See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/233209631

Excel-Based Tool to Analyze the Energy Performance of Convective Dryers∗

Article in Drying Technology · December 2009

DOI: 10.1080/07373930903383687

CITATIONS READS
22 6,943

3 authors, including:

Radu Platon Philippe Navarri

Natural Resources Canada Natural Resources Canada
11 PUBLICATIONS 446 CITATIONS 24 PUBLICATIONS 312 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Radu Platon on 05 June 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 EXCEL-BASED TOOL TO ANALYSE ENERGY PERFORMANCE OF CONVECTIVE DRYERS

Tadeusz Kudra, Radu Platon and Philippe Navarri

CanmetENERGY, Natural Resources Canada, Varennes, QC, Canada J3X 1S6

Abstract: An algorithm to examine the energy performance of convective dryers was

developed and transformed into an Excel-based calculation tool. Provided with the input data
for a given industrial dryer, this tool allows the energy use to be quantified in terms of the
specific energy consumption and energy efficiency. The energy use can then be compared
with the corresponding values for an ideal adiabatic dryer to identify the potential for energy
savings. The algorithm accounts for direct and indirect dryers as the single and multi-stage
units operated in closed or open cycles. In addition, the maximum energy efficiency can be
determined for non-hygroscopic materials through the sorption isotherms. The tool permits
identification of the major sources of dryer inefficiency, and allows energy savings to be
calculated for several low- and high-cost measures such as dryer insulation, partial recycling
of exhaust air, feed pre-heating, and others. The tool is built as a modular system comprising
the following main components: dryer identification, calculation of actual energy
consumption, comparison with the theoretical energy consumption, identification of sources
of energy inefficiency, and analysis of options to reduce energy consumption.

Keywords: convective dryers, drying, energy, efficiency, heat consumption, inefficiency,

specific energy consumption, software

1. INTRODUCTION

With the rapid growth in capacity and operation speed of personal computers, an increase is noted in the
development of various software programs devoted to thermal drying (Baker and Lababidi, 2000, 2001; Baker et al.,
2004; Kemp et al., 1887; Marinos-Kouris et al., 1996; Maroulis et al., 2007; Menshutina and Kudra, 2001). Kemp
(2007) provided an excellent overview of the state-of-the art on drying softwares. He not only described available
software packages but also discussed issues of general matter such as the strategy for the development of drying
softwares, barriers in software design and implementation, limitations and challenges on the progress, and future
developments.

Despite considerable efforts on RD&D, few commercial software packages specifically intended for drying, dryers,
and drying systems have been commercialized. These are Simprosys for design and simulation of drying and
evaporation systems (Gong and Mujumdar, 2008), dryPak for dryer design calculations for various gas-solvent
systems (Pakowski, 1994), and DrySel for dryer selection marketed by Aspen Technology. Other drying softwares
are suitable for process analysis and simulation. Examples are the DrySPECC2 and DrySim designed by NIZO Food
Research (The Netherlands) for modeling and simulation of spray dryers, and process simulators such as Aspen
Plus. Also, several algorithms were developed for dryer selection, troubleshooting, and information search (Maroulis
et al., 2007; Kemp and Gardiner, 2001; Baker et al., 2004; Baker and Lababidi, 2000; Menshutina and Kudra, 2001).

Interestingly, the existing software and calculation tools do not consider energy aspects even though the drying is
recognized as a particularly energy-intensive unit operation. To fill this gap, an attempt was made to develop a
computer-based tool allowing the calculation of energy use in industrial dryers, evaluate the potential for energy
savings, and analyze options for reducing energy consumption.
 2. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CALCULATION TOOL

The software is built as a modular system depicted in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Block diagram of the energy calculation and analysis tool.

Essentially, the calculation of drying energy consumption is based on the drying gas parameters. However,
determination of the attainable top-line dryer for indices such as specific energy consumption and energy efficiency,
as well as an analysis of options for reducing energy consumption are based on material properties (e.g., specific
heat, sorption isotherms). As such properties are not readily available, the tool allows calculation of needed
parameters or, at least, the use of properties of the materials most similar to the drying material. An example is the
equilibrium moisture content tabulated for representative materials.

Because of the page format constraints, a more detailed description of the tool will be presented in the paper
published in a special edition of Drying Technology.

The tool was developed in Excel-VBA, but after thorough verification, it will migrated to a VB.net platform.
 3. CALCULATIONS OF ENERGY PERFORMANCE

The energy efficiency (η) relates the energy used for moisture evaporation at the feed temperature (Eev) to the total
energy supplied to the dryer (Et)
E
η = ev (1)
Et
Regarding only the energy used to heat drying air which enters a single-pass theoretical convective dryer, Equation
1 can be rewritten as
ΔH ΔH(Y2 − Ya ) ΔH(Y2 − Ya )
ηt = = = (2)
W (I1 − I a )
∗ I1 − I a I2 − Ia
The specific air consumption (W*) is given by mass of air required to evaporate 1 kg of water
Wg 1
W∗ = = (3)
Wev Y2 − Ya
A theoretical dryer is defined as a dryer with no heat spent for heating the material and transportation equipment,
heat is not supplied to the internal heater, heat is not lost to the ambient atmosphere, and inlet material temperature
is equal to 0°C. Thus, the energy efficiency of a real dryer can be determined from the following relation:
ΔH
η= (4)
*⎜
⎛ ⎞
⎟
W I 2 − I a + ΣQ l
⎜ ⎟
⎝ ⎠
or expressed in terms of the theoretical dryer
1
η= (5)
1 ΣQ l
+
ηt ΔH
For low humidity and low temperature convective drying, the energy efficiency can be approximated by thermal
efficiency (ηT)
T − T2
ηT = 1 (6)
T1 − Ta
The thermal (energy) efficiency does not indicate how good the dryer is unless it is compared to the maximum thermal
efficiency (ηT, max)
T − TWB T1 − TAS
η T,max = 1 = (7)
T1 − Ta T1 − Ta
The departure of a thermal efficiency of a real dryer from the maximum one is quantified by the efficiency ratio

ηT T1 − T2 T − T2
χ= = = 1 (8)
η T, max T1 − TWB T1 − TAS

For a given evaporation rate, saturation of the exhaust air (Y2sat) can be attained when the air flow is minimal, yet
securing both heat and hydrodynamic requirements. Thus,

η max =
(
ΔH Y2sat − Ya ) (9)
I2 − Ia
When drying hygroscopic materials, the relative humidity of the air stream at any point in the dryer should be lower than
the equilibrium relative humidity at this point. Thus, for such materials the maximum energy efficiency is restricted not
by saturation but by the equilibrium humidity (Y2sat) determined from sorption isotherms

η max =
(
ΔH Y2eq − Ya ) (10)
I2 − Ia
An alternative measure of dryer efficiency is the specific energy consumption defined as the heat input to the dryer
per unit mass of evaporated water. Because for convective dryers the heat input is given as power supplied to the
heater then
Q Qh
Es = h = (11)
Wev F(X1 − X 2 )

Baker and McKenzie (2005) derived the following expression for the specific energy consumption of a theoretical dryer,
which indicates that the specific energy consumption of an unspecified indirectly-heated convective dryer depends on the
temperature and humidity of the outlet air and the heat loss

⎛ T / (1 − ηl ) − Ta ⎞ ⎛ Y / (1 − ηl ) − Ya ⎞
E s = cg ⎜⎜ 2 ⎟ + ΔH ref ⎜ 2
⎟ ⎜
⎟
⎟ (12)
⎝ Y2 − Ya ⎠ ⎝ Y2 − Ya ⎠
where ΔHref is the latent heat of evaporation at 0°C, taken as the reference temperature.

The parameter ηl in Equation 12 is called the thermal loss factor of the dryer, and defined as
Ql
ηl = (13)
Wg I1
For an adiabatic dryer ηl = 0 so Equation 12 reduces to
⎛ T − Ta ⎞
E s,a = cg ⎜⎜ 2 ⎟ + ΔH ref
⎟ (14)
⎝ Y2 − Ya ⎠
A difference between specific energy consumption of the real and theoretical dryers operated at the same exhaust air
temperature and humidity gives the excess specific energy consumption, which is a measure of the wasted energy due to
heat losses and other inefficiencies (Baker and McKenzie, 2005)

E s, x = E s − E s, a (15)
The concept of using specific energy consumption to evaluate the performance of indirectly-heated spray dryers
presented by Baker and McKenzie (2005) and extended to fluidized bed dryers (Baker, 2005; Baker et al., 2006; Baker
and Al-Adwani, 2007) was successfully validated by the authors of this paper for other single-stage convective dryers
such as pneumatic and rotary dryers, and various combined dryers including filtermat dryer, and spray dryer with
integrated fluidized bed. This concept also holds for gas-fired dryers, if the combustion air is accounted for.

4. EXAMPLES OF INPUT AND OUTPUT DATA

Figures 2 and 3 provide examples of the input data and results of calculations. Detailed presentation of the tool will
be given at the IADC conference.

5. REFERENCES

Baker, C. G. J. (1999). Predicting the energy consumption of continuous well-mixed fluidized bed dryers from
drying kinetic data. Drying Technology, 17(7&8), 1533-1555.
Baker, C. G. J. and H. M. S. Lababidi (2000). Development of a fuzzy expert system for selection of batch dryers for
foodstuffs. Drying Technology, 18, 117-141.
Baker, C. G. J. and H. M. S. Lababidi (2001). Developments in computer-aided dryer selection. Drying Technology
19, 1852-1874.
Baker, C. G. J., H. M. S. Lababidi and K. Masters (2004). A fuzzy expert system for the selection of spray-drying
equipment. Drying Technology, 19(8), 1851-1873.
Baker, C. G. J., and K.A. McKenzie (2005). Energy consumption of industrial spray dryers. Drying Technology, 23
(1&2), 365-386.
Baker, C. G. J. (2005). An evaluation of factors influencing the energy-efficient operation of well-mixed fluidized
bed dryers. Proc. 3rd Inter-American Drying Conference (IADC2005), 21-23 Aug. 2005. Montreal, Canada.
Paper XIV-1.
Baker, C. G. J. (2005). Energy-efficient dryer operation-an update on developments. Drying Technology, 23
 (9-11), 2071-2087.
Baker, C. G. J., A. R. Khan, Y. I. Ali and K. Damyar (2006). Simulation of plug flow fluidized bed dryers. Chemical
Engineering and Processing, 45, 641-651.
Baker, C. G. J. and H. H. Al-Adwani (2007). An evaluation of factors influencing the energy-efficient operation of
well-mixed fluidized bed dryers. Drying Technology, 25(2), 311-318.
Gong, Z-X. and A. S. Mujumdar (2008). Software for design and analysis of drying systems. Drying Technology, 26
(7), 884-894.
Kemp, I. C., I. A. G. Snowball and R. E. Bahu (1997). An expert system for dryer selection. Proc. ECCE-1, Vol. 2
175-182.
Kemp, I. C. and S. P. Gardiner (2001). An outline method for troubleshooting and problem-solving in dryers.
Drying Technology, 19, 1875-1890.
Kemp, I. C. (2007). Drying software: past, present and future. Drying Technology, 25 (7), 1249-1263.
Kemp, I. C., N. J. Hallas and D. E. Oakley (2004). Developments in Aspen Technology drying software. Proc. 14th
Int. Drying Symposium (IDS’2004), Sao Paulo, 22-25 Aug. 2004, Vol. B, 767-774.
Marinos-Kouris, D, Z. B. Maroulis and C. T. Kiranoudis (1996). Computer simulation of industrial dryers. Drying
Technology, 14 (5), 971-1010.
Maroulis, Z. B., G. D. Saravacos and A. S. Mujumdar (2007). Spreadsheet-aided dryer design. In: Handbook of
Industrial Drying. (A. S. Mujumdar (Ed)). 121-134. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
Menshutina, N. V. and T. Kudra (2001).Computer aided drying technologies. Drying Technology, 19 (8),
1825-1850.
Pakowski, Z. (1994). dryPAk v1.1. Program for psychrometric and drying computation. Drying Technology, 12 (7),
1765-1768.
6. NOTATION
c Heat capacity, kJ/(kg K)
d. b. Dry basis
E Energy, J
Es Specific energy consumption, kJ/kg H2O
Es, a Specific energy consumption of adiabatic dryer, kJ/kg H2O
Es, x Excess specific energy consumption, kJ/kg H2O
F Feed rate (dry basis), kg/s
ΔH Latent heat of vaporization, kJ/kg
I Enthalpy, kJ/kg
ΣQl Heat losses, kJ/kg H2O
Q Heat rate, kJ/s
t Time, s
T Temperature, K (°C)
W* Specific air consumption, kg air/kg H2O
W Flow rate, kg/s
X Material moisture content (d. b.), kg H2O/kg dry material
Y Air humidity, kg H2O/kg dry air
η Efficiency, -
χ Efficiency ratio -

Subscripts

a Ambient
AS Adiabatic saturation
ev Evaporation
g Gas (air)
h Heater
l Losses
max Maximum
ref Reference
t Total
T Thermal
WB Wet bulb
1 Inlet
2 Outlet

Superscripts

eq Equilibrium
t Theoretical
sat Saturation

Fig. 2. Input data sheet.

 Fig. 3. Results of calculations.

View publication stats