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Article history:
Received 19 November 2011
Received in revised form 12 June 2012
Accepted 30 June 2012
Keywords:
Articial neural network (ANN)
Exergetic performance
Spray drying process
Multilayer perceptron (MLP)
a b s t r a c t
A feedforward articial neural network (ANN) was applied to predict the exergetic performance of a
microencapsulation process via spray drying. The exergetic data was obtained from drying experiments
conducted at different inlet drying air temperatures, aspirator rates (drying air ow rates), peristaltic
pump rates (mass ow rates), and spraying air ow rates as inputs for ANN. A multilayer perceptron
(MLP) ANN was utilized to correlate the output parameters (inlet exergy, outlet exergy, lost exergy, destructed exergy, entropy generation, exergy efciency, and improvement potential rate) to the four inputs
parameters. Various error minimization algorithms, transfer functions, number of hidden neurons, and
training epochs were investigated to nd the optimum ANN model. The MLP ANN with Levenberg-Marquardt error minimization algorithm, logarithmic sigmoid transfer function, 20 hidden neurons, and 100
training iterations was selected as the best topology to map the exergetic performance of microencapsulation process according to statistical parameters and model simplicity. The model predicted exergetic
parameters of spray drying process with R2 values greater than 0.98 indicating the delity of the selected
network. Accordingly, the selected ANN model can be applied to determine the exergy efcient drying
conditions to achieve a sustainable spray drying process.
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Spray drying is an extensively used method for production of
dry powders from pumpable liquids or slurries by atomizing the
liquid into a stream of hot gas and subsequently rapid vaporization of moisture from generated droplets. Spray drying provides
important advantages such as handling the heat sensitive and
heat-resistant uids; production of dry materials with controllable particle size, shape, form, moisture content, and other specic
properties; possibility for a continuous operation adaptable to
both conventional and PLC controls; application of a wide range
of production rates; and extensive exibility in dryer apparatus
design. However, drying is the most energy-intensive unit operation due to the high latent heat of vaporization and the inherent
inefciency of using hot air as the most common drying medium
(Mujumdar, 2006). It also releases signicant amounts of carbon
oxides to the environment. Thus, one of the most important challenges for drying industry is to reduce the energy consumption in
order to reach a cost-efcient, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly drying process.
In recent years, exergy based performance evaluation and subsequent optimization/modeling of drying facilities and processes
has been a growing interest amongst the researchers. Exergy analysis can provide a comprehensive and deeper insight into the process sustainability and new unforeseen ideas for improvements,
and therefore it is applicable for the processes evaluation, optimization, and modeling purposes. Recently, several studies have been
undertaken on exergy analysis of different drying methods (Ozgener and Ozgener, 2006, 2009; Colak and Hepbasli, 2007; Aghbashlo
et al., 2008, 2009; Liapis and Bruttini, 2008; Yongzhong et al.,
2008; Hancioglu et al., 2010; Nazghelichi et al., 2010; Icier et al.,
2010; Hepbasli et al., 2010; Gungor et al., 2011).
Exergetic modeling of a drying operation provides various
advantages in many facets of process such as selection of sustainable operation, designing the exergy efcient equipments, control
of drying process, managing of fuel consumption, recycling of exhaust air, and etc. (Nazghelichi et al., 2011b). Drying is a quite complex and uncertain phenomenon, whose mechanisms are not yet
entirely discovered. In the case of spray drying, the complexity becomes even more pronounced due to a series of transient interconnected stages i.e. liquid atomization, curst formation at droplet
surface, extensive heat and mass transfer, rapid water evaporation,
droplets agglomeration, and wall deposition. Quantication of
relationships between inputs and outputs of an ill-structured process such as spray drying operation using mathematical, statistical
33
Nomenclature
A
Cp
e
ex
_
Ex
h
hfg
IP_
_
m
MAE
MSE
P
Q
Q_
R
R2
s
S_
T
v
x
X
Y
y
Z
Abbreviations
AR
aspirator rate (%)
PPR
peristaltic pump rate (%)
SAFR
spraying air ow rate (l/h)
Greek symbols
q
density (kg/m3)
x
humidity ratio of air ()
w
exergy efciency (%)
Subscripts
a
air
at
atmosphere
calc
calculated
d/p
droplet/particle
dc
drying chamber
des
destruction
e
emulsion
exp
experimental
f
saturated liquid state
g
saturated vapor state
gen
generation
i
numerator
in
inlet
l
loss
n
nozzle
out
outlet
p
product
v
water vapor
w
water
0
dead state
1
inlet drying air
10
spraying air
2
inlet wet product
3
outlet moist air
4
dry product
34
consequence of not being completely stable relative to the reference environment. The exergy loss from drying chamber to ambient including the exergy losses by means of conductive, convective,
and irradiative heat transfer was the maximum useful work that
could be obtained from lost heat at a kwon state in a given environment. The destructed exergy including destroyed exergy in atomization, heat and mass transfer, moisture evaporation, and etc.
was the possible useful work wasted in process due to irreversibility. The entropy generation could be used to determine the energy
not available for work in atomization and drying process. The exergy efciency could be dened as maximum useful work properly
applied for droplets generation and moisture evaporation to maximum possible useful work supplied to drying chamber by drying
air and spraying air. The improvement potential rate indicated
the potential of effective exergy usage in atomization and drying
process.
The 81 patterns were divided into 49 (60%), 12 (15%), and 20
(25%) data sets for the training, validation, and testing the neural
networks, respectively. Before developing the different ANN topology, some preprocessing operations were carried out: rstly, all
sample data were randomized. Then, data normalization (0.9,
0.9) was achieved through the min-max function. Then, data normalization (0.9, 0.9) was achieved through the min-max function.
The normalized value (Ynormalized) for each raw input/output dataset
(Yi) was calculated as:
Y i Y min
Y max Y min
Iran), respectively. Phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) and sodium azide were
purchased from Merck (Darmstadt, Germany).
Twenty gram of skim milk powder was dissolved in seventy
gram of phosphate buffer (5 mM, pH 7.0) and was stirred at
500 rpm for 30 min at room temperature. The wall material solution was stored at 4 C for 10 h to allow complete hydration (Madadlou et al., 2009b) and sodium azide (100 mg/L) was added to
prevent microbial growth. The emulsion was prepared by progressively blending the ten gram sh oil and the wall solution, using a
rotor-stator blender (Ultra-turrax IKA T18Basic, Wilmington, USA),
at 3500 rpm for 2 min. Then, the emulsion was homogenized at
24,000 rpm for 5 min. The prepared emulsion was used as feed to
produce sh oil microcapsule.
2.1.2. Spray drying system and exergetic calculation
The drying of liquid was accomplished using a BCHI Mini
Spray dryer B-191 (Flawil, Switzerland). Fig. 1 shows a schematic
view of used spray dryer at working state with more details.
The compressed air up to 800 l/h was used to disperse the feeding liquid to small droplets through the two-uid internal mixing
nozzle with diameter of 0.7 mm. The dryer was equipped with under pressure creating aspirator motor to provide and regulate the
amount of hot air up to 35 m3/h required for drying of atomized
droplets. The inlet drying air temperature up to 220 C was controlled and monitored on control panel using the PT 100 thermocouple with precision of 1 C. Temperature of outlet air carrying
the particles was measured before entering to the cyclone and
monitored on control panel using PT 100 thermocouple. The peristaltic pump rate was also used to change the liquid feeding rate
into the atomizing nozzle.
During the experiments, the data required for exergetic calculation such as temperature and relative humidity of ambient, inlet
Fig. 1. Schematic view of spray dryer at working condition: (1) Two-uid nozzle, operated by compressed air to disperse the solution into ne droplets. (2) Electric heating of
the drying medium. (3) Spray cylinder for drying the droplets to solid particles. (4) Separation of the particles in the cyclone. (5) Outlet lter to remove ne particles. (6)
Aspirator for generating the ow.
35
Fig. 2. Schematic illustration of drying process with input and output terms.
2
3
x1 m_ a 1 x10 m_ a 10 m_ w 2 x3 m_ a 3 m_ w 4 m_ w 40
_ a 1 ea 1 m
_ a 10 ea 10 m
_ p 2 ep 2 m
_ w 2 ew 2
m
10
ea 10 C p a 10 T 10 T 0 x10 hfg 10
where
_ a 1 qa 1 Q a 1
m
v a 21
ea 1 C p a 1 T 1 T 0 x1 hfg 1
2 1000
Q a 1
v a 1
Aa 1
7
8
C p a 1:04841 0:000383719T
7:92981T
1014
9:45378T 2
7
10
5:49031T 3
1010
v a 210
2 1000
11
Q a 10 Q e 2
An
_ a 10 qa 10 Q a 10
m
P 0
qa 10 1
Ra T 10
_ e 2
m
Q e 2
qe 2
v a 10 v d=p
12
13
14
15
_ a 3 ea 3 m
_ p 4 ep 4 m
_ p 40 ep 40 m
_ w 4 ew 4
m
_ w 40 ew 40 Q_ l
m
273:16 6 TK 6 338:72
338:72 6 TK 6 533:16
ep 2 C p p 2 T 2 T 0
v a 2d=p
2 1000
v a 210
C p p 2 T 10 T 0
2 1000
16
The specic heat of the fresh and dried products was determined as
follows (Choi and Okos, 1986):
C p p
X
X i C p i
17
Equations used in calculation of specic heat of product are presented in Appendix (Table A1). The chemical composition of product used in specic heat calculation was 23.33% protein, 34.66%
fat, 34.66% carbohydrate, 5% ber, and 6% ash, according to skim
milk powder and sh oil manufacturers reports.
The specic energy of sprayed water inside the droplets was
calculated as follows:
ew 2 C p w 2 T 10 T 0
v a 2d=p
2 1000
v a 210
C p w 2 T 10 T 0
2 1000
18
36
ea 3 C p a 3 T 3 T 0 x3 hfg 3
2
a 3
v
2 1000
_ a 3
m
v a 3
qa 3 Aa 3
19
20
The specic energy of outlet dried product and water was calculated using Eqs. (21) and (22).
v a 24
v a 23
C p p 4 T 3 T 0
2 1000
2 1000
2
2
v a 4
v a 3
C p w 4 T 3 T 0
ew 4 C p w 4 T 4 T 0
2 1000
2 1000
ep 4 C p p 4 T 4 T 0
21
22
ep 40 C p p 40 T 40 T 0 C p p 40 T 1 T 0
23
_ w 40 0
m
_ w 40 ew 40 0
m
24
v 2d=p
exp 2 hp T 2 ;P 10 hp T 0 ;P 0 T 0 sp T 2 ;P 10 sp T 0 ;P 0
2 1000
T2
v a 210
C p p 2 T 2 T 0 T 0 ln
31
T0
2 1000
The specic exergy of water inside the sprayed droplets was determined as follows:
exw 2 hf T 2 hg T 0 v f P10 Pg T 2 T 0 sf T 2
Pg T 0
v a 210
sg T 0 T 0 Rv ln
0
xv P 0
2 1000
32
25
v a 3
2 1000
33
The exergy balance equation was written for the dryer systems as
follows:
P3
P at
v a 23
qa 3 qa at
2
_ a 1 exa 1 m
_ a 10 exa 10 m
_ p 2 exp 2 m
_ w 2 exw 2
m
_ a 3 exa 3 m
_ p 4 exp 4 m
_ p 40 exp 40 m
_ w 4 exw 4
m
_ l Ex
_ des
_ w 40 exw 40 Ex
m
26
2
a 1
v
2 1000
The pressure of inlet drying air was determined using Bernoulli law.
28
The specic heat of water vapor was obtained using following equation with a correlation coefcient of 0.9949 (R2 = 0.9949).
T4
v a 24
exp 4 C p p 4 T 4 T 0 T 0 ln
T0
2 1000
T3
v a 23
C p p 4 T 3 T 0 T 0 ln
T0
2 1000
35
and,
exw 4 hf T 3 hg T 0 v f P3 Pg T 3 T 0 sf T 3
Pg T 0
v a 23
sg T 0 T 0 Rv ln
x0v P0
2 1000
36
P1
Pat
v a 21
qa 1 qa at
2
34
T 0
T1
C p p 40 T 1 T 0 T 0 ln
exp 40 C p p 40 T 40 T 0 T 0 ln 4
T0
T0
_ w 40 exw 40 0
m
37
38
_ l 1 T 0 Q_ l
Ex
T dc
39
29
Exergy investment in the evaporation of moisture in the product
100 40
Exergy of drying air supplied Exergy of spraying air
_ w ev exw 3 exw 2
m
w
100
41
_ a 10 exa 10
_ a 1 exa 1 m
m
w
v a 10
2 1000
30
where
_ w ev m
_ w 2 m
_ w 4
m
42
P g T 0
43
exw 3 hf T 3 ;P v 3 hg T 0 T 0 sT 3 ;P v 3 sg T 0 T 0 Rv ln
x0v P 0
and
Pv 3 xv 3 P3
44
37
xv
x1 0:622x
0:622
45
_ des T 0 S_ gen
Ex
46
_
IP
w
_ out
_ in Ex
1
Ex
100
47
_ in m
_ a 1 exa 1 m
_ a 10 exa 10 m
_ p 2 exp 2 m
_ w 2 exw 2 48
Ex
_Exout m
_ a 3 exa 3 m
_ p 4 exp 4 m
_ w 4 exw 4
49
2.2. Development of ANN
A multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network with various
numbers of hidden layers (one, two, and three) was trained and
tested. MLP is a layered feedforward network typically trained with
static backpropagation. Its main advantage is that it is easy to use,
and that it can approximate any input/output map. Amongst the
developed networks with different hidden layers, one hidden layer
MLP neural network has presented the best results. Therefore, it
was determined that an one hidden layer ANN with appropriate error minimization algorithms and transfer function and with a sufcient number of hidden neurons and training epochs was capable
of approximating exegetic parameters of spray drying process.
Structure of the MLP ANN used in this study for predicting the inlet
exergy, outlet exergy, lost exergy, destructed exergy, entropy generation, exergy efciency, and improvement potential is shown in
Fig. 3.
As shown in Fig. 3, this type of neural network is a supervised network because it requires a desired output in order to
learn. The goal of MLP ANN is to establish a model that accurately maps the input/output relationships using experimental
data so that the model can then be used to produce the output when the desired output is unseen. The MLP ANN learns
using a backpropagation algorithm i.e., the input data is
repeatedly presented to the ANN and the error is calculated
for each presentation by comparing the output of the neural
network with the desired output. Then, the computed error
is fed back or backpropagated to the ANN to adjust the
weights (Jha, 2007).
The effect of various error minimization algorithms including
gradient descent momentum (GDM), Levenberg-Marquardt (LM),
conjugate gradient (CG), and quick propagation (QP) on ANN performance were investigated. Different transfer functions including
hyperbolic tangent sigmoid (tansig), logarithmic sigmoid (logsig),
linear hyperbolic tangent sigmoid, and linear logarithmic sigmoid
transfer functions were utilized for determination of neuron output. After using appropriate learning algorithm and transfer function, the effect of neurons number and training epochs were
investigated on ANN performance. To develop a statistically
sound model, networks were trained three times and the best
values were recorded for each parameter (Omid et al., 2009).
NeuroSolutions software version 6.0 (NeuroDimension Inc.,
Gainesville, FL) was used for the design and testing of ANN
models.
38
2
PN
i
ycalc yiexp
i1
R2 1 PN
i
2
i1 ycalc y
N
2
1X
MSE
yicalc yiexp
N i1
MAE
47
48
N
1X
i
ycalc yiexp
N i1
49
loss because of utilizing more exergy for drying process. The exergy
destruction increased by increasing drying air temperature due to
intensive heat and mass transfer. The effect of feed mass ow rate
and spraying air ow rate on exergy destruction previously claried. The increasing aspirator rate did not lead to a known relation
with exergy destruction. The inuence of dryer operational parameters on entropy generation was similar to the exergy destruction
due to linear relation between exergy destruction and entropy generation (Eq. (46)). The exergy efciency decreased with increasing
drying air temperature, aspirator rate, and spraying air ow rate
because of reverse correlation between these parameters and exergetic efciency (Eq. (41)). However, increasing feed mass ow rate
enhanced exergy efciency since major part of supplied exergy to
drying chamber utilized for evaporation of moisture from sprayed
droplets. The improvement potential increased with increasing
drying air temperature, aspirator rate, and spraying air ow rate
due to an increase in total inlet exergy and a decrease in exergy
efciency. Whereas, the feed mass ow rate had inverse inuence
on improvement potential due to an increase in exergy efciency,
as previously elucidated.
The variation of training and cross-validation MSE for different
conguration of the error minimization algorithms and transfer
functions is shown in Table 1. It is interesting to note that the
transfer functions are mathematical equations that specify the output of a neuron. The transfer functions of articial neurons hinder
outputs from reaching very large magnitude which can disable
ANN and thus inhibit the training (Jha, 2007). Activation function
exhibits great variety, and has the meaningful inuence on learning and performance of ANNs. Also, a function optimization problem or error minimization algorithm is dened as a procedure to
determine the best network parameters (weights and biases) in order to minimize the network error.
In ANN designing procedure, the linear transfer function was
used in the output layer due to regression nature of this work. Also,
in the GDM and QP error minimization algorithms, the step size
was set to 0.1 and the momentum term to 0.7 (Omid et al.,
2009). The step size is a measure of steps taken in the weight space
to escape from local minima in the error surface. This means that if
the step size to be too small, the learning is slow and the network is
less capable. If the step size to be too high, the learning is fast and
rapid uctuations for the mean squared error and resulting slow
convergence to the lower error state (Abraham and Nath, 1999;
Abraham, 2004). Too small momentum term leads to an extremely
Table 1
Variation of training and cross-validation MSE for different congurations of the error minimization algorithms and transfer functions using MLP ANN.
Transfer
function
Learning
algorithm
5 Neurons/500 epochs
10 Neurons/1000 epochs
15 Neurons/1500 epochs
20 Neurons/2000 epochs
Training
Crossvalidation
Training
Crossvalidation
Training
Crossvalidation
Training
Crossvalidation
tan sigm
GD
LM
CG
QP
1.237E03
6.313E04
8.410E04
2.289E03
1.314E03
7.189E04
8.191E04
1.815E03
7.402E04
1.037E04
3.954E04
1.512E03
8.660E04
3.709E04
5.612E04
1.305E03
4.946E04
6.961E06
3.137E04
8.792E04
5.457E04
2.718E04
3.985E04
1.112E03
3.731E04
9.745E08
2.353E04
7.146E04
5.604E04
4.517E04
3.644E04
9.858E04
log sigm
GD
LM
CG
QP
2.669E03
6.270E04
1.250E03
1.456E02
2.114E03
7.036E04
1.091E03
9.859E03
2.209E03
9.621E05
8.769E04
2.653E03
1.756E03
2.862E04
1.018E03
2.131E03
2.247E03
4.326E06
6.543E04
2.437E03
1.840E03
3.088E04
7.816E04
1.979E03
2.118E03
8.092E08
5.914E04
2.417E03
1.882E03
3.993E04
7.400E04
1.921E03
GD
LM
CG
QP
1.811E03
1.223E03
1.096E03
1.973E03
1.446E03
1.111E03
1.237E03
1.657E03
7.746E04
3.356E04
5.180E04
1.495E03
1.092E03
8.269E04
6.363E04
1.432E03
6.551E04
2.074E04
3.331E04
1.212E03
8.162E04
7.432E04
5.474E04
1.206E03
4.350E04
1.481E04
4.058E04
8.650E04
7.191E04
7.294E04
8.519E04
1.290E03
GD
LM
CG
QP
2.010E03
2.532E03
2.160E03
1.239E02
1.943E03
1.803E03
1.725E03
6.622E03
1.800E03
1.776E03
1.487E03
2.288E03
1.479E03
1.803E03
1.709E03
1.835E03
1.007E03
7.370E04
1.350E03
1.987E03
1.505E03
1.185E03
1.434E03
1.901E03
7.663E04
9.262E04
7.870E04
1.535E03
1.019E03
1.358E03
1.157E03
1.209E03
39
Inlet exergy
Outlet exergy
Lost exergy
Destructed exergy
Entropy generation
Exergy efciency
MSE
MAE
R2
0.7052
0.68528
0.9984
2.4379
1.1829
0.9958
2.6189
1.3159
0.9841
7.2712
2.2341
0.9842
0.0092
0.0759
0.9859
7.7968E05
0.0073
0.9994
2.4693
1.3369
0.9983
Fig. 5. The average values of training and validating errors vs. the number of
training epochs for the selected network.
Fig. 4. MSE of various MLP ANN vs. the number of hidden layers for different
number of neurons and training epochs.
log sigm
1
1 expZ
50
40
Fig. 6. Comparison of predicted and desired output values for the inlet exergy, outlet exergy, lost exergy, destructed exergy, entropy generation, exergy efciency, and
improvement potential rate using selected MLP ANN.
41
R2
Inlet exergy (J/s) = 296.749 + 1.515 Tin + 2.204 AR + 2.065 PPR + 0.125 SAFR
Outlet exergy (J/s) = 83.967 + 0.459 Tin + 1.283 AR + 3.92 PPR0.043 SAFR
Lost exergy (J/s) = 85.704 + 0.506 Tin + 0.73 AR0.964 PPR0.007 SAFR
Destructed exergy (J/s) = 127.07 + 0.548 Tin + 0.19 AR0.891 PPR + 0.16 SAFR
Entropy generation (J/s K) = 0.426 + 0.0018 Tin + 0.00063 AR0.0029 PPR + 0.00053 SAFR
Exergy efciency (%) = 14.570.052 Tin0.076 AR + 0.778 PPR0.0039 SAFR
Improvement potential (J/s) = 207.92 + 1.047 Tin + 0.9466 AR 2.607 PPR + 0.162 SAFR
0.9906
0.9906
0.9697
0.9665
0.9665
0.9681
0.9879
Table A1
Specic heat of different product components and water as the function of temperature (C) (Singh and Heldman, 2001).
Component
Equation, T (C)
Protein
Fat
Carbohydrate
Fiber
Ash
Water
Table A2
Weights and biases of the MLP ANN model for exergetic prediction of sh oil microencapsulation process by spray drying.
Weights connecting input layer and hidden layer (W104)
1.838
1.112
0.089
1.010
0.551
2.233
0.208
0.370
0.768
0.568
2.030
2.102
0.204
0.064
0.916
3.038
1.206
0.680
1.118
1.024
1.139
1.165
0.588
0.004
0.128
0.519
1.179
0.463
2.166
0.666
1.612
0.990
0.808
0.356
0.725
0.113
0.815
1.075
1.379
0.565
Biases in hidden layer (B101)
0.472
0.214
2.160
0.830
2.844
1.178
1.400
1.775
0.326
0.034
0.047
1.314
0.673
0.378
0.704
0.006
2.082
2.477
1.073
0.524
0.435
0.522
0.655
0.360
1.010
0.162
0.664
0.725
0.578
0.571
0.095
0.246
0.664
0.864
1.606
0.889
0.235
1.170
0.990
2.162
1.669
2.256
1.837
2.585
0.156
1.127
0.945
0.385
2.846
0.407
0.859
1.115
0.492
0.132
0.911
0.411
0.580
model gets closer and closer to produce the desired output. As well,
it is clear from this gure that ANN model successfully trained,
indicating that the selected ANN topology was able to properly
establish the relationship between the input and output parameters. It has been mentioned that a well-trained ANN model is vital
to map and create input/output relations (Chegini et al., 2008).
Performance of the selected ANN with a LM error minimization
algorithm, logarithmic sigmoid transfer function, 20 neurons, and
100 training epochs for exergetic predation of spray drying process
is shown in Table 2. Values of R2, MSE, and MAE obtained using the
selected ANN model in testing step was within the acceptable level.
According to Table 2, the best approximation belonged to exergy
efciency, with respective MSE, MAE, R2 values of 7.7968 105,
0.0073, and 0.9994, and the least acceptable approximation belonged to lost exergy, with respective MSE, MAE, R2 values of
2.6189, 1.3159, and 0.9841.
In selected MLP ANN, the network returned 10 5 weights and
10 bias values connecting input layer and hidden layer, and 5 10
weights and 5 bias value connecting hidden layer and output layer
(Tables A2).
The exact and predicted values for each unseen data by the selected ANN are shown in Fig. 6. It is observed that the predicted
values are in good agreement with exact values and prediction error is negligible. Therefore, the selected MLP ANN model with the
developed structure for exergetic performance of spray drying process is capable to predict the responses with the lowest error and
has the potential to be generalized to a new input which has never
been used during its training.
In this research the multiple linear regression models were
developed for seven output parameters as the function of four input parameter and are reported in Table. 3. A comparison between
correlation coefcients, R2, of the ANN model (Table 2) with those
of 7 regression models (Table 3) indicates that ANN model is superior to regression models in predicting the exergetic performance
of spray drying process for all parameters. This is an additional evidence of the applicability of MLP ANN for simulating the complex
42
and nonlinear dynamic systems such as drying process. This indicates that the developed ANN model can accurately track the
experimental data and can certainly replace the mathematically
constitutive models for exergetic prediction of spray drying process, since it takes better into account experimental data and automatically improves itself through learning. Moreover, ANN models
have the capability to improve their performance by re-learning
new data with or without new processing conditions (Chegini
et al., 2008). If the spray dryer system is utilized at specied operational condition of inlet drying air temperature, aspirator rate,
peristaltic pump rate, and spraying air ow rate, the exergetic performance of drying process can be predicted, controlled, and optimized in real-time by one set of MLP ANN weights.
It is worthy to note that in mathematical approaches, an empirical model is required for each output, whereas a properly trained
MLP ANN use only one set of weights for all drying conditions and
is able to produce simultaneously all outputs together. Unlike the
empirical models that are applicable for data prediction in the simulated range, a trained ANN can estimate process behavior for both
in and out of simulated range. Of course, the empirical models are
physically explainable, whereas it is difcult to interpret the MLP
ANN structure. It is related to the black box nature of ANNs which
does not give real information on weighting factors of individual
components to the user, although various sensitivity tests and model
comparisons may provide information into their physical meanings
(Omid et al., 2009). As well, the mathematically constitutive models
require less computational efforts when compared to ANN.
4. Conclusion
In this study, supervised ANN and mathematical models were
developed for determining the exergetic performance of spray drying process. For this purpose, experimental results of spray drying
process at different inlet drying air temperature, aspirator rate,
peristaltic pump rate, and spraying air ow rate were used. It
was concluded that the MLP ANN approach for exergetic prediction
of spray drying process is capable of yielding good results and can
be considered as an attractive alternative to traditional regression
models and other related statistical approaches. This approach was
able to determine the nonlinear relationship between input and
output data supplied to the system during the training phase and
on that basis, makes a prediction of what the exergetic performance would be in any dryer operational condition. The developed
models could be utilized to determine the appropriate drying conditions of spray drying process to reach the sustainable and exergy
efcient process in industrial drying.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to extend their appreciation for nancial
support provided by University of Tehran.
Appendix A
See Tables A1 and A2.
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