Journal of Food Engineering 84 (2008) 458468 www.elsevier.

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Dynamic modeling and feedback control for conveyors-belt dryers of mate leaves
E.F. Zanoelo *, A. Abitante, L.A.C. Meleiro
, Department of Chemical Engineering, Polytechnic Center, Jardim das Ame ricas, Curitiba-PR, CEP: 81530-900, Brazil Federal University of Parana Received 22 February 2007; received in revised form 22 May 2007; accepted 2 June 2007 Available online 30 June 2007

Abstract A semi-empirical model is proposed to reproduce the kinetics of drying in a continuous shallow packed bed dryer of mate leaves at transient conditions. The mathematical expression representing the dynamic model, which was obtained from a mass balance for water in the solid phase of the drying chamber, was validated at steady-state condition in an industrial continuous dryer. The transient model was solved with the numerical method of lines by involving a backward dierentiation formula (BDF) to approximate the rst order spatial and time derivative. Based upon this reliable model, a control strategy was suggested to maintain the discharge moisture content in the acceptable range of 2.43.4% (dry basis) by adjusting the velocity of conveyor-belt to compensate disturbances in the operating conditions. The performance of a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) and a proportional-integral (PI) controller was veried by a comparison between open- and closed-loop responses of discharge moisture content to random changes in the feed moisture content, drying temperature and air velocity. The simplex method was applied during the tuning procedure of the controller parameters by minimizing the integral squared error (ISE) of the process output when a step change in the set-point was imposed. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Conveyor-belt; Drying; Mate leaves; Control; Experimental; Model

1. Introduction Leaves of mate (Ilex paraguariensis) are dried on commercial scale in South America because from their extracts is produced a very appreciated non-alcoholic beverage quite similar in taste and color to the black and green tea obtained by the infusion of dry shoots from the Camellia sinensis bush (Kawakami & Kobayashi, 1991; Zanoelo, 2005). Although the overall production of dry mate is estimated in 300 thousands tonnes per year (Goldenberg, 2002; Kawakami & Kobayashi, 1991), it represents approximately only 11% of black and green tea produced round the world (International Tea Council, 1997). A more equilibrated competition between these products in the international scenario requires the reduction of manufacturing costs and the standardization of dry mate quality.
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 41 3361 3202; fax: +55 41 3361 3674. E-mail address: everton.zanoelo@ufpr.br (E.F. Zanoelo).

Although these technological aspects are strongly connected to the control of moisture content in the discharge of industrial dryers, experimental results for this parameter presented in this investigation shown that it is rarely controlled in the often used conveyors-belt dryer of mate leaves. The main aim of this investigation is to propose a strategy of feedback control of moisture content of mate leaves by adjusting the speed of the conveyor-belt to give the necessary residence time to maintain the discharge moisture content in the acceptable range of 2.43.4% (dry basis). A schematic of the drying plant of mate leaves involved in this investigation is illustrated in Fig. 1. In essence, a thin-layer of mate leaves to be dried is spread on one end of a moving metal screen (conveyor-belt) and is slowly carried through a drying chamber up to the discharge on the other. As properly indicated in Fig. 1, the entire design of the control system is based upon instantaneous measurements of discharge moisture content. A dynamic model

0260-8774/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2007.06.008

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Nomenclature a ds G ISE k km L M Me ratio between the total surface area of mass transfer and bed volume (m2 m3) equivalent particle diameter (m) air mass velocity (kg m2 s1) integral squared error mass transfer coecient (kg m2 s1) modied mass transfer coecient dened by Eq. (2) (s1) length of the conveyor-belt (m) moisture content of mate leaves (kg water kg1 dry matter) equilibrium moisture content of mate (kg water kg1 dry matter) Mi Rh t Tg uc ug x e e(t) qs inlet moisture content (kg water kg1 dry matter) relative humidity (decimal) drying time (s) average air temperature (C) speed of the conveyor-belt (m s1) supercial air velocity (m s1) axial position along the conveyor-belt dryer (m) bed porosity deviation between set-point and realized value of moisture content in the discharge of the dryer density of dry leaves of mate (kg m3)

representing a mass balance for water in the solid phase of drying chamber is proposed to obtain reliable parameters of the PI and PID controllers that could be eectively applied in real industrial plants. The reliability of the model is veried by comparison between experimental drying curves at steady-state conditions in a continuous industrial dryer of mate leaves. A comparison between open- and closed-loop responses of the process output submitted to random changes in feed moisture content between 0.22 and 0.44 (d.b.), drying temperature from 98 to 110 C and air velocity in the range from 0.05 to 0.37 m s1 was carried out in order to check the performance of the PID and PI controllers. Instantaneous methods for moisture content measurement in mate leaves, whose availability is fundamental to propose this automatic control strategy for conveyor-belt dryers, based on direct moisture measurements of this product, has never been used in real-scale drying plants. However dierent techniques, which have been successfully tested in dierent solid food products (Hall, Robertson, & Scotter, 1988; Mizukami, Sawai, & Yamaguchi, 2006; Rywotycki, 2003; Temple, 2000), support the viability of the current investigation. Among these available prompt

procedures, electrical spectroscopy (Mizukami et al., 2006) and near infrared reectance (Temple, 2000) have a great potential for on-line applications and were successfully tested for moisture content readings in tea shoots. The resemblances between C. sinensis and I. paraguariensis in terms of thermo-physical properties and chemical constituents encourage the application of these methods in mate leaves. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Experimental moisture content measurements A preliminary experimental data set of moisture content in the discharge of thirteen continuous industrial dryers of mate leaves, which are installed in dierent small and medium industries located in the south of Brazil, was obtained to conrm or reject the need of improving the control of this parameter. Despite the dierences among these industries, a rst stage of enzymatic deactivation at 300350 C, where mate leaves are fed with a moisture content of approximately 60 5% (wet basis), was always observed in the manufacturing processes. These high temperatures

PI controller moisture content sensor

feed

thin bed of mate leaves discharge drying chamber

motor to manipulate the speed of the conveyor

hot air

hot air

Fig. 1. Schematic of the drying plant of mate leaves.

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reduce enzyme activity responsible for biochemical reactions that may change the taste and avor of mate liquors, as well as the color of leaves from green to brown. Although a reduction of moisture content up to approximately 25 10% (wet basis) was observed during this operation, a further decrease of this parameter is still expected since all the thirteen investigated industries are also equipped with either a rotary or a conveyor-belt dryer. In order to determine the moisture content of mate leaves in the discharge of these industrial equipments by conventional gravimetry (International Standards Organization, 1980), samples of mate leaves were manually removed from the bed and placed inside an oven at a controlled temperature of 105 C for about 24 h. A total of 2124 measurements were performed for each factory during a test period of approximately 48 h. Experimental drying curves at dierent operating conditions were obtained in a laboratory tray dryer in order to identify an empirical correlation for the eective mass transfer coecient from the literature (Panchariya, Popovic, & Sharma, 2002; Temple & van Boxtel, 1999a; Zanoelo, in press; Zanoelo, Di Celso, & Kaskantzis, 2007) able to better reproduce transport of water from the leaves. In particular, a constant mass of mate leaves of approximately 20.4 0.3 g with initial moisture content of 51 10% (w.b.) and equivalent particle diameters of 0.042 m were distributed over a perforated metallic tray to have a shallow bed of particulates no higher than 30 mm. Heated air was pumped into the drying chamber at constant ow velocity of about 0.156 m s1 and at three dierent temperatures in the range of 6090 C by 15 C step, respectively. The internal temperature was monitored by a K-type thermocouple, while air velocity was measured with a calibrated hot wire anemometer. A psychrometric chart and simultaneous measurements of wet-bulb and dry-bulb temperatures at ambient conditions were used to found a value of humidity equal to 0.0128 g of water per gram of dry air. Surface temperature of mate leaves during drying was monitored by using a calibrated infrared thermometer. Loss in mass was determined o-line by registering periodical weight measurements of the tray with an electronic balance located outside the chamber. Despite the error introduced by removing the sample tray from the drying chamber for weighing, this procedure is considered suciently rapid to assure the reproducibility of the drying curves (Panchariya et al., 2002). Perfect replication of the experimental runs was not possible as drying proceeded with slight dierent initial moisture content. However, except for this variable, four replications were carried out at identical temperatures and air velocity. Axial proles of moisture content of mate leaves along a continuous commercial conveyor-belt dryer were obtained at quasi steady-state conditions to verify the reliability of the proposed mathematical model at real-scale drying plants. This equipment consists of two conveyors 30 m long and 4.5 m wide, stacked arranged and made up of perforated metal trays attached to roller chains on either side.

Although the speed of the conveyors may be manually adjusted to obtain an empirical control of the drying process, both the top and bottom trays were moving at a constant velocity of 0.004 m s1. Wet leaves with a moisture content of approximately 0.33 0.11 in dry basis were fed into the top moving tray to form an even layer of solids heated with air at 59 4 C. After the upper stage, the leaves of mate drop on to the bottom level where external air passes upward at 104 6 C. A set of more than one hundred anemometer readings were involved to determine an average value of air velocity equal to approximately 0.21 m s1, while the calculated standard deviation of this mean was 0.16 m s1. These operating conditions represent arithmetic means of results obtained on two dierent visits to the same factory. To assure the reliability of moisture content data fteen and three samples of mate leaves were removed from each dierent axial position along the dryer in the rst and second visit, respectively. A conventional gravimetric method (International Standards Organization, 1980) involving an oven maintained at a constant temperature of 105 C and a digital balance with a precision of 104 g was used to determine the moisture content of these samples. 2.2. Mathematical modeling Several semi-empirical models have been proposed to reproduce the drying kinetics of tea shoots (Panchariya et al., 2002; Temple & van Boxtel, 1999a) and mate leaves (Zanoelo, in press; Zanoelo et al., 2007) in packed and uidized bed dryers. All of these expressions are represented by ordinary dierential equations that accounts only for time derivatives, while models to simulate the transient behavior in conveyors-belt dryers are typically described by partial dierential equations that involves both spatial and time derivatives. However, the great contribution of these investigations for the dynamic drying modeling is the availability of reliable eective mass transfer coecients that takes into account both the internal and external resistances for water transport from the solid to the uid phase. Even if all these coecients reported in the literature (Panchariya et al., 2002; Temple & van Boxtel, 1999a; Zanoelo, in press; Zanoelo et al., 2007) were in the same magnitude, they will be checked in order to select the coecient that most properly describes the experimental behavior at dierent operating conditions in a laboratory tray dryer. In the current investigation a mass balance for water in a stationary innitesimal volume element of the solid phase over the conveyor leads to a transient one-dimensional rst order partial dierential equation. The volume element, which is a porous medium, involves a uid and a solid phase, represented by the drying medium and a mixture of liquid water and dry matter, respectively. In the current modeling approach the solute enters or leaves the system by means of the overall motion of the tray that supports the shallow packed bed, as well as by simultaneous internal diusion of liquid water from the bulk to the material

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surface and external convection (Zanoelo, in press). These phenomenological aspects are described by the rst and second terms on the right side of Eq. (1), respectively. oM oM ka uc M M e ot ox 1 eqs 1

The proposed drying model includes important simplications: (i) mass transfer is a combination of simultaneous internal and external nite resistances; (ii) moisture content gradients and changes in air properties along the bed layer were neglected as usually accepted for thin-layer drying; (iii) shrinkage eects on drying rates were excluded; (iv) instantaneous thermal equilibrium between mate leaves and surrounding air is achieved, which means that heat transfer is neglected. This latter assumption is supported by transient proles of temperature for the leaves of mate during drying, which will be presented in the next section of this manuscript (see Fig. 4). An important point to be noticed for modeling solution is that the semi-empirical drying model of Lewis (Tang, Cenkowski, & Izydorczyk, 2005; Wiriyaumpaiwong, Soponronnarit, & Prachayawarakorn, 2004; Zanoelo, nior, 2006) expresses a speCardozo-Filho, & Cardozo-Ju cial case of the mass balance when moisture content is constant with respect to the axial position. As a consequence, the entire term that multiplies the dierence between material and equilibrium moisture content is the drying constant that appears in the Lewis model. This parameter (km) is referred to as an eective or apparent coecient because it represents a certain combination of internal and supercial barrier to mass transfer. km ka 1 eqs 2

The equilibrium moisture content of mate leaves is estimated through an empirical correlation previously reported in the literature (Zanoelo, 2005). Eq. (7) is based on the modied model of Halsey (Osborn, White, Sulaiman, & Walton, 1989), which accounts for the inuence of temperature and relative humidity of air.  0:662 Me exp5:7 103 T g 3:02 102 7 lnRh 1 Me The inlet dryer and the initial moisture content of mate leaves are only the two boundary conditions required to evaluate the constants of integration emerged when the Eq. (1) is integrated. The unsteady-state one-dimensional drying model was solved with the numerical method of lines by involving a backward dierentiation formula (BDF) to approximate the rst order spatial and time derivatives. A computational routine for a rapid solution of this partial dierential equation, which was based on this numerical technique, was written in FORTRAN. 2.3. Controller design Presented the transient drying model and the mathematical procedure to solve it, the subsequent step is to design a control system to maintain the discharge moisture content within a certain set-point range despite load disturbances. In particular, dynamic variations in the feed moisture content, drying temperature and air velocity were considered. Moisture content in the discharge of the continuous dryer is controlled by manipulation of the speed of the moving tray to give the mate leaves the necessary residence time to maintain that variable inside the desired set-point. The manipulative variable was constrained between 0.0 and 0.1 m s1. A closed-loop diagram of the drying process is sketched in Fig. 2. A proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller that is almost exclusively used for controlling of variable-speed drives used in conveyors (Barton & Lewin, 2000), and a proportional-integral (PI) controller were tested theoretically in the current investigation. As already observed in a similar work available in the literature (Temple, van Straten, & van Boxtel, 2000) for the control of tea dryers, preliminary controller tuning determined by the Cohen and Coon and ZieglerNichols (Stephanopoulos, 1984) methods was not found to be robust over the range of conditions checked. Therefore, PID and PI parameters (proportional gain, integral and derivative times) were tuned on target moisture content by applying the simplex

The great contribution of this approach is that the drying constant of the Lewis model was previously determined for mate leaves in packed bed (Eq. (3)) and uidized batch dryers (Eq. (4)), as well as for tea shoots in thin-layer dryers (Eqs. (5) and (6)). All the model parameters involved in the empirical expressions for the drying constant were tuned on experimental drying curves obtained at dierent operating conditions which are summarized in Table 1. k m 3:6 105 T g 4:344 103 G 9:03 105 T g G 1:746 103 k m 1:56 10 T g 7:507 10
4 4 3 4

3 4 5 6

k m 2:8 10 ug T g 45 6:7 10 k m 1 10
6 :11 T g 2:08 u1 g

Table 1 Operating conditions in the tuning procedure of the empirical equations for the drying constant of the Lewis model Eq. (3) (4) (5) (6) ug (m s1) 0.0821.12 0.61.0 0.0480.63 0.250.65 Tg (C) 50103 50100 50150 80120 ds (m) 0.03 5.2 1031.1 102 5 104 5 104 Reference Zanoelo et al. (2007) Zanoelo (in press) Temple and van Boxtel (1999a) Panchariya et al. (2002)

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Disturbances

ug
Set Point Controller (PI-PID) Final Control Manipulated Variable Element (Eletric Motor)

Tg

Mi
Controlled Variable

+_ MSP

Error Signal

uc

Process (ConveyorBelt Dryer)

Sensor (Measurement of Moisture Content)

Fig. 2. Closed-loop diagram of the drying process.

method of optimization to minimize the integral squared error (ISE). Z 1 ISE et2 dt 8
0

Moisture content of mate leaves in the discharge of dryers (% w.b.)

where e(t) represents the deviation between set-point and realized value of moisture content in the discharge of the dryer. During the tuning procedure the drying simulation starts with an empty bed. Then, leaves of mate with a moisture content of 0.33 in dry basis are continuously fed on a single conveyor-belt dryer 10 m long, where nd hot air entering the moving bed at 104 C and 0.26 m s1. At this initial steady-state condition the speed of the tray is adjusted at 0.1 m s1 to give the leaves a residence time of only 100 s and steady moisture content in the discharge of approximately 0.25 (d.b.). Once the dryer has stabilized, a step decrease of 88% in set-point is imposed at 100 s elapsed time. A comparison between open- and closed-loop responses of discharge moisture content to random changes in all the three perturbation variables in terms of magnitude and time frequency was carried out to verify the performance of the PID and PI controllers. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Control of moisture content in the discharge of industrial dryers In the absence of a Brazilian legislation in terms of the commercial limits for the moisture content of mate leaves (ANVISA, 2005) and considering that the acceptable upper limit for packed dry leaves of mate in Argentine (9.5%) is not enough restrictive (INYM, 2002), limits for tea (C. sinensis) were followed (Temple & van Boxtel, 2000). In particular, based on technical criteria a range of 2.53.5% (w.b.) is stated for dryer output moistures of tea shoots. According to the literature (Temple & van Boxtel, 2000) an acceptable range well below the maximum moisture content allowed for packed teas (7% w.b.) was dened because during the sorting and packing stages water

adsorption may elevate the moisture from 3% to well over the acceptable level of 7%. As equilibrium moisture content for tea shoots and mate leaves at ambient temperatures are very similar, a comparable amount of adsorbed water is expected for both these material. Fig. 3 presents experimental results of moisture content in the discharge of dierent industrial dryers of mate leaves. According to averaged readings, only the factories 5 and 8 produce leaves of mate within the range of output dryer moisture of 2.53.5% (w.b.), while all the others have a nal product that well exceed the upper limit just declared. A still more negative scenario is observed when the standard deviation of the mean involving several measurements of this parameter for a period of 48 h is taken into account. In this case, only the company 5 is able to produce dry leaves of mate in accordance with the level expected for moisture content in the discharge.

10

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Industry 9 10 11 12 13

Fig. 3. Moisture content in the discharge of thirteen continuous industrial rotary or conveyor-belt dryers of mate leaves.

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Two major negative technological aspects may be promptly revealed when the moisture content in the discharge of commercial dryers is not controlled, as reported in Fig. 3. The rst great disadvantage, which is not evidenced in this investigation, is the unnecessary consume of energy caused by occasional and recurrent reduction of moisture content beyond its lower limit. On other hand, the insucient water removal almost exclusively observed in Fig. 3 avoids complete enzyme inactivation and product stabilization in storage, which could result in an excessive concentration of oxidized phenolic compounds such as tannins, which are chemical species associated with brown color and bitter taste of mate liquor (Cheftel & Cheftel, 1992). Despite the comparable gravity of both these problems, their impacts on the value of the nal product are drastically dierent and may explain the non-conservative results shown in Fig. 3. An excessive dehydration is promptly felt in the manufacturing costs because it immediately increases the energy consumption, while an insucient removal of water from the leaves has a negative eect on the quality, whose control is a long-term benet. In summary, in the absence of either a restrictive national legislation in terms of moisture content for packed mate leaves or a quality management system such as the ISO 9000 series to be attended, mate manufacturers prefer to minimize energy use on drying than to improve quality and to have high added value products. 3.2. Eective mass transfer coecient and model validation As already mentioned, dierent empirical equations for the eective mass transfer coecient were coupled to the drying model to simulate the loss in mass during dehydration of mate leaves in a laboratory tray dryer at 60, 75 and 90 C. The reliability of these expressions was veried by a comparison between experimental and calculated drying curves. In particular, the coecient of correlation (R2) and the mean square error (MSE) were calculated by involving Eqs. (3)(6) and are reported in Table 2. An analysis based on the highest values of R2 and the lowest values of MSE elects the coecients from Eq. (6) to reproduce the overall resistance of mass transfer from the leaves of mate to drying medium in the operating conditions here investigated. In fact, a good agreement between experimental and calculated results in plots of moisture content of mate leaves against time is visually conrmed in Fig. 4, when this expression is involved. The increase of the residual deviation, which is observed when the drying temperature is

reduced, is mainly attributed to the use of temperatures far from the range (80120 C) within the consistency of Eq. (6) was previously checked (Panchariya et al., 2002). Standard deviations for the experimental moisture content data were not presented because of insignicant dierences were found for four replicates. Although a detailed discussion on phenomenological aspects of mass transfer is not the primary objective of this investigation, it is relevant to explain how the reliability of Eq. (6) that was tuned on experimental drying curves for tea (C. sinensis) shoots is preserved on drying of mate leaves, despite the dierences between the particles in terms of size and composition. This is likely attributed to the fact that both these sets of experiments were carried out in thinlayer dryers, at analogous conditions of convective mass transfer. As a consequence, even if drying of mate is not exclusively governed by convection (Zanoelo, in press) but a combination of this phenomenon and diusion, its reasonable to infer that either the diusivities of water in these dierent dry matter are similar, or the eect of a possible dierence on the eective mass transfer coecient that takes into account both diusion and convection is negligible. Despite the consistence of Eq. (6), the current operating conditions are much closer to the range of temperature and air velocity applied to obtain the empirical parameters of Eq. (5) (see Table 1). Since these data were also tuned on experimental drying curves in thin-layer dryers, Eq. (5) should reproduce the current drying curves more accurately than Eq. (6). Even though this occurs at 75 and 90 C, as deduced from Table 2, an unexpected negative value of km at 60 C makes the use of Eq. (5) impracticable at the current conditions. As several replicates were performed to obtain the drying constants of the Lewis model in the investigation proposed by Temple and van Boxtel (1999a), this negative value of km is credited to a possible mistake in the tuning procedure. In fact, when the straight line that should represents Eq. (5) was plotted in a km versus [ug(Tg 45)] diagram in the original paper written by Temple and van Boxtel (1999a), a positive intercept is noticed, while the same model parameter is negative in Eq. (5). Eq. (3) is able to describe more than 80% of the moisture content variation due to changes in drying time. However, a better result was not achieved probably due to small differences in the particle size or in bed heights between this investigation and the study proposed by Zanoelo et al. (2007). Although this is not a conclusive explanation, it is

Table 2 Correlation coecient (R2) and mean square error (MSE) of the empirical equations for the drying constant of the Lewis model Air temperature (C) Eq. 3 R2 60 75 90 0.924 0.815 0.859 MSE 0.007 0.023 0.020 Eq. 4 R2 0.142 0.073 0.275 MSE 0.079 0.115 0.104 Eq. 5 R2 Negative 0.922 0.984 MSE Negative 0.010 0.002 Eq. 6 R2 0.903 0.937 0.969 MSE 0.009 0.008 0.004

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1.6 1.2

1.6

1.6

M (d.b.)

M (d.b.)

M (d.b.)
0 (b1) 2000 Time (s) 4000

1.2 0.8 0.4 0 1000 2000 3000 Time (s) 100 80

1.2 0.8 0.4 0 0 (c1) 100 80 2000 4000 6000 Time (s)

0.8 0.4 0 0 (a1) 100 80

T ( C)

T (C)
400 Time (s)

T (C)

60 40 20 0 0 (a2) 200 400 Time (s) 600

60 40 20 0 0 (b2)

60 40 20 0 0 (c2) 200 400 Time (s) 600

Fig. 4. Experimental (symbols) and calculated (lines) drying curves, as well as experimental temperature proles of mate leaves (symbols), at 90 C (a), 75 C (b) and 60 C (c) in a laboratory tray dryer (ug = 0.156 m s1 and absolute humidity is 0.0128 kg water kg1 dry air). Eective mass transfer coecient calculated by Panchariya et al. (2002).

correct to state that the conditions of internal and external mass and heat transfer are certainly dierent when these experimental systems are compared. With respect to Eq. (4), which has presented the lowest correlation coecient
0.6 1st visit - top tray

and the highest mean square error, no surprise is found since it was based on experiments performed under appropriate conditions of uidization while the present experimental system involves drying in packed thin beds. As a
0.4 2nd visit - top tray 0.3

0.4

M (d.b.)

M (d.b.)
0 10 20 (a1) Axial position (m) 30

0.2 0.1

0.2

0 0 10 20 (a2) Axial position (m) 30

0.3 1st visit - bottom tray 0.2

0.1 0.08 2nd visit - botton tray

M (d.b.)

M (d.b.)
0 10 20 (b1) Axial position (m) 30

0.06 0.04 0.02

0.1

0 0 10 20 (b2) Axial position (m) 30

Fig. 5. A comparison between experimental (symbols) and calculated (lines) axial proles of moisture content along a two-stage industrial conveyor-belt dryer of mate leaves.

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consequence, the high heat and mass transfer rates typically found when the particles are uidized are not found in the present investigation and Eq. (4) overestimates the rates of drying. All the drying curves calculated by using Eq. (4) are well below the experimental results reported in Fig. 4. A detailed analysis concerning the dierent performances of thin-layer and uidized bed drying is presented by Kunii and Levenspiel (1991) and summarized by Temple and van Boxtel (1999b) for the case of black tea dehydration. In order to supports the modeling hypothesis of instantaneous thermal equilibrium between samples of mate leaves and drying medium, the surface temperature of the particles inside the drying chamber were monitored with an infrared thermometer. Thickness of samples (4 104 m) was assumed enough thin to neglect the existence of internal gradients of temperature. Fig. 4 reveals that it takes only approximately 2 min to observe an increase of temperature of mate leaves up to the temperature of drying medium.

As already explained, some additional moisture content data were required to validate the drying model in a continuous conveyor-belt dryer of mate leaves operating on a commercial scale. Obviously, these moisture content measurements were taken on a condition totally independent of the runs used to elect the Eq. (6) as the best among the empirical model for the eective mass transfer coecient. Each stage in the continuous dryer was individually simulated because of dierent temperatures are found in these conveyors. The good t of the calculated values to the actual measurements shown in Fig. 5 evidences that Eq. (1) is suitable for reproducing the drying kinetics of mate leaves on real-size scale. It is worth mentioning that these predicted results were obtained by employing the values of km from Eq. (6). In spite of the large number of readings at a xed position, the high uncertainty of the mean moisture content values represented by the sample standard deviations is a consequence of a pseudo-stationary condition, where high random time uctuations in drying operating variables are evidenced. Despite the importance

112 108

Tg (C)

104 100 96 0 1000 2000 Time (s) 3000 4000

b
ug (m/s)

0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 1000 2000 Time (s) 3000 4000

c
Mi (d.b.)

0.45 0.4 0.35 0.3 0.25 0.2 0 1000 2000 Time (s) 3000 4000

Fig. 6. Random disturbances in operating conditions.

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of temperature on the eective coecient of mass transfer, the low amplitude of change in this factor of no more than 7% (59 4 C) reduces its eect on moisture content variation. As a consequence, the main responsible for this behavior is the inuence of air velocity and inlet dryer moisture content on drying rate (km), whose time variations are in the order of 75% (0.21 0.16 m s1) and of 33% (0.33 0.11 d.b.), respectively. Flow turbulence in the bed dryer is the cause of the very high amplitude of change in air velocity, while the disturbances in the inlet dryer moisture content are credited to the uncontrolled way in which the stage of enzymatic deactivation that precedes drying is carried out. However, for the current purpose it is important to observe that increasing the residence time in the conveyor-belt dryer reduces the sample standard deviations presented in Fig. 5. This is a rele-

vant aspect since the main aim of this investigation is the control of moisture content in the discharge of continuous industrial dryers, where the model reproduces correctly the experimental results.

3.3. Controller performance The sum of the squared deviations between actual setpoint (0.03 d.b.) and transient responses of discharge moisture content to a step change in the set-point from 0.25 to 0.03 in dry basis was minimized by involving an unconstrained optimization method (simplex) (Jenson & Jereys, 1994). A set of PI and PID parameters in which the process control is stable was obtained by involving this procedure of tuning. In particular, for both the cases the process gain

0.12

0.08

uc (m/s)

0.04

0 0 1000 2000 Time (s) 3000 4000

b
M (d.b.)

0.4
open-loop

0.3 0.2
closed-loop

0.1 0 0 1000

set-point

2000

3000

4000

Time (s)
Fig. 7. Feedback control of moisture content in the discharge of a conveyor-belt dryer of mate leaves aected by random variations of operating conditions reported in Fig. 6. (a) manipulative variable in the closed-loop system; (b) open and closed-loop responses of discharge moisture content.

0.3

M (d.b.)

0.2

0.1

t=3600 s

0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

x/L
Fig. 8. Axial prole of moisture content along the conveyor-belt dryer after 3600 s of drying operation.

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and integral time were 1.16 and 761 s, respectively, while the derivative time for PID controller was 0.2 s. The performance of the tuned PID and PI controllers were evaluated over a range of operating conditions characterized by random variations in the main process disturbances according to Fig. 6. Due to the small value of the derivative time, identical closed-loop responses of moisture content is shown in Fig. 7b by involving a PID and a PI controller. In essence, this means that the derivative action is not necessary and a proportional-integral controller (PI) is suitable to control the moisture content in conveyor-belt dryers of mate leaves. Fig. 7a shows the control actions related to the closedloop simulations. The results shown in Fig. 7b evidence a tight control of discharge moisture content in the range of 2.43.4% (d.b.), while in the uncontrolled situation moisture content uctuates between about 0.19 and 0.32 (d.b.) for the same disturbances, which are unacceptable values. None value of moisture content is measured up to 100 s because of the dryer starts operation with an empty bed and this is the residence time that wet leaves will take to emerges from a tray 10 m long which is moving at 0.1 m s1. Since in this period the PI controller is not applied because of moisture content in the discharge is not sensed, a constant value of the manipulative variable is noticed. After 100 s the conveyor-belt is completely loaded and the moving tray is stopped to reduce the discharge moisture content to the set-point. When the moisture content is close to approximately 3% (d.b.), the speed of the conveyor is increased to allow a continuous drying of mate leaves. From this point, the manipulative variable is automatically adjusted to compensate load disturbances in air temperature and velocity, as well as in inlet moisture content. Fig. 8 reports axial proles of moisture content of mate leaves along the conveyor-belt. Fluctuations in the exponential drying curve are attributed to the dierent operating conditions along the dryer between 3500 and 3600 s. Despite this strange uctuating behavior the target value of 3% (d.b.) is obtained in the discharge of the dryer.

ature was elected to reproduce the overall resistance of water transfer from the mate leaves to the drying medium. The reliability of the current drying model and the eective mass transfer coecient represented by the constant of the Lewis model was validated by comparison between experimental and calculated results of moisture content in a conveyor-belt dryer operating at typical industrial conditions. PID and PI controllers were proposed to maintain the discharge moisture content in the acceptable range of 2.4 3.4% (dry basis) by adjusting the velocity of the moving tray in order to compensate disturbances in the operating conditions. In particular, time variations in the feed moisture content, drying temperature and air velocity were considered responsible for driving the process away from the steady-state condition. The derivative action of the PID controller was revealed insignicant and a comparison between open- and closed-loop responses of discharge moisture content evidences that a proportional-integral controller (PI) is suitable to control the moisture content in conveyor-belt dryers of mate leaves. References
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4. Conclusion A dynamic drying model represented by a rst order partial dierential equation was obtained from a water balance in the solid phase of a conveyor belt-dryer. A backward dierentiation formula (BDF) was applied to approximate the rst order spatial and time derivative and the numerical method of lines was involved to solve the mathematical model numerically. Four dierent empirical equations for the eective coecient of mass transfer were checked in order to reproduce experimental drying curves of mate leaves in a laboratory tray dryer at four different temperatures. The empirical expression proposed by Panchariya et al. (2002) in terms of air velocity and temper-

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E.F. Zanoelo et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 84 (2008) 458468 Wiriyaumpaiwong, S., Soponronnarit, S., & Prachayawarakorn, S. (2004). Comparative study of heating processes for full-fat soybeans. Journal of Food Engineering, 65, 371382. Zanoelo, E. F. (2005). Equilibrium moisture isotherms for mate leaves. Biosystems Engineering, 92(4), 445452. Zanoelo, E.F. (in press). A Theoretical and experimental study of simultaneous heat and mass transport resistances in a shallow uidized bed dryer of mate leaves. Chemical Engineering and Processing. nior, E. L. (2006). Zanoelo, E. F., Cardozo-Filho, L., & Cardozo-Ju Superheated steam-drying of mate leaves and eect of drying conditions on the phenol content. Journal of Food Process Engineering, 29, 253268. Zanoelo, E. F., Di Celso, G. M., & Kaskantzis, G. (2007). Drying kinetics of mate leaves in a packed bed dryer. Biosystems Engineering, 96(4), 487494.

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