Cellulosic fibre drying: fundamental understanding and process modeling

Process modeling of conveyer dryer for cellulosic fibre drying demands many fundamental insights. Present study highlights detailed cellulosic fibre drying aspects like mass transfer correlation relating mass transfer rate with process conditions, normalized drying curve and critical moisture content. Cellulosic fibre drying follows falling rate period, where rate of mass transfer decreases with moisture content. Conveyer dryer process model for commercial cellulosic fibre drying was developed and validated successfully. Moderate drying strategy derived based on developed process model and drying fundamentals was deployed at commercial scale which helped in reducing the moisture variability. Keywords: Cellulosic fibre, Conveyor dryer, Process Model, Sherwood number, Moderate drying