Development of a Fluidized Bed Dryer for Drying of a Sago Bagasse

Abstract

Sago is an essential source of starch for some regions in the third and developing world. However, the sago processing industry has been producing a large amount of sago waste, and the untreated waste is usually disposed to the nearest river. It not only leads to the environmental problem, but it is illegal under the Environmental Quality Act 1974. Since the sago waste still has high starch content, which is 58%, it can be converted to high value-added products such as poultry feed. However, before being converted to other products, the sago must be dried to remove the moisture content to prevent any bacteria growth and ensure safety health issues have been observed. Recently, drying of sago bagasse using a fluidized bed dryer (FBD) has gained attention since the dry rate of the material is considerably faster compared to other methods. Due to that reason, the drying of the sago bagasse in the FBD is studied using computational fluid dynamic as it can be executed in a short period of time compared to the experimental approach. The FBD model was developed using ANSYS© Fluent academic version 19.2. The effect of the hot air feed temperature; T=50, 60, 70, and 80°C and velocity of hot air feed; v=1-4 m/s on the sago’s behavior and performance of fluidization profile were studied. The simulation results showed that the high temperature and air feed velocity would result in a rapid drying rate. Besides, the optimum drying rate was at T=60°C with the v=4 m/s as these conditions give a shorter drying time to achieve of final 10% moisture content. It also has the added advantages of reducing the power energy and cost supply. These optimal conditions are very crucial and should be consider as the dried sago bagasse tend to be retrograded when a higher temperature is applied.

Design and Fabrication of Solar Dryer System for Food Preservation of Vegetables or Fruit

“…A significant amount of heat and control is required to achieve a high level of product quality. Weather variables such as ambient air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation and wind speed, the amount of initial moisture content, and the type of dryer all impact the solar drying process [18]. Because there are so many variables, determining the drying efficiency of such a process is extremely difficult [18].…”

“…Weather variables such as ambient air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation and wind speed, the amount of initial moisture content, and the type of dryer all impact the solar drying process [18]. Because there are so many variables, determining the drying efficiency of such a process is extremely difficult [18]. Natural convection dryers and forced circulation dryers are the two most common dryers found in most homes.…”

Model-driven Approach to Improve Sago Drying with a Fluidized Bed Dryer

“…The study found that higher temperatures and inlet air velocities significantly impact the drying rate. This effect was observed in various industries such as oil palm fronds, millet pearl, coconut, wheat, grain, and sago bagasse industries (Assawarachan, 2013;Azmir et al, 2018;Li-Zhen et al, 2019;Maheswari, 2015;Othman et al, 2021;Puspasari et al, 2014).…”

“…Model Retsch TG 200 has a diameter of 220 mm and a height of 520 mm, including the filter bag, as shown in Figure 1(a), and Figure 1(b) shows the top view of a sample of particle sago that dried in the FBD. For this study, a 2D model of FBD is developed and designed using ANSYS ® DesignModeler TM 2020 R2 software based on studies by Othman et al (2021), as shown in Figure 2. Several assumptions were made, and equations were formulated to solve the simulation problem.…”

Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics in Simulation and Optimization of a Fluidized Sugar Bed Dryer

“…But, [6], gave a review of the common dilemma plaguing spray drying modelling using a plug-flow simulation approach to the counter-current spray drying process with the CFD technique. [7], looked into the development of a fluidized bed dryer for drying a sago bagasse. They observed that high temperature and air feed velocity results in a rapid drying rate with the advantage of reducing the power energy and cost supply.…”