The overarching theme of the project was to find the drying kinetics of cohesive milk powder in a vibrated fluidized bed. I wanted to investigate the optimal frequency and air temperature required in the fluidized bed to design the most efficient fluidized bed. I also created a humidifying unit in Dyssol, a flow-sheet simulation. This can be used to model the effects of different inlet parameters on the drying process.
This diagram depicts an overview of the system I was attempting to simulate. The humidifier essentially performed three functions — it brought the ambient air up to approximately forty degrees, then humidified the air (thus having the temperature drop) before heating it again to a final desired temperature.
My goal was to be able to estimate the parameters to describe the rate that the heater was heating at. Since it wasn’t advantageous to invest time studying the heater itself, the results are largely based on experimental data.