Drying

Shadeed Gad, B.Sc. (Pharm.), M.Sc., PhD., M.P.S.E.

Drying
Introduction
Purpose
Moisture content of a material
Equilibrium moisture content
Bounded moisture
Free moisture
Introduction
Drying means reduction in moisture content to
acceptable final value.
It is the last operation in a manufacturing process, and is
carried out immediately prior to packaging or dispatch.
Adjustment and control of moisture levels by drying is
important in the manufacture and development of
pharmaceutical products.
Also drying may be carried out to:
(A) Improve handling characteristics, as in bulk powder
filling and other operations involving powder flow.
(B) Stabilized moisture -sensitive materials, such as aspirin
and ascorbic.
The equilibrium moisture content (EMC)
If a material is exposed to air at certain temperature and
humidity, the material will either lose or gain water until
an equilibrium condition is established (EMC).
A non-porous insoluble solid, such as talc, zinc oxide, or
sand, will have an EMC approaching zero for all humidity
values and temperatures, but many organic materials, such
as wood, textiles, and leather, show variation of EMC
The moisture may be present n the following
two forms:
(a) Bound moisture: water may be retained in small
capillaries, adsorbed on surfaces, or in solution in cell
walls.
(b) Free moisture: This is the water that is in excess of
the EMC.
Notes
In drying practice, two different kinds of solids are found:
porous or non- porous.
Between these two extremes, many solids are
intermediate.
The bed of solids to be dried may by static or moving.
The rate of drying will consequently vary and will depend
upon both the type of solid and the condition of the bed.
Porous particles Non porous particles
Rate of drying
1- rate of drying in static beds
a) static beds of non porous solids
 AB, Constant rate Period rate governed by diffusion from
the surface through the stationary air film in contact with it.,
so it is affected by the particle size of the solids.
During this period, liquid must be transported to the surface
at a rate sufficient-to maintain saturation.
point B is the "Critical Moisture Content", (CMC), and a linear
fall in the drying rate, occurs with further drying.
BC First falling Rate Period". At and below the CMC, the
movement of moisture from the interior is no longer sufficient
to saturate the surface.
As drying proceeds, moisture reaches the surface at a
decreasing rate and the mechanism which controls its transfer
will influence the rate of drying.
 For any material, the critical moisture content, CMC,
decreases as the particle size decreases.
CD "Second Falling Rate Period" is controlled by
vapour diffusion a factor which will be largely
independent of the conditions outside the bed but
affected by the particle size due to the latter's
influence on the dimensions of pores and channels.
During this period, the surface temperature
approaches the temperature of the drying air.
 If the soluble matter forms a skin or gel on drying rather
than a crystalline deposit, a different curve is obtained.
The constant rate period is followed by a continuous fall
in the drying rate in which no differentiation of first and
second falling rate periods can be made.
During this period, drying is controlled by diffusion
through the skin which is continually increasing in
thickness.
Soap and gelatine are materials which behave in this way.
b) static bed of porous solids
2- rate of drying in
moving beds
drying rates is 10-20 times greater
as fresh solids are continually exposed to the hot surface. The
heat treatment received by the solid will be more uniform.
it is possible to project air upwards through the bed at a
velocity high enough to fluidize the particles.
Or , the material may be mechanically subdivided and
introduced into the drying stream.
Both methods give high drying rates due to high interfacial
constant between the drying surfaces and the air stream.
Fluidized-bed dryers and spray dryers, respectively, use these
principles.
Equipments
 Equipment
Batch Dryer Continuous Dryer

Tray Or Shelf Dryer Turbo Shelf Dryer

Vacuum Tray Dryer Drum Dryer

Tumbling Dryer Spray Dryer
Flash Dryer (Pneumatic
Freeze Dryer Dryer)

Rotary Dryer
Batch And Continuous
Dryer

Fluidized Bed Dryer

Infra Red Dryer

a) Batch dryers

1- Tray or shelf dryer

2- Vacuum tray dryer

3- Tumbling dryer

4- Freeze dryer
Tray or shelf dryer
Tray or shelf dryer
used for granular materials.
They operate by passing hot air over the surface of the
solid which is spread over trays arranged in racks inside a
chamber, most commonly rectangular in shape, whose
walls contain suitable heat-insulating materials.
Such hot-air ovens are probably the simplest and
cheapest dryers.
On small unites air is heated electrically, larger units may
use steam-heated.
 The advantages of the hot air oven are its low initial cost.
With the exception of dusty solids, materials of almost any
other physical form may be dried.
However, the disadvantages are:
A large floor space is required for the oven and for tray-
loading facilities.
Labour costs for loading and unloading the oven are high.
Long drying times, (24 hours), are necessary.
Solvents can only difficultly be recovered from the drying air.
Unless carefully designed, variable temperature from
location to location (7 C) may occur.
Note
If the material is of suitable granular form, drying times
may be reduced to an hour or less by passing the air
downwards through the material laid on mesh trays. The
oven in this form is called a Batch Through
Circulation Dryer.
Vacuum Oven
 Vacuum tray dryers, is bigger than laboratory vacuum
oven, offer an alternative method for drying small
quantities of material at a reduced temperature.
But it is expensive due to the use of vacuum pump. So
they only used when a definite advantage over the
hot-air oven is secured, such as
low temperature drying of thermolabile materials,
The recovery of solvents from the bed, or
The exclusion of air or oxygen during drying.
 The system consists of a condenser, receiver, and dry
vacuum pump.
The condenser is used as moist air is highly destructive to
vacuum pumps.
The receiver used to drain condensed moisture without need
to shut off then re-operate the vacuum pump.
 A vacuum tray dryer generally consists of a rectangular
iron shell, which contains a number of hollow shelves.
Heat is usually supplied by passing steam, or hot water,
through these hollow shelves, upon which the material
may be placed in suitable trays.
The steam or hot water in the shelves heats the material
spread in the trays to a temperature such that water will
evaporate under the reduced pressure existing in the
dryer.
This water is condensed in the condenser placed
between the dryer and the vacuum pump.
With these types of dryer, drying times are long and
usually of the order of 12 to 48 hours.
Tumbling dryer
Tumbling dryer
tumbler dryer has double cone shape.
operating under vacuum low temperature, solvent
recovery, and increased drying rates
Optimum conditions are established by changing the
vacuum, the temperature, and, if the material passes
through a sticky stage, the speed of rotation.
With correct operation, a uniform powder should be
obtained as distinct from the cakes produced when static
beds are dried.
Notes
waxy solids, cannot be dried by this method because the
tumbling action causes the material to aggregate into
balls.
It was found that drying, periods of 2 to 3.5 hours in
tumbling dryers replaced timed of 18 hours in hot-air
ovens.
(4) Freeze Dryers:
Freeze drying is a vacuum drying in which the solid is
frozen and drying takes place by subliming the solidified
ice-phase.
Low temperatures and high vacuum are used and
establishing and maintaining these conditions, together
with the low drying rates obtained, create a most
expensive method of drying which is only used when
other methods are inadequate.
So it is used when
high rates of decomposition occur during normal drying.
The substances which can be dried at higher
temperatures but are thereby changed in some way.
Freeze Dryers (examples)
Fruit juices may lose flavour and odour by other drying
methods
pertinacious materials are denatured by the
concentration and higher temperature
blood plasma and some antibiotics are important large-
scale application of freeze drying.
On a smaller scale, it is extensively used for the
dehydration of bacteria, vaccines, blood fractions and
tissues.
 Freeze drying is theoretically a simple technique. Pure ice
exhibits an equilibrium vapour pressure of 4.6 mm. Hg at 0C.
and 0.1 mm. Hg at -40C. The vapour pressure of ice
containing dissolved substances will, of course be lower. If
however the pressure above the frozen solutions less than its
equilibrium vapour pressure, the ice will sublime, eventually
leaving the solute as a sponge-like residue equal in apparent
volume to the original solid and, therefore, of low bulk density.
The latter is readily dissolved when water is added, and freeze
drying has been called for this reason" lyophilic drying" or"
lyophilization". No concentration, in the sense of the sense of
the word, occurs and structural change in, for example, protein
solutions, are minimized.
SEM micrograph of SFD dried SEM micrograph of SFD PVP
PVP 360k system 40k /AC (90:10) system
Tray Freeze Dryer
b) Continuous dryers
Turbo shelf dryer
Used for sticky materials
It consists of rotating trays arranged in a vertical stack.
Heated air is circulated over the trays by turbo-type fans
mounted in the centre of the stack.
Wet mass fed through the roof of the dryer is leveled by
a wiper. After about seven-eighth of a revolution, the
material being dried is pushed on the tray below, where it
is again spread and levelled.
The same procedure continues throughout the heights of
the dryer until the dried material is discharged at the
bottom.
Turbo-shelf Dryer
b) Continuous dryers (cont.)

2- Drum dryer
a- single drum dip feed
b- single drum pan feed
c- single drum splash feed
d- double drum dip feed
e- double drum top feed
f- single drum vacuum dryer
g- double drum vacuum dryer
 If a solution is run on to a steam heated drum which is
slowly rotating, drying will take place.
The dip-feed system is used where the liquid can be
picked up form a shallow pan.
The agitator prevents settling of any particles, and the
spreader which is sometimes used, helps to produce a
uniform coating on the drum. The knife, which is
employed for removing the dried material, function in a
similar manner to the doctor blade on the rotary filter; if
the material is dried to give a free flowing powder this
will come away from the rum quite easily.
 Double -drum may be dip feed and top feed.
Top feed gives a larger capacity, as a thicker coating is
obtained.
It is important to arrange for uniform feed to a top feed
machine, and this may be affected by using a perforated
pipe for solutions and a travelling though for suspensions.
Vacuum drum dryers
used when it is desired to keep low temperature.
The dried material is collected in screw conveyors and
carried to receivers. It is usual to have two receivers so
that one can be tilled while the other is emptied and
operation, thus, will not be interrupted.
Double drum vacuum dryer
Vacuum Drum-dryer
b) Continuous dryers (cont.)
3-Spray dryer
a- Swenson spray dryer
b- Instant spray dryer
Spray dryers
they handle only fluid materials such as solutions,
suspension, and thin pastes.
The fluid is dispersed as fine droplets into a moving
stream of hot gas where they evaporate rapidly before
reaching the wall of the drying chamber.
The product dries into a fine powder, which is carried by
the gas current into a collection system.
Standard Spray-dryer
Start
The advantages of spray dryers are
very short drying time (2 to 20 seconds) which permits
drying of highly heat sensitive materials.
The production solids of hollow spherical particles, with
desired consistency, bulk density, appearance.
Spray dryers yielding form a solution, slurry, or thin paste,
in a single step a dry product that is ready for the
package.
A spray dryer may combine the functions of an
evaporator, a crystallizer, a dryer, a size-reduction unit, and
a classifier.
c) Batch and continuous dryer
1- Fluidized bed dryer
If a gas is allowed to flow upward at a velocity greater
than the setting velocity of the particles.
The resultant mixture of solids and gas behaves like a
liquid and the solids are said to be" fluidized".
The fluidization technique is very efficient for the
drying granular solids, because each particle is
completely surrounded by the drying gas.
In addition, the intense mixing between the solids and
gas results in uniform conditions of temperature,
composition, and particle size distribution throughout
the bed.
Fluidized-bed Dryer