CL 352: Mass Transfer and Reaction Engineering

Name: Mayuresh More

Roll no.: 14110077

Group: E

Date: 08-Feb-17

Experiment: Forced Convection Dryer

AIM: The experiment aims at understanding how drying takes place in a tray dryer using forced
convection.
APPARATUS: Beans, water in a beaker, weighing machine, stopwatch, hand gloves, convection
dryer with heater.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND:
Drying refers to the process of removing moisture from a substance using methods like
forced convection, natural convection, vacuum drying, centrifugal drying, etc. When food
materials or similar substances are packed, the need to be packed dry in a manner that they
sustain for a long time. If they are packed moist, chances are that they may get infested with
fungal and bacterial growth. In order to avoid this, drying of products before packing is
essential.
After the solution or mother liquor is removed from the product, it still remains wet.
The moisture is of two types unbound moisture and bound moisture. Unbound moisture is
the moisture that wets the surface of the particles of the food products (beans in our case) and
the bound moisture is the one that has penetrated the surface of the beans and is present in
the beans. The removal of unbound moisture is easy as it is only at the surface and interacts
with weaker forces with the bean surface. Whereas, the bound moisture is interacting with the
molecules of the beans with stronger hydrogen-bonds.
Drying is a separation process and is governed by the laws of mass transfer. The rate of
mass transfer is directly proportional to the difference between the concentration of water
molecules at the surface and in the air. The drying takes place due to the concentration
gradient between the surface of the beans and the air that is blown over the beans. Thus, we
have

NA (CA1 CA2)
Where,
NA = Molar rate of water evaporation (rate of drying)
CA1 = Concentration of water at the surface of the beans
CA2 = Concentration of water in the air
In the above equation the concentration shown translates ultimately to vapour pressure of
liquid (water). At the surface, initially, the vapour pressure is equal to the saturation pressure.
This is apparent from the fact that the beans have been wetted and the moisture content is,
initially, unbound. Also, as the air over the beans is blowing with high velocity, the
concentration of water vapours in the air is essentially zero. Thus, we have

NA (PAs)
As the partial pressure of air is a function of time and the temperature in the dryer is kept
constant, we can expect the rate of drying to be constant. However, as the unbound moisture is
lost, the rate may not remain constant.
PROCEDURE:
1. Soak the beans in a beaker of water for about a day.
2. Strain water from the beaker and collect the beans in a small tray after measuring the
mass of the tray.
3. Measure the mass of the beans and note it down.
4. Switch on the dryer and heater at least 10 minutes before the start of the experiment
for the temperature of the air to rise to about 85 oC.
5. Place the tray in the dryer and close the lid. Wait for 10 minutes and remove the tray
from the dryer.
6. Weigh the beans and note down the reading. Repeat the process until the weight of
beans reaches that of dry beans.

OBSERVATIONS:

Time (minutes) Weight (grams) Weight of beans (grams)

0 155.63 45.63
10 153.73 43.73
20 151.53 41.53
30 149.25 39.25
40 147.18 37.18
50 145.23 35.23
60 143.27 33.27
70 141.6 31.6
80 139.46 29.46
90 138.36 28.36
100 136.86 26.86
110 135.46 25.46
120 134.25 24.25
130 133.08 23.08
140 132.15 22.15
150 131.3 21.3
160 130.5 20.5

Table 1.1: Observation Table

Weight of dry beans = 20 grams
Weight of tray = 110 grams
Area of plate = 54 cm2
CALCULATIONS:

X (moisture
Time Weight Weight of beans Drying Rate
content, -dX/dt
(minutes) (gms) (gms) (gm/cm2.s)
weight basis)
0 155.63 45.63 0.583607276
10 153.73 43.73 0.565515664 0.001809161 0.00067
20 151.53 41.53 0.542499398 0.002301627 0.00085
30 149.25 39.25 0.515923567 0.002657583 0.00098
40 147.18 37.18 0.488972566 0.0026951 0.001
50 145.23 35.23 0.460686915 0.002828565 0.00105
60 143.27 33.27 0.428914938 0.003177198 0.00118
70 141.6 31.6 0.398734177 0.003018076 0.00112
80 139.46 29.46 0.355057705 0.004367647 0.00162
90 138.36 28.36 0.330042313 0.002501539 0.00093
100 136.86 26.86 0.292628444 0.003741387 0.00139
110 135.46 25.46 0.253731343 0.00388971 0.00144
120 134.25 24.25 0.216494845 0.00372365 0.00138
130 133.08 23.08 0.17677643 0.003971842 0.00147
140 132.15 22.15 0.14221219 0.003456424 0.00128
150 131.3 21.3 0.107981221 0.003423097 0.00127
160 130.5 20.5 0.073170732 0.003481049 0.00129

Table 1.2: Calculation Table

 Drying rate vs. Moisture content
0.0018
0.0016
0.0014
0.0012
Drying rate (gm/cm2.s)

0.001
0.0008
0.0006
0.0004
0.0002
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Moisture content (weight basis)

Figure 1.1: Drying rate vs. Moisture content

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS:

The drying process was studied using the experiment. The results show that drying the
beans up to the dry weight of the beans will give the predicted outcome of a constant drying
rate. However, we see that at the beginning the rate is gradually increasing. This can be
accounted by the fact that the system shows a time delay in transition. There are few ups and
downs in the graph that being the cause of certain in errors in measurement due to instability
of the weighing machine values. The unbound moisture is almost fully evaporated from the
beans and what remains is the bound moisture. This moisture can be reduced by further drying
and will lead to a drop in the weight of the beans below the dry beans. As contradictory as this
may seem, it is plausible due to the fact that the beans used in this experiment were not fully
dry. They also had some moisture content. Drying the beans in a dryer at 85 oC at a high
velocity of air will lead to total drying of the beans. These beans will be totally dried as the
lower concentration point, i.e. the partial pressure of water vapours in the dry air, is zero and is
constantly maintained at that value. This will lead to the beans to eventually dry out to a level
of zero water content. However, as this process doesnt take place in saturated conditions, i.e.
the region near the surface of the beans isnt saturated, the drying rate will be lower than the
unbound moisture drying rate. The unsaturation takes place due to the fact that now water is
seeping out from the beans rather than evaporating from the already saturated surface.

REFERENCES:
Course website based lab manual.