Exercises

Psychrometrics and Dehydration

1) Air at 20oC and 60% relative humidity is heated to 90oC and then enters a continuous dryer in an adiabatic operation. The air exits at 40oC. Calculate: a. The inlet volumetric flow rate of air required to remove 20 kg of water/h from the product, and b. The required energy to heat the air. 2) Compute the equilibrium moisture content for peach at 25C and 30% relative humidity. 3) A bin holds 2000 kg of wet grain containing 500 kg of water. This grain is to be dried to a final moisture content of 14% (wb). a. What are the initial and final moisture contents of the grain (wet basis, dry basis, decimal and percent)? b. How much water is removed during drying? 4) A drying test was carried out in a laboratory dryer to determine the drying rate curve and the critical moisture content of a vegetable. The sample was cut into small cubes and placed in a tray with 0.4cm x 0.4 cm surface area. The tray was placed in a dryer for 17 hours and dried at constant drying conditions with an air stream that was flowing parallel to the surface of the tray. From time to time, the tray was weighed, while in a separate experiment the initial moisture content of the sample was determined. If the initial moisture content of the sample was 89% (wet basis) and the weight of the product in the tray varied with time as given below. a. Plot the drying curve and the drying rate curve, and b. Estimate the rate of drying at the constant-rate period, the critical moisture content, the equilibrium moisture content, and the free moisture content under the given drying conditions. Time (min) 0 30 60 90 120 180 240 300 360 480 Net weight (kg) 5.000 3.860 2.700 2.250 1.900 1.332 1.164 1.020 0.912 0.816 Time (min) 540 600 660 720 780 840 900 960 1020 1080 Net weight (kg) 0.780 0.720 0.696 0.684 0.655 0.640 0.630 0.622 0.620 0.620