Controlling mechanisms of moisture diffusion in convective drying of leather

Abstract

Leather manufacturing involves a crucial energy-intensive drying stage in the finishing process to remove its residual moisture. It occurs several times in the tanning course. As it is the target of this paper to depict an experimental way to determine moisture diffusion in the convective drying of leather. The effective diffusion coefficient is estimated by a method derived from Fick’s law and by analytic method. The effective diffusion coefficients are obtained from drying tests and the diffusivity behaviour is studied versus the controlling parameter such as the convective airflow temperature. The experiments were conducted at hot air temperatures of 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60 °C and hot air speed of 1 m/s. The hot air temperature had significant effect on the effective moisture diffusivity of the leather sample. The average effective moisture diffusivity in rosehip ranged between 5.87 × 10−11 and 14.48 × 10−11 m2/s for leather at the temperatures studied. Activation energy for convective drying was found to be 38.46 kJ/mol for leather. The obtained results fully confirm the theoretical study in which an exponentially increasing relationship between effective diffusivity and temperature is predicted. The results of this study provide a better understanding of the drying mechanisms and may lead to a series of recommendations for leather drying optimization. It opens the possibility for further investigations on the description of drying conditions.