Abstract:
Fluidized bed drying with inert granules, a special method of fluidized bed drying, may be used in the drying of liquid materials such as solutions, suspensions, and pasty materials with viscosity. The key techniques include uniform absorption of materials on the surface of the granules, the fluidized effect, and the in-time separation of dry materials. In this study inert granules were loaded in a fluid bed equipped with a stirring mechanism, which led to increases of both the area and the rate of heat and mass transfer, as well as the combining of the processes of drying and crushing. The experimental conditions were close to real-world conditions, in which the inert granules were made of polytetrafluoroethylene with an equivalent diameter of 4 millimeters. Pasty materials were selected for drying. Both mechanisms of drying, and equipment structure, have been highlighted for the fluidized bed drier with inert granules. The effects of stirring, atomizing, feeding, heat transfer coefficient, and the opening rate, have been analyzed in the experiments. Furthermore, data regression analysis was applied for the essential factors. Through this experiment the relationship between the quantity of inert granules and the feeding amount was studied, providing a foundation for the product design of a fluidized bed drier with inert granules.