Mass transfer coefficient for drying of moist particulate in a bubbling fluidized bed

Abstract

Experiments on drying of moist particles by ambient air were carried out to measure the mass transfer coefficient in a bubbling fluidized bed. Fine glass beads of mean diameter 125 μm were used as the bed material. Throughout the drying process, the dynamic material distribution was recorded by electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) and the exit air condition was recorded by a temperature/humidity probe. The ECT data were used to obtain qualitative and quantitative information on the bubble characteristics. The exit air moisture content was used to determine the water content in the bed. The measured overall mass transfer coefficient was in the range of 0.0145-0.021 m/s. A simple model based on the available correlations for bubble-cloud and cloud-dense interchange (two-region model) was used to predict the overall mass transfer coefficient. Comparison between the measured and predicted mass transfer coefficient have shown reasonable agreement. The results were also used to determine the relative importance of the two transfer regions. © 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.