EXPERIMENT No: 1

Tray Dryer

Submitted To:

Sir Haris Humayoun

Submitted By:

Ahmed Mustafa FA16-CHE-032

Usman Maqsood FA16-CHE-107

Muhammad Abdul Rehman FA16-CHE-109

Muhammad Ali FA16-CHE-136

Wajahat Ahmed FA16-CHE-012

Section:

Group No:

8th

Day/Date:

Wednesday / 27th-Feb-2019
 1. Objective:
Determine drying and drying rate curve for wet solid being dried with an air of Constant Temperature
and Humidity (without air re-circulation).

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 2. Theory:

Drying is a mass transfer process consisting of the removal of water or another solvent
by evaporation from a solid, semi-solid or liquid.. The final product from drying process must be
in solid form, because all the moisture contents is being dried up.

Drying occurs because of the vaporization of liquid by supplying heat to wet feedstock. Based on
the mechanism of heat transfer, drying is categorized into direct (convection), indirect or contact
(conduction), radiant (radiation) and dielectric or microwave (radio frequency) drying.

There are many methods of drying such as application of hot air, contact drying, dielectric drying
and supercritical drying. This method of drying involves with different type of drying equipment
such as Tray dryers, Vacuum-shelf indirect dryers, Continuous tunnel dryers, Rotary dryers, Drum
dryers and Spray dryers.

Tray Dryer is most simplest drying process of all above. It is a batch process equipment. In which
we have a tray holder and heater and blower on one side and exit valve on the other side. The
operation mechanism of tray dryer is that hot air is channeled by blower to tray holder side on
which we will have the material. Due to the hot air contact with material the moisture will starting
to remove from the material. The drying time by using tray dryers usually need a longer time.

In industries, tray dryer operates about 12 to 48 hours for solids to be dried. This is because tray
dryers required low capital and maintenance cost but it have poor control and chances to produces
more variable product quality.

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 3. Line Tracing of Equipment:

4. Procedure:

 We closed recycle valve and opened air entering and exit valves.
 We measure the weight of empty tray.
 We filled the trays with dry sand and measured the weight of the tray with sand.
 Then we calculated weight of sand (Total Weight-Weight of Tray).
 We added water on sand in such a way that it gets uniformly wet and we removed any
excess water present.
 Then we measured the weight of tray with sand and water we added to sand (Total Weight-
Weight of tray and sand)
 After Calculating weights we put tray into drier at top shelf.
 We turned on the heater and blower at time=0, speed and heat were kept constant.
 At regular interval of 5 Minutes we checked sample for water content left.
 At the end we calculated moisture removed, drying rate and equilibrium moisture content
values at interval of 5 minutes till completion of drying operation

5. Safety Precautions:

Hazards Precautions

Heat  Wear thermally insulated gloves to handle hot tray being used in
tray drier.
 Moreover, turn the heater and blower off at end of experiment to
avoid overheating.

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 Electrical  Check AC voltage of Source and Equipment (Tray Drier) before
the experiment gets started.
 Also, Stay away from naked or poorly insulated wires.

Also Follow basic lab safety, wear lab coat and safety goggles during lab work.

6. Observation & Calculation:

 Weight of empty tray (A) = 288g

 Weight of dry sand + tray (B) = 524g
 Weight of dry sand (C) = 236g
 Weight of wet sand + tray (Before drying [D]) = 524g
 Weight of wet sand + tray (After Drying [E]) = 542g
 Weight of water removed = D – E = 18 g

Time, t (min) 0 5 10 15 20 25
Weight of Wet Sand (g) 254 254 252 250 248 246
Weight of sand after drying (g) 254 252 250 248 246 242
Moisture Content (g) 18 16 14 12 10 6
Moisture Content Removed, X (g) 0 2 2 2 2 4
Drying Rate, dX/dt, (g/min.) 0 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.8
Equilibrium Moisture Content, XE 0.07627 0.0678 0.05932 0.05085 0.04237 0.02542

Time, t (min) 30 35 40 45 50
Weight of Wet Sand (g) 242 240 240 238 238
Weight of sand after drying (g) 240 240 238 238 236
Moisture Content (g) 4 4 2 2 0
Moisture Content Removed, X (g) 2 0 2 0 2
Drying Rate, dX/dt, (g/min.) 0.4 0 0.4 0 0.4
Equilibrium Moisture Content, XE 0.01695 0.01695 0.00847 0.00847 0

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 7. Graphs:

Time vs Moisture Content

20
18
16
Moisture Content (g)

14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min)

Graph no.1

Time vs Moisture Content Removed

4.5

4
Moisture Content Removed X (g)

3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min)

Graph no.2

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 Time vs Dryig rate
0.9
0.8
0.7
Drying Rate (g/min.)

0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min)

Graph no.3

Drying rate Vs Equilibrium Moisture Content

0.09

0.08
Equilibrium Moisture Content

0.07

0.06

0.05

0.04

0.03

0.02

0.01

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
Drying Rate (g/min.)

Graph no.4

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 8. Results:

Graph no. 1
In this graph we came to know that as the time increase of material in dryer the
moisture content in the material(sand) decreases, with increase in time there is trend of decrease
in moisture.

Graph no. 2
In this graph it show that moisture in the material(sand) decrease constantly with
specific interval of time. Only with few exceptions of intervals of time maybe due to human error
or machine error.

Graph no. 3
In this graph it show that drying rate of the material(sand) remains constant with
specific interval of time. Only with few exceptions of intervals of time maybe due to human error
or machine error.

Graph no. 4
In this graph it shows that the equilibrium moisture content decreases with respect
to the drying rate gradually with few exceptions maybe due to error but mostly we see the
decreasing trend of the equilibrium moisture content with respect to drying rate.

9. Discussion:

 This experiment showed that the water was evaporated from sand as time goes with
constant temperature. Based on graph of the moisture content removed and drying rate they
remain mostly constant as time goes.
 As precaution make sure the water is sprayed properly on sand and note the time accurately.
Make sure to use hand gloves to prevent any burn as temperature is too high.
 The error might occur is personal. Maybe the time is not measured accurately or the water
is not sprayed properly on sand or the did not measure the tray properly on weight balance.

10.Conclusion:

So from the experiment we can conclude

 The time has inverse relation with moisture content in sand in tray dryer.
 The drying rate and moisture content removed remains constant with respect to time.
 Drying Rate has inverse relation with Equilibrium Moisture Content of sand.

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 11.Recommendations:

 Use blower with inside heating coil, this will increase heating efficiency, will be
economical and will reduce size of equipment.
 A induce heater at bottom should be used to provide heat. Moreover, blower should run at
lower speed this will provide proper and optimum time to remove moisture.
 By increase the temperature we can yield better and faster results.

12.Industrial Applications:

Tray dryers are the simplest and least-expensive dryer type. This type is most widely used in the
food and pharmaceutical industries. The advantage of tray dryers, apart from their low initial cost,
is their versatility

Contribution of Group Members

Ahmed Mustafa Results, Discussion and Conclusion

Muhammad Ali Line Tracing and Recommendations
Abdul Rehman Calculations and Graphs
Usman Maqsood Theory & Industrial Applications
Wajahat Ahmad Procedure and Safety Precautions