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Integrated Systems for Agri-food Production ISAP03

2. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

ENERGY SAVING IN SPRAY DRYING PROCESS

'DUNR9(/,0DWH%,/,6UHNR720$60LUHOD3/$1,1,
Faculty of Food Technology, University J. J. Strossmayer of Osijek
Department of Process Engineering,
F. Kuhaca 18, P. O. Box 709, 31000 Osijek, C R O A T I A
ABSTRACT: In this work some possibilities to improve the conventional spray drying
process using programming in Excel as a calculation tool have been presented. The
minimization of energy consumption during the drying operation can be achieved by
recycling exhaust air. The maximum theoretical range of recirculation is 60%. The fuel oil
saving rate depends linearly on the rate of recirculation, and the theoretical maximum fuel
oil saving is approximately 14%. Ecological issues were also considered as well, since
decreased fuel consumption lowers harmful gas emission to the environment.
KEY WORDS: spray drying, recycling, recirculation, optimisation, fuel saving

1. INTRODUCTION
The spray drying process needs a large amount of heat for water evaporation
and for this reason heat saving is an important factor for the successful process
functioning. For the past ten years an intensive optimisation of spray drying
operation has been performed. One of the early-published articles on energy
conservation in spray drying has been contributed [1,2]. Since then a spray drying
optimisation using exit air recirculation has become a part of industrial practice. A
lot of existing plants have been redesigned, and manufacturers of spray drying
equipment regularly offer new plants with process optimisation included. The
energy minimisation contributes also to the process furnace burner emission
reduction giving an additional environmental improvement. However, the dryer
plant operators still have a problem to understand and calculate a heat and mass
balance, in order to see a potential savings in every day operation [3,4,5].
To make the spray drying operation more clear and understandable to those who run
or redesign the existing plants, or design the new plants, a process calculation using
Excel as a program tool is used and presented below. Using Excel as a calculation
tool, it is easy to calculate any spray drying process knowing only a few basic
entering data.
Moreover, it is easy to see any changes at any point of a spray drying process,
and what is probably most important, this program contributes to a better
understanding of spray drying, especially in its thermodynamics.

The program is divided in six parts, where specific calculations are performed.
The first part of the program is an entering data calculation from water and air
database, separately created. Only a few entering data is necessary to know and to
type in the cells, other data as a water and air enthalpy, water and air specific
volumes are automatically calculated.
The first column in data base (only part of data base adapted from Raznjevic
(1995) or complete version in the third work sheet in Excel programme) represents
a temperature in the range of 0 - 450 C, the second column is a dry air enthalpy,
the third is a water vapour enthalpy, all for the same temperature range 0 450 C
[6]. The fourth column is a water enthalpy, the fifth is a dry air specific volume, and
the sixth column is a water vapour specific volume, all for the 0 - 100 C
temperature range.
The related enthalpy and specific volumes are calculated using command (=
VLOOKUP) for the temperature range specified in the entering data. For example,
the water vapour enthalpy for the inlet air temperature is calculated using formula
[=VLOOKUP(H11;'Data base'!C5:E455;2;FALSE] and the dry air enthalpy for the
same temperature is calculated replacing integer 2 with 3 in the above formula.
Only one data from first part of the program is calculated in the second part of
the program and returned in the cell H7 in the first part of the program. It is the
amount of dried material leaving spray drier. This is done just for the purpose of
having all the heat and mass data in the first part of the program.
The second part of the program calculates the basic heat and mass balance data.
In this part of the program the basic calculations are performed. The amount of
dried material (cell I31), water evaporated (cell I33) and required amount of heat to
evaporate water (cell I38) are calculated. From the data for the total amount of heat
required (cell I42), the amount of fuel oil is calculated (cell I45). The evaporation
efficiency (kg evaporated water/ kg fuel oil) is calculated in cell I47. The third part
of the program calculates the heat and mass balance for the furnace where fuel
burning and hot air production take place. The total amount of the heat in the
furnace represents the sum (cell I58) of heat from ambiental air (cell I52), heat from
fuel (cell I54) and heat from combustion (cell I56). The heat from furnace is a sum
(cell I85) of heat from hot air (cell I74), and heat from products made by
combustion: water (cell I76), nitrogen (cell I79) and carbon dioxide (cell I82). The
furnace losses are difference between heat in the furnace and heat from then
furnace, (cell I87).
The fourth part of the program calculates heat and mass balance of the spray
drying tower. The total heat entering the tower is the sum (cell I93) of the heat from
the furnace (cell I90), heat from the wet material (cell I91), and heat from leak air
(cell I92). The heat leaving the spray drier tower is a sum (cell I103) of heat of
exhaust air (cell I96), heat from water evaporated (cell I97), heat from nitrogen

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(cell I98), heat from carbon dioxide (cell I99), and heat from dried material (cell
I100).
The fifth part of the program calculates overall process heat utilization. The heat
for water evaporation is calculated in cell I109, the heat in dried material is in cell
I110, and the heat in exhaust air is in cell I112. The furnace loss is in cell I113 and
the tower loss is in cell I114.
The heat balance is represented as a kJ/kg (cells from H117 to H122), and as a
percentage of total heat in the process (cells from I117 to I122). The mass balance
of exit air is represented as kg of each components (cells from H126 to H130), and
as volume of each component (cells from I126 to I130), which is important for the
exhaust system design (ducts, blowers, cyclones, scrubbers, air filters, etc.).
The sixth part of the program is process optimisation using exhaust air
recirculation as a method for energy conservation.
The maximum theoretical range of recirculation is 60%. The desired
recirculation range has to be print in cell I134. The ambiental air moisture content
is also entering data and has to be print in cell I135. For the desired recirculation
rate, the amount of blended quench air (recirculated air + ambiental air) is
calculated in cell I146. Taking into account the amounts of recirculated and
ambiental air, and their temperatures, the temperature of blended quench air is
calculated in cell I148. From the combustion data and quench air amount, the total
amount of hot air is calculated in cell I150, and heat content of hot air is calculated
in cell I154. From the heat required in the process the amount of fuel oil is
calculated in cell I157, and the fuel oil saving as a percentage of fuel oil for process
without recirculation is calculated in cell I160. At the same time in column D, cells
from D167 to D174, the moisture content of recirculated air is calculated, to be sure
that the dew point is far enough for every stage of the drying process.
For better understanding and following of the calculation procedure, the formulae
for each calculation step are presented in column B under title or in column E.

Figure 1

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Table 1

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Integrated Systems for Agri-food Production ISAP03

recirculated and blended air. It means that the wet air in all process phases has
enough capacity to accept moisture from the dried material, and to keep the water
evaporated as vapour phase. Fig. 3 shows the potential fuel oil saving as a function
of recirculation rate. Fig. 4 shows how evaporation efficiency and required amount
of hot (inlet) air depends on the inlet air temperature.
4. CONCLUSIONS

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

3. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The table 1 is an example of program application. As it can be seen, the
calculation is performed for the entering data shown in the first part of the program.
The results of calculations have also been shown in the active cells of the Process
Flow Sheet, Fig. 1 where it can be seen how process respond on parameters entered.
The Fig. 1 represents the Process Flow Sheet, where all main process parameters
are shown. All cells are active, which means that any change in the process
calculations automatically induce the value changes in the cells of the Flow Sheet.
Therefore, it is easy to follow the process changes at any stage, even for minimal
changes in the entering data.
There are some other process parameters that are presented graphically here, in
order to show the possibilities and gains of process optimisation.
The moisture content in the critical process steps is shown in Fig. 2. It is evident
that in any process stages the moisture content is between 0.15-0.4 kg water/kg air.
These values are far from the value of 0.789 kg/kg, which is a dew point of

This simple and effective model provides the first information concerning
possible fuel saving, based exclusively on the thermodynamic and physical data.
Using the program it is possible to reduce operating costs and to improve capacity
per unit of drying equipment.
It is evident that the fuel oil saving linearly depends on the rate of recirculation, and
the theoretical maximum is approximately 14%, for recirculation range of 60%.
Evaporation efficiency and required amount of hot (inlet) air depends on the inlet
air temperature. It can be seen that higher evaporation efficiency is achieved using
higher inlet temperature of hot air. As a result of this there is a less amount of hot
air in the spray drier. There is a certain limitation of inlet air temperature depending
on the heat sensitivity of material to be dried.
For practical purpose other factors, e.g. plant construction details, dedusting system
efficiency, blowers characteristics, etc., should be included.
Nomenclature
mwm
Xwm
Dmc
Twm
mdr
Xd
Tdm
LA
Tin
Tout
Ta
NCVF
h3a
h2a
h1a
h1w
h2w
h3w

amount of wet material

moisture content
dry matter content
temperature of wet material
amount of dried material
moisture content of dried material
temperature of dried material
leak air
temperature of hot inlet air
temperature of outlet air
temperature of ambiental air
net caloric value of fuel oil
enthalpy of ambiental air
enthalpy of outlet air
enthalpy of inlet air
enthalpy of water on Twm
enthalpy of water on Tout
enthalpy of water vapour on Tin

[kg/h]
[%]
[%]
[C]
[kg/h]
[%]
[C]
[%]
[C]
[C]
[C]
[kJ/kg]
[kJ/kg]
[kJ/kg]
[kJ/kg]
[kJ/kg]
[kJ/kg]
[kJ/kg]

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cp(N2)
specific heat of nitrogen
specific heat of CO2
cp(CO2)
specific heat of wet material
cpMwet
specific heat of dried material
cpMdr
heat of evaporation of water
r(H2O)
cpf
specific heat of fuel on 60 C
temperature of fuel
Tf
mdm
amount of dried material
amount of evaporated water
mev
required amount of hot (inlet) air
mha
heat for water evaporation
Q1
outlet air heat content
Q2
total amount of heat
QU
required amount of fuel
mf
evaporation efficiency
Cev
Leak air
mla
heat from ambiental air
Qa
heat from fuel
Qf
heat from combustion
Q comb.
total amount of heat in furnace
OFin
total amount air for combustion
m(aircomb.)
heat from hot air
Qha
heat from water in combustion
Q(H2O)
heat from nitrogen
Q(N2)
heat from CO2
Q(CO2)
total heat from furnace
QFout
furnace losses
QFL
heat from furnace
QF
heat from slurry
Qsl
heat from leak air
QLA
total amount heat in tower
Qtin
heat from exhaust air
Qaout
Qewout heat from evaporated water
heat from dried material
Qdm
total amount heat from tower
Qout
total amount heat in plant
Qplant
heat for water evaporation
Qev
QTL
tower losses
RR
recirculation range
X
air humidity
amount of air leaving tower
mout
recirculation rate
mrec
amount of air leaving plant
m(air)lp
amount of fresh air
mfa
amount of air blend
m(air)bl

125

[kJ/kgC]
[kJ/kgC]
[kJ/kgC]
[kJ/kgC]
[kJ/kgC]
[kJ/kgC]
[C]
[kg/h]
[kg/h]
[kg/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kg/h]
[kg H2O/kg fuel]
[kg/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kg]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[kJ/h]
[%]
[kg/kg]
[kg]
[kg]
[kg]
[kg]
[kg]

126

T(air)bl
meha
Q(air)bl
Qtot
mfrec
FS

Integrated Systems for Agri-food Production ISAP03

temperature of blended air

amount of hot entering air
heat of blended air
total amount of heat required
amount of fuel (recirculation)
fuel savings

[C]
[kg]
[kJ/kg]
[kJ/kg]
[kg]
[%]

5. REFERENCES
[1] M. Bilic, G. Glavas, Spray-Drying Simulation in Spreadsheet, Drying
Technology 10 (2) (1992) 509-519.
[2] M. Bilic, Z. Olujic, A Model for Energy Saving in Spray-Drying the Detergents,
Proceedings 4th Mediterranean Congress on Chemical Engineering, Barcelona,
(1987) 688-689.
[3] A. S. Mujumdar, Handbook of Industrial Drying. 2nd ed., Vol. 1., New York,
Basel, Hong Kong: Marcel Dekker, Inc. 605-621, 1995.
[4] K. Masters, Spray drying handbook. 4th ed., London: Longman Scientific &
Technical, 96-110, 1985.
[5] R. H. Perry, D. W. Green. Perrys Chemical Engineers Handbook. 7th ed., New
York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.
[6] K. Raznjevic. Handbook of Thermodynamic Tables. 2nd revision edition, New
York: Begell House, 1995.