 50% the liquid moisture evaporates on the surface of the
fibre and the vapour then diffuses into the air stream. For
moist contents between 20 and 50% moisture evaporates in-
side the material, decreasing the rate of drying. Finally, if the
166 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 1 6 3 e1 7 1

moist content drops below 20%, the movement by diffusion of

the bound water and the movement of steam in the material, 
mda va dcv ¼ kgp ðcv;s  cv ÞSAdl (13)
control the drying and the rate of drying falls sharply.
3 1
Reina, Velo, and Pigjaner (2001) carried out a study in Spain, where: va is the specific volume of moist air in m kg .
on fluidisation of wood waste particles in a mechanically When Eq (13) is integrated from a point on the distributor,
agitated fluidised bed equipment focusing the analysis on the for a bed height l, the following is obtained:
fluid dynamic behaviour of the bed. They showed that it is
cv;s  cv;i kgp Sp A
possible to fluidise particles by combining the action of the gas ln ¼ l (14)
cv;s  cv mda va
flow with the mechanical agitation. However, they do not
recommend the use of stirrer speeds above 0.5 s1 to achieve where: cv,i is the mass concentration of moisture in the air at
fluidisation. Particle drying analysis was not performed. the entrance of the bed, on the distributor in kg m3.
Banerjee (2001) carried out an experimental study in the If this equation is represented by a semi-logarithmic graph
USA aimed at measuring the release of terpene during the then its slope can be used to determine the material transfer
drying of sawdust particles and Renstro € m and Berghel (2002), coefficient kgp. In principle, this procedure leads to a local
analysed the possibilities of drying biomass particles in Swe- value of the mass transfer coefficient, if it varies with height.
den with superheated steam using a jet bed dryer. The Nevertheless, using an analogous methodology to that used in
maximum energy efficiencies obtained in the study are of the a previous study (Moreno, Antolı́n, & Reyes, 2016), using an
order of 70% when the operating temperature was 240  C. average coefficients of kgp, the mass balance equation for the
Values for the heat transfer coefficients between the material entire bed can be written as:
and the steam were reported and the values fluctuated be-

tween 20 and 70 W m2 K1. mv
kgp ¼ (15)
Ap Dcml

where: Dcml is the logarithmic mean difference of moisture

3. Material and methods concentration in the gas phase in kg m3.
The logarithmic mean difference in moisture concentra-
3.1. Methods
tion is defined as:

In mass transfer, mean values of the mass transfer co- cv;s  cv;0
Dcml ¼
 (16)
efficients for the whole bed can be calculated using results cv;s cv;i
ln cv;s cv;o
obtained experimentally. It is assumed here that, in analogy
with heat transfer, the moisture concentration in the moist air Since the equation applies to the entire bed, then Ap ¼ SpVp
(cv,∞) shown in Eq. (1), at a given bed height, is uniform across and
the cross section of the bed and that the mass transfer is

completed in a very small distance on the distributor. mv
kgp ¼ (17)
To determine the values of the convective mass transfer Sp Vp Dcml
coefficient in the biomass-air system, for the period of constant
In terms of the drying rate (-dw/dt) Eq. (17) can be written
drying rate, a mass balance can be made. Thus, for a bed element
as:
of thickness dl, the differential flow of moisture from the surface
of the particles to the moist air, according to Eq (1) is:

rp;0 dw
dt

dmv ¼ kgp ðcv;s  cv ÞSp Adl (10) kgp ¼ (18)
Sp Dcml

where: dmv is the differential mass flow of water vapour For the experimental analysis of the mass transfer coeffi-
transferred between the solid and the gas in a bed differential cient over the period of the constant drying rate, it was
element of the bed dl in kg s1; cv is the mass concentration of assumed that the concentration of water on the surface of the
moisture in the moist air in kg m3; Sp is the particle surface particles corresponds to that of the saturated air that is at the
per unit bed volume in m2 m3; A is the cross section of the wet bulb temperature of the moist air (Ciesielczyk, 1996), since
empty bed, in m2; and dl is a bed differential height in m. in this period the product shows a wet surface.
The water vapour flow can be related to the moist content The calculation of the diffusivity of the vapour in the gas,
of the moist air through: Dv, was made using the equation of Slattery and Bird (1958)
which is valid for mixtures of gases A and B at low pressures:
 
dmv ¼ mda dwa (11)
b
pDv T
where:
 1
is the mass flow of dry air in kg s- and dwa is the
mda
1=2 ¼ a pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (19)
 1=3 TcA TcB
differential variation of the humidity ratio of the moist air in a pcA pcB ðTcA TcB Þ5=12 1
PMA
þ PM1 B
bed differential element dl in kg kg1.
where: p is the gas pressure in Pa; pcA is the critical pressure of
Then:
the component A in atmospheres; pcB is the critical pressure of

mda dwa ¼ kgp ðcv;s  cv ÞSp Adl (12) the component B in atmospheres; TcA is the critical tempera-
ture of the component A in K; TcB is the critical temperature of
If incompressible flow is considered, then: the component B in K; PMA is the molecular weight of the
 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 1 6 3 e1 7 1 167

component A in kg kmol1; PMB is the molecular weight of the mechanism was coupled to a variable speed motor allowing
component B in kg kmol1; T is the temperature of the gas in K; the rotational speed of the agitator inside the bed to be varied.
and the constants have the following values: The mechanism had a 15 mm height (La) to avoid entrapment
a ¼ 3.64  104 y b ¼ 2.334. of particles in the area close to the distributor (Moreno et al.,
For the calculation of the mass transfer coefficient, using 2016).
an analysis of the aerodynamics of the biomass particles in Temperature sensors were installed and connected to a
contact with the air from Moreno, Antolı́n, and Reyes (2009) data acquisition system, consisting of a Digi-Sense Scanning
the particle surface area Sp was determined: Thermometer of 12 channels (ColeeParmer Instrument
Company, Model 92000-05, Barrington, IL USA), resolution
Sp ¼ 6737 d0:1237
p ; R2 ¼ 0:960; w ¼ 0:15kg:kg1 ; 0:89mm  dp 0.1 K and ±0.5 K accuracy, with a RS-232 output to a PC, to
 3:56mm collect and to analyse the information in Windows using a
(20) ScanLink 2.0 software. Data was collected every 4 s. The dryer
temperature control system consists of a PT100 temperature
and
sensor placed in the pre-chamber, under the distributor and
Sp ¼ 3778 dp0:2432 ; R2 ¼ 0:972; w ¼ 2:0 kg:kg1 ; 1:44 mm  dp connected to a Fuzzy Logic micro-processor controller.
Experiments were carried out using a bed of Pinus Radiata
 3:56mm
biomass particles with the inlet temperature to the dryer and
(21)
the gas outlet were recorded during drying. Because it was
necessary to place thermocouples at the inlet and outlet of the
3.2. Experimental work
bed, the gas sensor on the exit of the bed or freeboard (Fig. 2),
was protected with a filter during each drying test to prevent
The experiments were carried out in a fluid bed particles
particles influencing the outlet gas temperature measure-
dryer, shown in Fig. 1. The drying chamber had a circular
ment, as shown in Fig. 3.
section diameter of 0.3 m.
Moreover, to avoid errors caused by the heat transferred
The chamber allowed, for a bed height of 0.17 m and a
from the air to the distributor, the gas temperature was
moisture content of 0.12 kg kg1 d.b., to be loaded with
measured at the inlet of the bed, i.e., at a point just above the
approximately 2 kg of particulate biomass.
air distributor. The temperature of gas flowing through the
The chamber had an internal agitator built of steel with a
distributor had a rapid temperature drop when it came into
vertical axis and two mixers with two blades each. The
contact with the particles and reached equilibrium at a height

Fig. 1 e Schematic diagram of experimental equipment: (1) air blower; (2) motor; (3) frequency converter; (4) air heater; (5)
drying chamber; (6) air distributor; (7) agitator; (8) cyclone; (9) water manometer; (10) Pitot tube; (11) Bourdon manometer; (12)
Thermometer; (13) room thermocouple probe; (14) PT100 probe; (15) drying and bed temperature probes; (16) scanning
thermometer; (17) temperature/relative humidity probe; (18) humidity logger; (19) RS-232 cable; (20) computer; (21) fuzzy-
logic micro-processor, and (22) electric power.
168 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 1 6 3 e1 7 1

Regarding the geometric implications of this study, the

system analysed here belongs to the category of a large par-
ticle fluidised bed (i.e. dp > 0.5 mm) with the characteristic of
being subjected to high air flows in order to maintain particles
in suspension. Large particles fluidisation systems are not
often studied, however Adams (1984) carried out research into
bed-surface heat transfer and not to solid-fluid contacts nor
mass transfer processes. Operating a fluidisation system with
large particles implies that the Reynolds number will rise
above 100, the limit below which most of the correlations in
the literature are found.
Rotation velocity of the agitator N is considered a param-
eter in this study to verify whether previous results obtained
by Moreno, Antolı́n, and Reyes (2007) on energy consumption
could be ratified by examining the behaviour of the mass
transfer coefficient.
Thus, for the mass transfer phenomenon there are three
controlling factors (U, dp y N). Experiments were carried out
considering each particle size with superficial air velocity
within the range in which fluidisation occurs. Experiments for
each pair (dp-U) were performed with two agitator speeds to
Fig. 2 e Psychrometric sensor at the exit of the particle bed.
study possible variations of kgp with N. Each of the 10 experi-
ments with their respective levels were used to determine the
mass transfer coefficient as shown in Table 1. The operating
temperature in all tests was set at a constant value of 423 K.
The high uniformity of bed temperature was checked in
curve temperature evolution during drying. From the point of
view of kinetics drying, this translates in a bed of high quality
with a very regular drying curve, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5; this
regularity of the drying curve allowed highly reliable data to be
obtained with drying kinetics correlation coefficients
R2 ¼ 0.9955 and 0.9964 and respectively.
Table 2 shows the results obtained for the convective co-
efficient kgp calculated by Eq. (18). The R2 value indicated in the
table corresponds to the correlation coefficient used to obtain
the evaporation rate dw/dt from the experimental drying
curve, which is used together with Eq. (18) to determine the kgp
coefficient.
Table 3 shows the experimental results for the Sherwood
Fig. 3 e Protective filter of the temperature and relative number Shgp, using the first equality of Eq. (3) for this research
humidity sensor of the air. and compares the results with those obtained by dimension-
less correlations proposed by others authors. It was concluded
that these correlations Shgp ¼ Shgp (Rep, Pr) have large differ-
ences between them and also do not reliably predict the mass
above the distributor <20 mm (Moreno, 2005). This is in line
with other reports (Kunii & Levenspiel, 1969; Vanecek,
Markvart, & Drbohlav, 1966) and it confirmed with other
experimental results from Temple and Van Boxtel (1999) and
Table 1 e Experiments for determining the coefficient kgp.
Watano, Yeh, and Miyanami (1999).
The physical properties of the fluid, presented in the Experiment Randomness dp U (m s1) N (s1) Umf
(number) (mm) (m s1)
dimensionless numbers, were evaluated at the fluid film mean
temperature surrounding the particle. The particle tempera- 1 6 0.89 0.71 1 0.46
ture was considered to be equal to the wet bulb temperature. 2 8 0.89 0.71 2 0.46
3 9 1.44 0.77 1 0.56
4 2 1.44 0.77 2 0.56
5 5 1.85 0.81 1 0.66
4. Results and discussion 6 10 1.85 0.81 2 0.66
7 3 2.18 0.82 1 0,80
The design of experiments considered that the mass transfer 8 7 2.18 0.82 2 0.80
coefficient to depend mainly on the superficial velocity and 9 1 3.56 1.02 1 0.95
particle size. 10 4 3.56 1.02 2 0.95
 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 1 6 3 e1 7 1 169

Fig. 4 e Biomass drying curve in an agitated fluidised bed; dp ¼ 2.18 mm; N ¼ 2 s¡1; Umf ¼ 0.82 m s¡1; M0 ¼ 2.0 kg;
wi ¼ 1.5 kg kg¡1; T ¼ 423 K.

Fig. 5 e Biomass drying curve in an agitated fluidised bed; dp ¼ 1.85 mm; N ¼ 2 s¡1; Umf ¼ 0.81 m s¡1M0 ¼ 2.0 kg;
wi ¼ 1.5 kg kg¡1; T ¼ 423 K.

Table 2 e Experimental results for mass transfer coefficient.

Experiment (number) Dp (mm) Rep Dcml (g m3) dw/dt (kg kg1min1) R2 kgp (m s1)
1 2.44 102 17.2 0.0670 0.99 0.010
2 2.44 103 17.4 0.0565 0.994 0.006
3 2.7 124 12.5 0.0553 0.986 0.008
4 2.7 124 12.4 0.0586 0.997 0.014
5 2.84 136 10.1 0.0640 0.985 0.015
6 2.84 134 10.1 0.0631 0.996 0.015
7 3.13 148 10.5 0.0773 0.973 0.016
8 3.13 150 10.4 0.0645 0.996 0.012
9 4.3 256 14.3 0.0957 0.985 0.020
10 4.3 257 14.7 0.0992 0.99 0.015
170 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 1 6 3 e1 7 1

Table 3 e Comparison of Sherwood number values

obtained and those from other authors.
Rep Shgp Froessling Ranz and Richardson
(1938) Marshall (1952) and Szekely (1961)
102 0.98 7.1 17.4 20.3
103 0.62 7.1 17.4 20.4
124 0.83 7.6 18.9 22.4
124 1.56 7.6 18.9 22.4
136 1.69 7.9 19.7 23.4
134 1.66 7.9 19.6 23.3
148 1.99 8.2 20.5 24.5
150 1.53 8.2 20.6 24.6
256 3.52 10.1 26.3 32.2
257 2.54 10.1 26.4 32.2

transfer coefficient in drying processes of biomass particle in

fluidised bed.
In Fig. 6 the correlation obtained by adjustment between
the Sherwood number and the Reynolds number is shown. It
was confirmed that the speed of rotation factor was not Fig. 7 e Comparison of the experimental kgp values with
influential in the mass transfer coefficient since the variations values calculated with the proposed correlation according
that could be found in the kgp coefficient with N were random, to Eq. (23).
as can be seen in Fig. 6. This result is consistent with that
obtained by Moreno et al. (2016) in the study of gas-particle
carried out an analysis of dimensionless parameters and ob-
heat transfer.
tained the following correlation between the Nusselt and
A correlation for the calculation of the coefficient of mass
Reynolds numbers:
transfer in a fluidised bed of forest biomass for the period of
constant drying rate is proposed to be of the following type: Nugp ¼ 3:0x103 Re1:28 for 100 < Rep < 250 (24)
p
3
Shgp ¼ 1:6 x10 p ;
Re1:38 R ¼ 0:75 para 100 Rep < 250
2
(22) This allowed the heat transfer coefficient hpg to be calcu-
lated using:
or:



 kg rg UDp 1:28
rg UDp 1:38
3 Dv hgp ¼ 0:003 (25)
kgp ¼ 1:6x10 (23) Dp mg
Dp mg

which have been adjusted to the experimental data, as can

be seen in Fig. 7 with a deviation between 20 and 30%
approximately.
This result shows a close similarity with the results of
Moreno et al. (2016) who studied the gas-particle heat transfer
for the fluidised bed biomass particle drying process. They
Fig. 6 e SherwoodeReynolds correlation for a forest
biomass fluidised bed according to Eq. (22). R2 ¼ 0.75.
5. Conclusions
Using data from a laboratory equipment for the drying of
forest biomass particles in a fluidised bed, the coefficient of
convective mass transfer between the fluidising gas and the
solids was determined.
The uniformity of the drying process was obtained by
means of a mechanical agitation system that allowed
breaking the agglomerates of biomass particles in the drying
chamber. The drying process was carried out with stirring
speeds of 1e2 s1. The superficial velocity of the bed varied
between 0.72 and 1.02 m s1 for particles with average size
between 0.89 and 3.56 mm; the operating temperature was
423 K.
Based on a mass balance and the experimental determi-
nation of the drying rates, the mass transfer coefficient was
obtained, which varied between 6  103 and 20  103 m s1.
A correlation between the Sherwood number and the Rey-
nolds number was determined.
There were sudden variations in the temperature of the
drying air in the distributor before equilibrium was achieved.
Also, there were small differences between the temperature of
the gas and the particle, with the latter assumed to be equal to
that of the humid bulb of the air. This confirmed the existence
 b i o s y s t e m s e n g i n e e r i n g 1 9 8 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 1 6 3 e1 7 1
of a complete mixing flow pattern, which was foreseeable as
the drying chamber is a fluidised bed. According to experi-
mental measurements carried out on the distributor plate, the
entrance zone extended approximately 20 mm above the
distributor, confirming the results of other authors.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the financial support of Direccio
n

n y Desarrollo of the Universidad Austral de
de Investigacio
Chile and to Universidad de Valladolid de Espan~ a.
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