Rotary Dryer
Rotary Dryer :
The rotary dryer is a type of industrial dryer employed to reduce or minimize the liquid moisture content of the material it is handling by bringing it into direct contact with a heated gas. The dryer is made up of a large, rotating cylindrical tube, usually supported by concretecolumns or steel beams. The dryer slopes slightly so that the discharge end is lower than the material feed end in order to convey the material through the dryer under gravity. Material to be dried enters the dryer, and as the dryer rotates, the material is lifted up by a series of internal fins lining the inner wall of the dryer. When the material gets high enough to roll back off the fins, it falls back down to the bottom of the dryer, passing through the hot gas stream as it falls. This gas stream can either be moving toward the discharge end from the feed end (known as co-current flow), or toward the feed end from the discharge end (known as counter-current flow). The gas stream can be made up of a mixture of air and combustion gases from a burner, in which case the dryer is called a direct heated dryer. Alternatively, the gas stream may consist of air or another (sometimes inert) gas that is preheated. When the gas stream is preheated by some means where burner combustion gases do not enter the dryer, the dryer known as an indirect-heated type. Often, indirect heated dryers are used when product contamination is a concern. In some cases, a combination of direct-indirect heated rotary dryers are also available to improve the overall efficiency.
The vibrated fluid bed dryer is used for fluidization of materials which are difficult to handle in a static fluid bed dryer. These materials are oten characterized y having one or more of the following physical properties:
- Wide particle size distribution
- Low strength of wet or dry particles
- Sticknessof thermoplasticity of the particles
- Pasty properties of the wet feed.
In the viobrated fluid bed dryer, the material is easily transported through the dryer by the combined effectof fluidizationa nd vibration. The fluidication velocity canbe juciciously selected to minimize entrainment of the smalller particles, to avoid gas bubbling in the flui bed therby mimizing attrition. The residence time can be adjuted by varyign the bed height, through the overflow weir position. A cooling sectin can also be provided, by partitioning of the plenum chamber.
Typical products handled
- Salt
- Milk proucts (used asa secondary dyer)
- Tea.