CLB 10904 CHEMICAL PROCESS PRINCIPLE

UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR

MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL
& BIOENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

Title of experiment: DRYING PROCESS

Group number: 2 Section: L01-P2

Date of experiment: 25 February 2020 Date of submission: 6 April 2020

Name & ID No.: 1. Nor Adriana binti Khalid (55218119149)
2. Amirah Yusrina binti Md Yusaini (55218119110)
3. Nur Farhanies Nabiehah binti Mohd Fazli (55218119115)
4. Nur Afidatul Nadirah binti Mohd Raffie (55218119117)
5. Siti Irdina Ismahani binti Ishak (55218119165)
*Penalty:
 For any late of submission, the mark will be reduced by 5% per day to a maximum of 3 days,
after which it will NOT BE ACCEPTED.
 Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will be given ZERO.
Unacce Poor Satisfactory Good Excellent Marks
Criteria
ptable (2) (3) (4) (5)
(1)
Report format (5%)
1.Organization of the report.
Summary (10%) – max 1 page
1.Brief review on the objectives of the
experiment, major findings and significant
conclusions
Objectives (5%)
1.State the objectives of the experiment in point
form
Introduction & Theory (10%) – max 2
pages
1. State the background to the experiment
conducted.
2. Summary of theories including formulations
related to the experimental work.
Data & Results (10%)
1. Data are presented as deemed
suitable with complete labels and units.
Analysis & Discussion (40%)
1. Explanations of the referred table and
figure are presented after the table and
figure
2. Discuss on the findings and relations to
the theory and objective of experiment
Conclusion & Recommendation (10%)
1.Summary of the results to relate the findings or
results with the theory applicable to the
experimental
2.Suggest improvements in apparatus or
measurement procedure, or experimental
procedures for future
References (5%)
1. Cite references in the text.
2. References taken from books, journals and
articles. References from website are not
recommended.
Appendices (5%)
1. Put raw data and sample calculation.
 TOTAL
(100%)

Date of Submitted:
Student Name & ID:
Subject & Code:
Experiment title:
Lecture Name: Stamp
Student Slip Received
Date of Submitted:
Student Name:
Student ID:
Experiment title:

CLB 10904/CHEMICAL PROCESS

PRINCIPLE/JAN 2020
 Table of Content

Bil Content Pages

1.0 Summary 4

2.0 Objectives 4

3.0 Introduction 5

4.0 Result and Discussion 7

5.0 Conclusion and Recommendation 11

6.0 Tutorial 12

7.0 References 14

8.0 Appendices 15
1.0 SUMMARY

Tray dryer are the simplest and least-expensive dryer type which operates by passing
hot air over the surface of a wet solid that is spread over trays arranged in racks. Drying is a
mass transfer process that involves removal of relatively small amounts of water or moisture
contents from a material or a process stream. The purpose of the experiment is to conduct
mass balance and energy balance in drying process. Furthermore, to compare the
experimental results and the predicted result. Other than that, to determine the moisture
content of the sample through removal of water. 10mm of dry sand was spray until the sand
is saturated with water in tray. The mass of sand is weighted before and after the experiment.
The result shows the last weight of wet sand after 45 minutes is 725.7g while the actual wet
sand before experiment is 724.2g with 2.02m/s velocity of air. Besides that, the experimental
result of drying process follows the theoretical result if it compared to previous journal which
stated as the moisture content and the drying rate of sand decrease over time. Drying times
comparison with other types of batch dryers show the tray dryer as the least effective. The
tray dryer required low capital and maintenance cost but it have poor control and chances to
produces more variable product quality in industry.

2.0 OBJECTIVE

The objective of this experiment were:

 To conduct mass balance and energy balance in drying process.

 To compare the experimental results and the predicted results.
 To determine the moisture content of the sample through removal of water.
3.0 INTRODUCTION

Drying is a mass transfer process that involves removal of relatively small amounts of
water or moisture contents from a material or a process stream. In industries, drying process
is often used as the final step operation before packaging and selling products. The final
product from drying process must be in solid form, because all the moisture contents is being
dried up. There are many methods of drying such as application of hot air, contact drying,
dielectric drying, freezing 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.

The common type of dryer uses in many industrial applications involves tray dryers as
their drying operation. The dryers are made of tray held in a cabinet, which is connected to a
source of heated air. The operation mechanism of tray drying is the heat is channelled by an
air current sweeping across the trays, by conduction from heated trays or heated shelves on
which the trays lie, or by radiation from heated surfaces.

Figure 1: Schematic diagram of the convection drying equipment

 The objective of the heating is to ensure that the heated air reaches the wet solids on
the tray, therefore the fans in the tray are used to circulate the hot air at a speed of two to five
meters per second. The turbulent air flow reduces atmospheric partial vapour pressure and
the thickness of the layers of the air boundary. The tray must be tight-fitting in the cabinet to
air form bypassing the material that needed to be dried.

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. Although, the tray holding the product inside a cabinet or similar enclosure are
exposed to heated air so that dehydration will proceed. Air movement over the product surface
is at relatively high velocities to ensure that heat and mass transfer will proceed in an efficient
manner.
4.0 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Table 3.1: Weight and Velocity air

Weight of Empty Tray 308.1 g

Weight of Dry Sand and Tray 1032.3 g
Weight of Dry Sand 724.2 g
Weight of Wet Sand and Tray 1052.3 g
Weight of Wet Sand 744.2 g
Air Velocity 2.02 m/s

Table 3.2: Mass of Wet Sand, Total Moisture Content, Inlet Temperature, Outlet
Temperature at The Respective Time
Time Mass of Total
(min) Wet sand Moisture Inlet Temperature 0utlet Temperature
(g) Content (celcius) (celcius)
(XT)
Dry bulb Wet bulb Dry bulb Wet bulb

0 742.4 0.0251 35 22 39 24

5 744.2 0.276 40 23 41 25

10 740.9 0.0230 42 24 42 25

15 739.8 0.0215 40 22 42 24

20 735.9 0.0162 38 22 39 24

25 732.1 0.0109 35 21 37 24

30 730.9 9.25X10-3 36 21 37 23

35 728.2 5.52x10-3 34 19 37 22

40 729.8 3.59x10-3 33 19 36 22

45 725.7 2.07x10-3 33 19 36 22
Provided that the total mass of wet sand and tray 1052.3g are and the mass of tray is 308.1g.

Mass balance: Mass in = Mass Out

Spray dryer
MASS IN MASS OUT
Process
744.2 G 725.7 G

Figure 2: Mass balance of the experiment

Calculation
Initial Total Mass (g) = Final Total Mass + Mass of Water Evaporate
725.7g = 744.2g + Mass of Water Evaporate
Mass of Water Evaporate = 744.2g – 725.7g
= 18.5g = 0.019kg

Total Moisture Content Vs Time (min)

0.03

0.025

0.02

0.015

0.01

0.005

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Time (min)

Figure 3: Graph of Moisture Content Versus Time

DISCUSSION

Drying basically known as a process removal of relatively small amounts of water

from material. In the drying process, the water is usually removed as a vapour by air. For this
experiment, the drying process classified as batch which is the material was inserted into the
drying equipment and the drying process proceeds for a given period of time. The study of
this experiment were to conduct mass balance and energy balance in drying process and to
compare the experimental results with the predicted result. Although, to determine the
moisture content of the sample through removal of water. Theoretically the dryer occurs in
this experiment by the supply of heat into the wet sand samples and use the air velocity in
order passed over a heated element that act as mass transfer to evaporate the moisture
contain in sand.

Based on the figure 2 (mass balance of the experiment), it shows that the mass in
(initial weight of wet sand) before the experiment started was 744.2g and the mass out (weight
of wet sand) after the experiment was 725.7g. The weight of the wet sand was decrease after
through the drying process machine as the time taken increase. After calculated, it shows that
mass of water evaporate in this experiment was 18.5g. Heat transfer and mass transfer are
critical aspects in drying processes. Although, heat is transferred to the product to evaporate
liquid, and mass is transferred as a vapour into the surrounding gas. The drying rate is
determined by the set of factors that affect heat and mass transfer. Solids drying is generally
understood to follow two distinct drying zones, known as the constant-rate period and the
falling-rate period. The two zones are demarcated by a break point called the critical moisture
content.

The temperature from the experiment recorded in Table 3.2 according time taken to
wet sand sample for every 5 minutes were decrease as the time increase in inlet and outlet of
the drying process machine. The temperature of inlet and outlet were decrease as the water
vapour of the wet sand go through the drying machine. There were some error when the
temperature of dry bulb at inlet and outlet were increase after 5 minutes of the process started
and the temperature will decrease back until the end of the experiment. The temperature
supposedly decrease from the started experiment until the end of experiment. This situation
occurs because of the lack of efficiency of equipment.
 Based on Figure 3, it shows the graph of moisture content versus time. The moisture
content that contain in sand started by 0.0276 (0 minutes) until 0.00207 (45 minutes). The
moisture content of wet sand decrease proportionally with the time taken in this experiment.
Although, the graph shows the moisture content of wet sand will decrease when the time taken
increase. In this experiment, the initial mass of wet sand used 744.2 g, then the weight of wet
sand reduced from the starting of experiment until the end for every 5 minutes can be used to
calculate the moisture content in wet sand. The moisture content decreased as the time
increase because the water in the sample vaporized when the dry air flow through the wet
sand. After the surface of the wet sand dried that shows the moisture different, the
concentration between upper and bottom of the wet sand also different. So that, the
transferred of the remaining moisture forms from the wet sand sample which is known as
diffusion process occur.

The moisture is considered to be evaporating from a saturated surface at a rate

governed by diffusion from the surface through the stationary air film that is in contact with it.
This period depends on the air temperature, humidity and speed of moisture to the surface,
which in turn determine the temperature of the saturated surface. During the constant rate
period, liquid must be transported to the surface at a rate sufficient to maintain saturation.
5.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Based on the data, the weight of the wet sand was decrease after through the drying
process machine as the time taken increase. After calculated, it shows that mass of water
evaporate in this experiment was 18.5g. Heat transfer and mass transfer are critical aspects
in drying processes. Although, heat is transferred to the product to evaporate liquid, and mass
is transferred as a vapour into the surrounding gas. Other than that, the temperature from the
experiment recorded in Table 3.2 according time taken to wet sand sample for every 5 minutes
were decrease as the time increase in inlet and outlet of the drying process machine. The
temperature of inlet and outlet were decrease as the water vapour of the wet sand go through
the drying machine. So, it can be concluded that the result of the drying process performed
on the solid sample (sand) were consistent with the theory which is the moisture content and
drying rate will decreasing over time.

As the recommendations, in order to faster the rate of drying instead of setting the
fan at the lowest speed, a higher speed will yield to a better result. The wet sand will dry up
in a much faster rate. Although, the equipment should well-insulated to prevent heat from
inside the system to be realised to the surroundings which resulting in slower drying rate.
The air circulation within the dryer can be improved to reduce the drying time and allows the
use of lower temperature. Lastly, increasing the temperature of the air could also be done to
increase the rate of drying. Since, higher rate of drying will make the moisture content to
decreasing faster.
6.0 TUTORIAL

1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using tray dryer in drying process.
Describe an example of industrial applications that utilized tray dryer in its process.

Advantages Disadvantages
 Simple in handling  Time required for drying is high
 Lesser capital cost  Non-uniform drying of a product
at different location within the
system
 High labor cost involved during
the loading and unloading of the
drying materials and the low
capacities of the units.

Hasokawa Micron Sdn Bhd (Malaysia)

In tray dryers, the food is spread out, generally quite thinly, on trays in which the drying
takes place. Heating may be by an air current sweeping across the trays, by conduction
from heated trays or heated shelves on which the trays lie, or by radiation from heated
surfaces. Most tray dryers are heated by air, which also removes the moist vapours.
(food drying such as strawberry, kiwi)

2. Write a one paragraph summary of any journal article that studies drying process. The
article must have been published within the last 5 years. Explain on the drying
equipment used in the study and its significance to study done.

Development of a retractable tray dryer for drying crops in solar PV farms

(578-581 December 2018)
(https://www.myfoodresearch.com/uploads/8/4/8/5/84855864/_13__fr-2018-137.r1)

Temperature plays a significant element in Solar PV technology as well as

herbal growth. Significant research laboratories have proven that approximately 0.5%
electricity from PV generators are reduced based on 1°C increase of the module
temperature which is dispersed as heat energy whereas increasing temperature may
degrade the plant growth. Harvesting the dissipated heat from the bottom surface of a
Photovoltaic (PV) Array is currently a new research area which is in line with
sustainable urban development. This study suggested a new prototype of Retractable
Tray Dryer (RtD) be embedded directly under PV arrays as means of harvesting the
dissipated heat as well as reducing the bottom temperature within the concept of heat
convection. The tray dryer is designed in such a way that it can be suited to any PV
structures and can be clustered for a large scale farm. A specified leavy-type herbal
crop was used as sample and tested at the University Putra Malaysia PV Pilot site.
Field test of the embedded tray as compared to the normal system showed higher
drying rate for RtD which produces higher yield and good quality of dried crops.
7.0 REFERENCES

Internet Website

 Principle of Tray Dryer Process, 2018

(https://www.pharmaguideline.com/2017/09/principle-of-tray-dryer.html)

 Parikh, D. M. (2014, April 1). Solids Drying: Basic and Applications. Retrieved April 9,
2018, from Chemical Engineering Online:
(https://www.chemengonline.com/solids-drying-basics-and-
applications/?printmode=1)

 S. M. Zakir Hossain, N. M. (2017, January). Design of a laboratory experiment for the

performance analysis of a retrofitted tray dryer unit. Education for Chemical Engineers,
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1749772816300173)

Journal
 Artin Afacan, J. M. (1984). Tray Drying Of Solids. Retrieved April 10, 2018, from
University of Florida Digital Collections:
(http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/AA/00/00/03/83/00083/AA00000383_00083_132.pdf)
8.0 APPENDICES

Sample calculation
1. Moisture content wet sand

𝐌𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 = 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐞𝐭 sand – 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐫𝐲 sand (𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥)

𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐫𝐲 sand (𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥)

Example:

Moisture content (0 minutes) = 742.4g – 724.2g

724.2g
= 0.0251g

Moisture content (5 minutes) = 740.99 – 724.2g

724.2g
= 0.00230g

2. Mass of Water Evaporate

Initial Total Mass (g) = Final Total Mass + Mass of Water Evaporate

725.7g = 744.2g + Mass of Water Evaporate

Mass of Water Evaporate = 18.5g = 0.019kg