Application of the reaction engineering approach (REA) for modeling intermittent drying under time-varying humidity and temperature

Journal article

Authors/Editors

SAKAMON DEVAHASTIN

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Publication Details

Author list: Putranto A., Chen X.D., Devahastin S., Xiao Z., Webley P.A.

Publisher: Elsevier

Publication year: 2011

Journal: Chemical Engineering Science (0009-2509)

Volume number: 66

Issue number: 10

Start page: 2149

End page: 2156

Number of pages: 8

ISSN: 0009-2509

URL: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-79953050369&doi=10.1016%2fj.ces.2011.02.025&partnerID=40&md5=9f66f493ec3e37f896b923a2ea8ca29e

Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)

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Abstract

A 'good' drying model is important for the design of dryer, evaluation of dryer performance and prediction of product quality. Among the available models, the reaction engineering approach (REA) is a lumped model, proven to be simple, robust and accurate to model drying of several materials. In this paper, the REA is implemented to model intermittent drying, which is usually practiced for saving energy consumption and maintaining product quality during drying, under time-varying drying air temperature and humidity, which is a challenging drying case to model. For this purpose, the equilibrium activation energy (δEv,b) is defined according to the drying settings in each time period and combined with the relative activation energy (δEv/δEv,b) generated from the convective drying experimental data obtained under constant drying conditions. The mass and heat balances also implement the corresponding drying settings in each time period during the intermittent drying. The results indicate that the REA can describe both the moisture content and temperature profiles of the intermittent drying under time-varying drying air temperature and humidity well. The accuracy, simplicity and robustness of the REA for the intermittent drying under time-varying drying air temperature and humidity are proven here. This has provided a major and significant extension of the REA on modeling challenging drying cases. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords

Intermittent, Reaction engineering approach (REA), Time-varying humidity, Time-varying temperature