IDS’2022 – 22nd International Drying Symposium

Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, June 26 – June 29,

2022 DOI: https://doi.org/10.55900/logtbdii

Modeling a phosphate flash dryer integrated to a solar heating

source: experimental validation

El Hallaoui, Z.a,b, T. a,b ; Vaudreuil, S. b ; Bounahmidi,T. b ; Abderafi, S. a

a Laboratoire d’Analyse et Synthèse des Procédés Industriels, Ecole Mohammadia

d’Ingénieurs, Université Mohamed V, Rabat, Morocco

b Euromed Research Institute, Euro-Mediterranean University of Fes, Eco-Campus, Fes,

Morocco

*E-mail of the corresponding author: zhor.hallaoui@gmail.com

Abstract
The present work targets the validation of the phosphate flash dryer model
coupled to a thermo-solar heating source. The experimental tests were carried
out with respect to the drying model variables: solid moisture content, product
mass flow rate and air temperature which depends on the climatic conditions.
The flash dryer and solar models were simulated and compared to
experimental data. Results showed the need to use backup systems at winter
time. The drying model was validated for various operating conditions
showing an error of 2%. Finally, a feasabiliy study was performed for targeted
drying operating conditions under various solar variables.

Keywords: flash drying ; phosphate particles ; model validation; experiments;

solar energy ;coupling.

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1. Introduction
Flash drying is part of the enrichment operations of the phosphate ore. It enables reducing
the transport costs and meeting the customer requirements in term of moisture content.
However, this useful operation is mainly based on fossil fuels, it is thus an energy intensive
process and source of green house gas emissions (CO2 and NO2).
In this context, the Moroccan national strategy aims to reduce the external energy
dependency and to shift toward the use of clean energy sources. As Morocco detains a
potential of 3000h/year sunshine duration and an average monthly direct normal irradiances
(DNI) of 3.71kWh/m2/day, the exploitation of the solar energy as a heat source would be
both economically and environmentally winning solutions. Coupling dryers to a solar heating
source should thus ensure the targeted drying temperature and the continuity of the
production. The literature review showed that the developed solar dryers are limited to bench
scale processes, low production rate operation or low temperature operating dryers [1,3].
The mathematical modeling is an effective tool to simulate, design and control processes. In
this sense, the developed phosphate flash dryer model [4] was qualitatively validated and
used to design the bench scale dryer, while the solar field was simulated and validated for
the design of the solar heating source [5].
The present work aims to validate experimentally the drying model, considering the solar
source (solar field and heat exchanger) outputs as the drying model’s inputs. In this sense,
both the solar system and the drying models are presented and simulated using Engineering
Equation Solver (EES) and MATLAB softwares,respectively, for comparison with the
experimental data. As the drying objective function is the final moisture content, the
simulated results will be exploited to estimate the model error.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Flash drying mathematical model
The flash drying for phosphate particles is based on simulteanous balances of momentum,
heat and mass transfers between the drying air and the wet phosphates particles. The model
of El hallaoui et al. [4] was resumed considering the varying thermal properties of phosphates
particles with the drying variables.
Thermal conductivity:

𝑘 = 0,14 − 1.2 𝐸 − 06 ∗ 𝑑𝑝2 + 4.7 𝐸 − 4 ∗ 𝑋2 (1)

Specific heat capacity:
𝐶𝑝 = 0,511 − 1,4910−9𝑑𝑝3 + (8,56𝐸 − 04 + 5,1𝐸 − 06 ∗ 𝑑𝑝 − 1.49𝐸 − 08 ∗ 𝑑𝑝2) ∗ 𝑇 (2)
2.2. Solar heating source model
The solar heating source is composed of the parabolic trough collector (PTC) field integrated
to a spiral crimped oil-to-air heat exchanger where the drying air is heated. The useful energy
by the solar unit is presented [5]:

𝑄𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 = 𝐷𝑁𝐼 ∗ cos(𝜃) ∗ 𝐾(𝜃) ∗ 𝜂𝑜𝑝𝑡 ∗ 𝐴𝑡𝑜𝑡 − 𝑄𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 (3)

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𝑄𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 = 𝑄𝐻𝑇𝐹 ∗ 𝐶𝑝𝐻𝑇𝐹 ∗ (𝑇𝑜𝑢𝑡 − 𝑇𝑖𝑛)𝐻𝑇𝐹 (4)

Where 𝑄𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 denotes for the thermal losses due to convection and radiation with the ambient
air. 𝐾(𝜃) 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝜂𝑜𝑝𝑡 are the incidence angle modifier and optical efficiency, respectively.

The absorbed thermal energy by the PTC will be transferred to the drying air as follow:

𝑄ℎ𝑜𝑡 𝑒𝑥𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 = 𝑄𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 = 𝑄𝑑𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑖𝑟 𝑒𝑥𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 + 𝑄𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 ′ (5)

With the losses at the exchanger are estimated to be 2% of the total energy.

2.3. Experimental set up and procedure

The experimental tests were conducted on the bench scale dryer. The solar flash dryer (figure
1) consisted of an electric blower and draft fan both equipped with a frequency controller for
the inlet air velocity regulation, a screw feeder and a drying column (200mm internal
diameter and 1.7m length).
Before launching the tests, the solar loop PTMx-24 [6] is started and the heating of the HTF
is initiated until reaching the set point of 232°C (depending on the climatic conditions in
terms of DNI, air velocity, air temperature and angle of incidence), to supply the exchanger
where the ambient air will be heated to its maximum temperature which can reach 145°C and
120°C in the summer and winter time, respectively

Fig. 1: schematic diagram of the flash dryer coupled to the solar field

Five thermocouples (type K) were inserted at different positions in the dryer to measure the
air temperature, and connected to an acquisition system for the simultaneous recording of
temperatures during drying .
After reaching the required drying temperature, wet phosphate particles were fed into the
dryer at constant feederate. After drying, the phosphate particles are separated from moist air
by the cyclone, and collected in the product barrel.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Effect of the climatic conditions on the drying air temperature
The drying air is heated indirectly through the heat exchanger with the HTF. Tests zere
performed at various periods, March and July, to study the effect of the climatic conditions
on the HTF outlet temperature leaving the solar field and entering into the heat exchanger,

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and thus on the drying air temperature. Simulations were performed using the Engineering
Equations Solver software, and the calculations were performed considering a maximum
outlet HTF temperature of 250°C circulating with a mass flow rate in the range [0.8-0.9kg/s].
Considering the hourly data of DNI and the solar incidence angle, table 1 shows the variation
of the absorbed solar energy, HTF inlet temperature and their corresponding drying air
temperature, it can be observed that the heat gain is lower in March because of the significant
impact of the incidence angle at noon. This is explained by the orientation of the solar loop
North-South which leads to a maximum optical performance at sunrise and sunset. However,
its value decreases at noon with increased incidence angle.
Table 1 shows the variation of the drying air temperature in the two periods, where the air
temperature is increased in the summer time. This increase enables achieving higher solid
production rate or achieving a lower moisture content at the dryer outlet.

Table 1: Effect of climatic conditions on the dryer performances

THTF_solar TinHTF_exch ToutHTF_exch 𝒎𝑯̇𝑻𝑭 DNI 𝑽𝑯̇𝑻𝑭 IAM*cos(θ) Θ Tair Qgain

(°C) (°C) (°C) (kg/h) (W/m2) 3
(m /h) (°) (°C) (kW)

March 214 210 203,2 3025 901 580 0,85 26 100,8 24

July 224 219 214 3150 810 683 0,99 6 141 25,2

3.2. Flash dryer model validation

The model for phosphate flash dryer was numerically solved using the fourth-order Runge
Kutta on MATLAB to simulate the particle drying under various conditions. The particles
have a size distribution ranging from 80µm to 600µm and a bulk density of 1430 kg/m3.
Tests were conducted varying the inlet conditions in terms of solid feed rate, inlet moisture
content and air temperature. The tests assumed equilibrium achieved at the feeding. The first
test was conducted with 41.3 kg/h mass flow rate, an initial moisture content of 16.3% and
an inlet drying air of 141°C. In addition, the second test was realized with a 50kg/h mass
flow rate having an initial moisture content of 19.8% and an inlet temperature of 108°C.
Simulations results for the two tests presenting the air temperature profile are shown in figure
2 along with the corresponding experimental data. From the figures, it is observed that, at the
entrance region in which the particles are accelerated, the drying rate reaches its maximum
and the major heat/mass transfers occur. The moisture content is thus drastically decreased
along with the drying air, where the two curves run almost similar. In the final stage, the solid
moisture content decreases more slowly until reaching equilibrium with the drying air.
For test 1, the experimental outlet moisture content was 0.58% while the simulations showed
a value of 0.59%, against an experimental of 0.79% and simulated of 0.80% for test 2,
showing good agreement with the experimental data.
The comparison between the experimental data and simulations results showed average error
less than 2% and 4% for moisture content and air temperature prediction, showing good
fitting for practical purposes.

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Fig. 2: Air temperature profile along the dryer. Experimental data VS simulations results

150
simulation test 2
140
130 simulation test 1
Air temperature (°C)

120 experimental test 2

110 experimental test 1
100
90
80
70
60
50
0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1 1,2 1,4 1,6 1,8
z (m)

3.3. Case study: performance analysis

The validated model enables its use for performance analysis of the solar dryer. In this sense,
and in order to ensure a continuous production rate of [50-60kg/h] having an average inlet
moisture content of 15% and being dried to achieve a final moisture content of 1%,
simulations of the dryer model was performed yielded to calculate the required drying
temperature and air flow rate, in the ranges [100-133°C] and [0.1931-0.2615 kg/s]
respectively. Because the drying temperature is an output of the solar heating source model,
simulations were then performed to determine the climatic conditions required to achieve the
targeted temperatures, as illustrated in table 2. Tests were simulated for two periods-March
and July- at an average HTF mass flow rate of 0.87 kg/s, considering the solar field maximal
capacity of 29 kW. It is showed that for the targeted flash dryer parameters, the solar source
was unable to furnish the required mass flowrate at the targeted drying temperature. In
addition, it was necessary to use the electrical backup system (16 kW) on March to meet the
dryer requirement.
According to the available conditions of the solar fied, the effective air mass flowrate was
therefore calculated and simulations were performed to determine the corresponding solid
outlet moisture content
As expected, a decrease in the air mass flow rate yielded to an increase of the outlet moisture
content. In some cases, the final moisture content is the objective function, so adapting the
production rate is the only possibility to perform tests under inadequate conditions.

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Table 2: Feasibility study of drying under different solar conditions

Flash dryer parameters Solar heating source outputs

(MCtarget=1%) ( THTF=230°C)

Qprodution Qair Tair period DNI Qgain,solar Backup Air flow rate Real final
(kg/h) (kg/s) (°C) (W/m2) (kW) (kW) for targeted moisture
temperature content (%)
(kg/s)
50 0.2615 100 March 930 23.9 4 0.225 2.6
60 0.1931 133 July 900 29 0 0.121 6.1

Conclusions
The paper presents the model validation of a solar flash dryer for phosphate particles. A solar
heating source model is used to study the effect of climatic conditions on the drying air. It is
observed increasing air temperature at the summer time, enabling thus to achieve the drying
adequately. Then, the flash dryer model is simulated for a bench scale dryer (1.7m*200mm)at
various conditions in terms of air temperature, solid production rate and initial moisture
content. As expected, the air temperature and solid moisture content decreased along the
dryer length, and were compared to experimental data. The comparison showed a relative
error of 2% and 4% for moisture content and air temperature prediction. The validation of
the model was then used to study the feasibility to operate the solar dryer for a production
rate of 50kg/h at different solar operatings conditions. It was found that the dryer
requirements (air temperature and flowrate) were enable to meet with the actual solar system
capacity, implying thus to reduce the air mass flow rate for the targeted temperature. This
reduction yielded to an increase of the solid outlet moisture content up to 6% against 1%
targeted.

Funding
This work was supported by IRESEN—Institut de Recherche en Energie Solaire et Energies
Nouvelles.

Nomenclature
A Area m2
C heat capacity (J/kg)
Cd drag coefficient -
dp Particle diameter m
f frictional coefficient -
g Gravity acceleration (m/s2)
G Mass flow rate Kg/s
k Thermal conductivity w/m-K
K(θ) Incidence angle modifier -
(IAM)

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h convective heat transfer W/m2.K

coefficient
H Air humidity kg/kg
Lv latent heat of vaporization (J/kg)
MC Moisture content Kg/kg
P Pressure Pa
Q Heat W
T Temperature C
V Velocity m/s
Greek letters
ɛ Volume fraction (-)
ρ Density (kg/m3)
Ƞ Efficiency -
Subscripts
A Air
P Particle

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