Experimental investigation on heat and mass transfer of fluidized drying of zymotic orange peel

It is necessary to research the heat and mass transfer law in drying process of the zymotic orange peel for the purpose of industrial production of the zymotic orange peel feed. A fluidized drying method was used to research the drying characteristics of zymotic orange peel, and the experimental equipment of fluidized bed drying was built, the influences of drying parameters, such as air velocity, particle diameters, the initial moisture content etc on heat and mass transfer were analyzed. The results indicated that the heat and mass transfer characteristics of the fluidized bed were affected by the flow velocity, operating conditions, the physical characteristics of the zymotic orange peel and the fluidized bed. The experiment results showed that the local heat transfer coefficient decreased with the increasing of fluidized bed height, especially at the height from 4 to 6 cm. The air velocity had bigger influence on the local heat transfer coefficient compared to that of particle diameter and initial moisture content. The average local heat transfer coefficient in the height from 2 to 4 cm of the fluidized bed increased by nearly 92% when the air velocity changed from 2.06 to 2.75 m/s. Based on the experiential data, an experiential mathematical model was built up, and the non-dimensional heat and mass transfer equation of the fluidized bed was obtained, which can be a theoretical referrence to improve the zymotic orange peel drying process.