APPLIED

ENERGY

Applied Energy 79 (2004) 4149

www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Utilization of waste-heat recovery in

textile drying
R. Tu

grul O

gulata

Department of Textile Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, C

ukurova University,
Adana 01330, Turkey
Accepted 3 December 2003
Available online 28 January 2004

Abstract
The growing cost of energy has required its more eective use. However, many industrial
heating processes generate waste energy. Use of the waste-heat recovery systems decreases
energy consumption. Drying is often one of the most energy-intensive operations in textile
processes and such dryers exhaust large amounts of warm and moist air. The heat-recovery
systems utilize the heat produced for the drying process.
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Heat recovery; Waste heat; Textile drying; Energy saving; Recuperator

1. Introduction
Industrial processes use large amounts of fuel and electricity. The increases in
energy cost and energy consumption have required more eective use of energy.
Decreasing energy losses and recovering the lost energy are of great importance. As
known, many industrial-heating processes generate waste energy. This waste energy
is removed and the heat used for other useful applications. Many types of devices
have been developed to re-use some of this waste heat [1].
Heat-recovery systems are utilized in many industrial-areas, especially in thermal
processes as in the textile industry. The excess heat produced during the drying
process is used.
*

Fax: +90-322-3386-126.
E-mail address: ogulata@cu.edu.tr (R. Tu
grul O
gulata).

0306-2619/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2003.12.002

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Nomenclature
cp
Es
k
ma
me
mpi
mpo
Q
QH
Qmax
QR
QT
t
Ta
Tdi
Tdo
Te
Tfi
Tfo
X1
X2
DX
DT
e
u

specic heat capacity (kJ/kg K)

energy-saving rate (%)
drying rate (%)
rate of process air (kg/h)
rate of evaporated water (kg/h)
rate of product-input to dryer (kg)
rate of product-out from dryer (kg)
actual heat-transfer (kJ)
heater capacity (kJ/h)
maximum possible heat-transfer (kJ)
heat of recuperator (kJ/h)
total heat rate (kJ/h)
drying time (h)
ambient-air temperature (C)
dryer-inlet air temperature (C)
dryer-outlet air temperature (C)
exhaust-air temperature (C)
recuperator-inlet air (fresh-air) temperature (C )
recuperator-outlet air (fresh-air) temperature (C)
dryer-inlet airs moisture-content (kgw /kga )
dryer-outlet airs moisture-content (kgw /kga )
dierence of dryer inletoutlet moisture content (kgw /kga )
dierence between Tdo and Te (C)
eectiveness of heat recuperator (%)
ambient-airs relative humidity (%)

Subscripts
a
air
cold
cold uid
hot
hot uid
max
maximum
min
minimum
w
water

Drying is one of the most energy-intensive operations in the wide range of textile
processes [2]. The raw material is very humid in dye-printing, lavation and the other
processes. The humidity of the fabric is reduced by means of dryers. During drying,
the warm moist air is sent to the atmosphere. However, this waste heat should be
used in the drying machines. But the processed waste-air is humid and generally
polluted with bre, dust and chemical materials and polluted air cannot be used

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43

ma
Te

ma
Tfi

Recuperator
QR

Heater
QH

Tfo

Tdi

Tdo
ma
ma

Tdo

Dryer

Tdi

Fig. 1. Diagram of a drying system with waste-heat recovery.

again in the process. Fresh, dry and hot air should continuously be circulated in the
drying system. In order to get the temperature level which is necessary for the system,
the air is pre-heated by the waste stream and re-used [3].
There are several techniques for heat-recovery. The most common heat-recovery
ventilation devices are at plate air-to-air heat-exchangers (i.e., recuperators), rotary
heat-and-energy wheels (regenerators), and heat pipes [4]. But, plate-type heat exchangers are more suitable for textile drying. Recuperators are categorized as parallel-ow, cross-ow and counter-ow heat exchangers. The most common
recuperators are the cross-ow plate heat-exchangers [5]. These are preferred especially in convection-type drying machines, in which the heat-and-mass transfer result
from the contact of hot drying air with humid textile materials. In addition, the fresh
ambient air and waste humid-dirty air cannot mix in this type of heat exchanger,
because these air ows pass through dierent channels [6].
Fig. 1 shows the drying system with waste-heat recovery. As seen in the gure,
humid and dirty waste-air from the drying machine is sent to the heat exchanger.
Heat transfer via the plate-type heat-exchanger (cross-ow) is realized between the
fresh air from the environment and the waste air. While the waste air passes through
one channel, the fresh air passes through the abutting channel. Thus, the fresh air
temperature is raised and the waste air is cooled and sent to the ambient environment. The temperature of the pre-heated fresh air is further raised in the air heater.

2. Mathematical formulation
Eectiveness, e, of the heat exchanger is dened as the ratio between actual heattransfer rate and the maximum possible heat-transfer rate from one stream to
another [710].

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e Q=Qmax :

The actual heat-transfer rate Q is dened as

Q ma cp hot Tdo
Te ma cp cold Tfo
Tfi :

The maximum possible heat transfer rate Qmax is determined as

Qmax ma cp min Tdo
Tfi :

Here ma cp min is the smaller of ma cp hot and ma cp cold for the hot and cold uids.
Thus the eectiveness can be written again from Eqs. (2) and (3) as
e

ma cp hot Tdo
Te
;
ma cp min Tdo
Tfi

ma cp cold Tfo
Tfi

:
ma cp min Tdo
Tfi

The eectiveness for ma cp hot ma cp cold can be rewritten as

e

Tdo
Te
Tfo
Tfi

:
Tdo
Tfi Tdo
Tfi

The dierence between the dryer entry-air temperature and exhaust-air temperature, DT , is described as
DT Tdo
Te :

So, the eectiveness can be written as

e

DT
:
Tdo
Tfi

The mass of water vapour in the dryer is dened as

me X2
X1 ma DXma :

The textile products entering the dryer are very wet. So the humidity of the
material is transferred to the air, during drying. The mass of water vapour in the
dryer is dened as:
me X2
X1 ma DXma :

10

Thus the inlet mass is lower than the outlet mass. The outlet mass of products
from the dryers can be calculated by
mpo mpi
me  t:

11

Generally, the drying process is stopped at a prespecied low-rate of drying. The

rate of drying is expressed as
k 1

mpo
:
mpi

12

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So, the mass of water vapour from the product me is dened from Eqs. (11) and
(12) as
k
me mpi :
t
The mass of air in the drying system with Eq. (9) is determined as
me
ma
:
DX

13

14

The heat-transfer rate from the heater is calculated as

QH ma cp Tdi
Tfo :

15

The heat-transfer rate from the recuperator is dened from Eq. (1) as
QR ema cp Tdo
Tfi :

16

The total heat-transfer rate in the system is determined as

QT QR QH ;

17

ma cp Tdi
Tfi ema cp Tdo
Tfi ma cp Tdi
Tfo :

18

Energy saving is very important in heat-recovery systems. The energy saving

depends on the heat-transfer rate from the recuperator and the total heat-transfer
rate in the system. The heat saving of the system can be calculated as
Es

QR
 100:
QT

19

3. Results and discussion

The heat and mass transfer are realised by blowing heated air through the humid
textile material and consequently, the moisture of the material is transferred to the
air. The air is polluted through contact with the textile material and air, whose
humidity is increased and sent to the ambient environment. The waste air is generally
polluted with bre, dust and chemical materials during the drying process. The
polluted air cannot be used again. Fresh, dry and hot air should be sent continously
to the system [3,11].
The results are determined by using the following values and are presented in
Figs. 28 for unit mass of the product. The values are: Ta 25 C, u 50%, cp 1
kJ/kg K, t 1 h (unit of time) mpi 1 kg (unit mass). X1 and X2 are the dryer-inlet
and -outlet air moisture contents respectively taken from the psychrometric diagram
[12]. The dryer-outlet air temperature Tdo is taken to be 85% of the dryer-inlet air
temperature Tdi (for example Tdi 120 C, Tdo 102 C).
Fig. 2 shows the variation of the mass of fresh air (process air) with the dryer-inlet
air-temperature. As seen in the gure, the mass of process air decreases with an

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240

k (%)
60
50
40
30
20
10

200

ma (kg/h)

160
120
80
40
0

40

60

80

100

120

Tdi ( C)

Fig. 2. The variation of the mass of fresh air with the dryer-inlet air temperature.

0.6

m e (kg/h)

0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
10

20

30

k (%)

40

50

60

Fig. 3. The variation of the mass of evaporated water with the drying rate (k).

8000

k (%)

Q T[kJ/h]

6500

10
20
30
40
50
60

5000

3500

2000

500
40

60

80

100

120

Tdi ( C)

Fig. 4. The variation of Qt with the dryer-inlet air temperature for dierent values of k.

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2000
1800

T(C)

1600

5
10
15

Q R[kJ/h]

1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
40

60

80

100

120

T di [ C]

Fig. 5. The variation of the heat of recuperator with the dryer-inlet air temperature (k 30%).
4000
T (C)
5
10
15

3500

Q H [kJ/h]

3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
40

60

80

100

120

T di [ C]

Fig. 6. The variation of the heater capacity with the dryer-inlet air temperature (k 30%).

T(C)
5
10
15

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
40

60

80

Tdi[ C]

100

120

Fig. 7. The variation of recuperator eciency with the dryer-inlet air temperature.

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100

T(C)

5
10
15

ES [%]

80
60
40
20
0
40

60

80

100

120

Tdi [ C]

Fig. 8. The variation of energy saving of heat-recovery system with the dryer-inlet air temperature for
dierent DT .

increase in the dryer input-air temperature, but the mass of process air increases with
a lower drying rate (k).
Fig. 3 shows the variation of the rate of evaporated water (me ) with the drying rate
(k). The increase in the drying rate leads to an increase in the rate of evaporated
water (me ) for all the dryer input-air temperatures. High values of the drying rate
require high values of me .
The total heat rate involved should be taken into consideration when determining
the heat capacity of the drying system. This should determine the heat exchanger or
rate of heat recovery. The variation of QT with the dryers inlet-air temperature for
dierent values of k is shown in Fig. 4. Increases in the dryer-inlet air temperature
and drying rate k require greater heat transfers.
Fig. 5 shows the variation of the heat of recuperator with the dryer-inlet air
temperature for an average value of k (k 30%) and dierent values of DT . It can be
seen that, when the dryer input air temperature increases, the heat transfer in
the recuperator decreases. Also higher values of DT cause increases the heat of
recuperation.
The variation of heater capacity with dryer-inlet air-temperature for an average
value of k (k 30%) and dierent values of DT is shown in Fig. 6. The increase in
dryer-inlet air temperature increases the heater capacity. Also the higher values of
DT cause decreases in the heater capacity needed. As seen from Figs. 5 and 6, the
heater capacity must be decreased for high recuperator heats.
The variation of recuperator eciency with the dryer input-air temperature
is presented in Fig. 7. The recuperator eciency decreases as the dryer-inlet airtemperature increases. Also the higher values of DT lead to increases in the recuperators eciency.
The variation of the energy saving of the heat-recovery system with the dryer-inlet
air temperature for dierent values of DT is shown in Fig. 8. The increase in the
dryer-inlet air temperature reduces the energy saving of the heat-recovery system.
The energy saving of the heat recovery is also increased with higher values of DT . A
similar change is shown in Fig. 7.

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49

4. Conclusion
Drying is often one of the most energy-intensive operations in a wide range of
textile processes [2]. The heat-recovery system when drying should be taken into
consideration for achieving energy savings.
This preferred system employed is the convection-type drying machine, in which
the heat and mass transfers result from contact of the hot drying air with humid
textile-materials [3]. In this way, signicant energy savings can be achieved. Hence
shorter amortization periods and reduced pollution emissions, ensue.

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gulata RT, Doba F. A method for waste-energy recovery and its application to textile industry.
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