UNIT OPERATION LABORATORY 2

(CCB 3062)

EXPERIMENT 4:
TRAY DRYER


GROUP 12 MEMBERS :
1) HAN FON YEE 15961
2) MOHAMMAD HANIFF BIN MOHD ZAINI 16025
3) SARASUWATHI RAJASEGARAN 16079
4) MUHAMMAD FIRDAUS BIN AZNAN 16182
5) SITI NORIAYANA BINTI ROSLI 18644

LECTURER : DR. LUQMAN
DATE OF SUBMISSION : 09 JULY 2014

2

INTRODUCTION
Drying is one of the most common methods in separation processes. It is literally defined as
a process applied to remove the moisture, which is water, from substance that contents it.
Technically, in separation process, drying can be defined as a mass transfer process consisting of the
removal of water or another solute by evaporation from a solid, semi-solid or liquid. The solute to be
removed is almost always water.
There are many application of drying processes in routine life, from simple application to
large scale industrial application. Historically, drying has been practiced by primitive societies to dry
meat and fish in the sun so that they can keep their food longer, and it is still applicable in todays
society. Furthermore, drying is likely and widely used in the food preservation process. Drying is one
of the best processes to preserve the foods from the breed of microorganism that can spoil the
foods. The principle of drying process is that the absence of water will avoid and unable the
microorganism to grow and multiple themselves and result with food spoilage and decay.
A large number of manufacturing processes necessitate the drying of product or material
and the equipment used in these industrial operations depends on the particular process and type of
material being dried. For example, the requirements for food processing are more stringent than for
agricultural fertilizer materials and the design of driers for these purposes will be dictated by the
relative importance e of such factors as heat sensitivity, porosity, bulk density and particle size of the
dried material. In fact, since the dried solid is generally a valuable product. Its shape, color, stability,
stickiness and hence its overall sale ability, all depend upon the drying processes to which it has
been subjected.
Although there are many different types and operating characteristics of industrial driers,
the SOLTEQ Tray Drier (Model: BP 772) has been designed to provide an experimental facility based
on one of the most fundamental designs. Drying involves the transfer of liquid from a wet solid to an
unsaturated gas phase such as air and the solid itself can exert a considerable influence on the
drying process. The equipment enables the basic principles of drying to be investigated and students
of process engineering may examine the problems of fluids mechanics, surface chemistry, solid
structure and mass heat transfer associated with general drying behavior.
Our objective by conducting this experiment is to determine the effect of air temperature on
the drying rate of a wet solid. The second objective is to investigate the influence of air velocity on
the drying rate of wet solid in air of fixed temperature and humidity. Two factors were tested; air
temperature and air velocity.
3

OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this experiment are
To study the rates of drying a wet solid in a tray dryer under constant temperature and
humidity conditions of the drying air.
To study the effect of air velocity on drying rate of a wet sold in air at a fixed temperature.
To study the effect of air temperature on drying rate of a wet solid in air at a fixed velocity.
To find out the most optimum conditions for drying rate.

SUMMARY OF PROCEDURE
1) Experiment A
The main outcome of this experiment is to study the effect of air temperature on the drying rate at
constant air velocity. Therefore, the variables of this experiment are as follow
Manipulated variable: Air temperature
Fixed variable: Air velocity
Response variable: Weight loss of the wet solid
This can be achieved by fixing the fan speed of the tray dryer to point 1 to obtain a constant air
velocity while changing the heater power control to vary the air temperature. The weight loss of wet
solid can be acquired by measuring the initial and final weight of the wet solid, that is before and
after the wet solid is being dried in the tray dryer.

2) Experiment B
The main outcome of this experiment is to study the effect of air velocity on the drying rate at
constant air temperature. Therefore, the variables of this experiment are as follow
Manipulated variable: Air velocity
Fixed variable: Air temperature
Response variable: Weight loss of the wet solid
This can be achieved by fixing the heater power control of the tray dryer to point A to obtain a
constant air temperature while changing the fan speed control to vary the air velocity. The weight
loss of wet solid can be acquired by measuring the initial and final weight of the wet solid, that is
before and after the wet solid is being dried in the tray dryer.

4

RESULTS
Effect of Temperature

Time
(min)
Inlet
Humidity
(H1)
Outlet
Humidity
(H2)
Inlet
Temperature
(T1)
Outlet
Temperature
(T2)
Material
Weight
(W)
Water
content
(g)
Moisture
content
(X
E
)
0 67.1 59.7 28.3 27.9 509.9 9.9 0.0198
5 54.3 51.7 30.8 30.4 507.9 7.9 0.0158
10 48.8 47.5 32.1 31.7 505.9 5.9 0.0118
15 48.5 47.3 32.4 32.0 504.6 4.6 0.0092
20 47.6 46.5 32.4 32.0 502.9 2.9 0.0058
25 41.0 42.2 34.6 33.7 500.3 0.3 0.0006

Effect of Velocity
Time
(min)
Inlet
Humidity
(H1)
Outlet
Humidity
(H2)
Inlet
Temperature
(T1)
Outlet
Temperature
(T2)
Material
Weight
(W)
Water
content
Moisture
content
(X
E
)
0 61.5 54.9 29.1 29.0 511.7 6.9 0.01367
5 57.0 52.2 29.9 29.7 510.6 5.8 0.01149
10 52.9 49.8 30.6 30.4 509.6 4.8 0.00951
15 54.7 50.9 30.3 30.1 508.8 4.0 0.00792
20 54.7 51.0 30.3 30.1 507.9 3.1 0.00614
25 55.5 51.5 30.2 30.0 506.7 1.9 0.00376
30 51.7 49.2 31.2 30.9 505.6 0.8 0.00158




5


Effect of Temperature


Effect of Velocity


0
0.005
0.01
0.015
0.02
0.025
0 5 10 15 20 25
M
o
i
s
t
u
r
e

c
o
n
t
e
n
t

X
e

time (min)
Moisture content vs time
0.00000
0.00200
0.00400
0.00600
0.00800
0.01000
0.01200
0.01400
0.01600
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
M
o
i
s
t
u
r
e

c
o
n
t
e
n
t

X
e

time (min)
Moisture content vs time
6


DISCUSSION
1. The experimental data shows that the moisture content in all trays decreases with time. This
indicates that the sand contains free moisture and that the equilibrium moisture content has not
been reached.
2. The experiment was not conducted long enough to establish the equilibrium moisture content
i.e. constant drying rate of the sand in all cases. In the first condition (Temperature A), the
maximum drying rate was not ascertained.
3. In the first experiment, the effect on temperature on the drying rate, it is clear that the drying
rate at any time (except when t = 0) is higher when the temperature is higher. The result shows
that, the wet sand caused the humidity of the inlet air to be higher than the outlet and as the air
go along the hot tray, the humidity reduced, so as the relative humidity.
4. In the second experiment, the effect on air velocity on the drying rate, it is determined that the
drying rate at any time (except when t = 0) is higher when the air velocity is higher.
5. Based on the results obtained, the rate of drying and total moisture content is affected by the air
velocity. As the total moisture content in the sand is decreased, the residential time also
decreased
6. Since the power consumption of the fan and heater could not be determined and the initial
fraction of water in sand is inconsistent, we cannot determine if it is more effective to dry the
sand at a higher temperature or at a higher velocity or a combination of both at different drying
stages.

















7




ERRORS & MODIFICATION

1. Amount of Water Sprayed is Inconsistent This makes it difficult to compare data since the
initial weight of water is not held constant. A fresh batch of dry sand should be sprayed with the
same amount of water for each set.
2. No Power Consumption Reading for Heater and Fan Install at device to provide the readings
so optimum drying conditions can be determined.
3. Weight readings inconsistent The weighing scale should be set to the time weighted average
over a larger period of time to ease reading. The sensor needs to be calibrated or replaced as
multiple readings of the same sample yield different results.


CONCLUSION

From the first experiment, since the air velocity is kept constant, we can conclude that the greater
the temperature of the air provided by the heater, the faster the rate of drying of the moisture in
the sand. Higher temperature indicates that more energy is being supply by the air to easily vaporize
the moisture of the sand.
In the second experiment, we kept the air temperature as our constant variable thus we can
conclude that the higher the velocity of the air velocity, the greater the rate of drying of the sand.
The high movement speed of the air enables the more moisture to evaporate thus less time for the
sand to dry. Because of that, the rate of drying of the second experiment increase as air velocity
increase.