Effect of drying kinetics model on energy efficiency of drying systems

Abstract

The effect of drying kinetics models on the energy efficiency of a conveyor-belt convective drying system was investigated. Experiments were conducted on the material to be dried, and the system was modeled using two drying kinetics models. Mathematical models incorporating the drying kinetics model were used to create a module that designs the drying system under given operating conditions. A comparison of the design results of two drying kinetics models under various operating conditions demonstrated that the total drying time of the material can be incorrectly estimated by an average of 35 % when an inappropriate model is used. Furthermore, this inaccurate estimation of the drying time leads to the total energy usage of the system being up to 32 % higher than necessary. These results demonstrate that a good dryer design cannot be guaranteed merely by using experimental data of the material to be dried; the design process must include selection of the most suitable model among various models considering the drying characteristics. Consequently, an appropriate algorithm that incorporates the selection of suitable drying kinetics models can contribute to reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions in various energy-intensive drying processes, especially with the widespread use of conveyor-belt dryers.