DISCUSSION

Drying is counted as mass transfer process resulting in the removal of water moisture or
moisture from another solvent, by evaporation from a solid, semi-solid or liquid to end in a solid
state. To make the process achievable, there must be a source of heat, and a sink of the vapor
thus produced. In the most common case, a gas stream, e.g., air, applies the heat by convection
and carries away the vapor as humidity. Other possibilities are vacuum drying, where the source
of heat may be by conduction or radiation and the vapor is removed by the vacuum system.
Another possibility is drum drying, where a heated surface is used in connection with aspirators
to draw the vapor outside the site.
In this experiment, materials used were sand and water. The aim in conducting the
experiment is to produce drying and drying rate curves when a wet solid is dried with air in a
fixed temperature and humidity. Water was sprayed onto the sand in the tray until the surface was
fully saturated with water. SOLTEQ Tray Drier (Model: BP 772) was the drier used in order to
achieve the aim of the experiment. The fan speed and heater power were adjusted to level 5 on
the control knob. To complete the procedure weights of specified materials were recorded as
shown in the results and also the air velocity, where it showed an average of 1.09m/s. Referring
to Graph 1 and Table 1, it can be determined that moisture content in the tray decreases with time
as well as the mass of the wet sand. Two processes occur simultaneously. One of them is the
transfer of energy, mostly as heat from the surrounding environment to evaporate the surface
moisture and the other one is the transfer of internal moisture to the surface of the solid and its
subsequent evaporation due to the first process.
From graph 1 and 2, the first phase can be seen clearly at time between t = 0 until t = 8.
The second phase, from t = 8 to t = 52, is when the constant rate period occurred. It is also when
the free moisture persists on the surfaces and the rate of evaporation alters very little as it lower
the moisture content. This phase is also known as the falling rate period. Followed by another
constant rate period within the shortest time that occurred during t = 48 to t = 56. The third phase
started at t = 55, which is also known as the falling rate period. This is the phase during which
migration of moisture from the inner interstices of each particle of each particle to outer surface
becomes the limiting factor that reduces the drying rate. It is also the stage where the moisture is
now known as the critical moisture content at X = 0.0443. At the end of this phase, it followed by

the phase where the moisture had reached its equilibrium moisture content at t = 90, where value
of X is 0.0031.
During the experiment, every 5 minute the tray was taken out to put on the scale for
weight checking due to faulty equipment of the weighing scale on the dryer. Due to this the
drying rate became longer as shown in the result it took 1 hour and 35 minutes for the moisture
to reach its equilibrium moisture content. Rates of drying is determined by the rates at which
heat energy can be transferred to the water but since the apparatus experience a failure, the wet
sand was already exposed to the humidity of the room temperature causing the heat transferral to
its medium inconsistent. The critical moisture content was affected by the thickness of the
material where the sand filled in the tray may not exactly had been half of its high which made
the experiment does not achieve its initial value after the drying process.
REFERENCES

Chirstie J. Geankoplis, "Transfer Process and Unit Operation", 3rd edition.