Design, construction, and start-up of an inclined sheet continuous powder dryer

Abstract

It was designed a continuous powder dryer of inclined metal sheets that is an alternative for the drying of lactose in the pharmaceutical and food industry where there are high control requirements for moisture content. However, the dryer can be used to dry any type of wet solid. The dryer was designed to process the granular material over a wide range of particle sizes. The air velocity used in the experiments were lower terminal particle velocity to avoid particle drag. The experiments were compared with CFD simulations. The results of the simulations helped to explain the results obtained experimentally. The best contact air-solid were obtained using the configuration of 60° inclination angle. With this arrangement, the air reduces the loss of energy caused by the sheet friction maintaining its high velocity.