Drying Kinetics and Mathematical Modeling of Casuarina Equisetifolia Wood Chips at Various Temperatures

Authors

  • Deepak Sridhar
    Affiliation
    1Department of Chemical Engineering, Siddaganga Institute of Technology, Tumkur-572103, Karnataka, India. 2Department of Chemical and Environment Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson-85721, USA. Email: deepaksridhar@email.arizona.edu
  • Gattumane Motappa Madhu
    Affiliation
    M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India
https://doi.org/10.3311/PPch.7855

Abstract

Casuarina equisetifolia wood is extensively used as fire wood and is also being used extensively in gassifiers. Drying is an important procedure which has to be carried out before the wood is burnt. Experiments on Casuarina wood chips of dimension 5.08 cm × 5.08 cm with 2.54 cm thickness were carried out between 80oC to 100oC in a tray drier using air flow velocity of 0.5m/s. Initial moisture content was found to be 48% on dry basis. The experimental drying curves showed only the falling rate period. Eleven thin-layer drying kinetic models were fitted with the experimental drying kinetics values and individual model constants were found. These models were compared using statistical measures like correlation coefficient, root mean square error, mean bias error and reduced chi-square to estimate the best model that would fit for the experiment. The drying rate and effective diffusion coefficient (Deff) were found to increase with temperature.

Keywords:

Casuarina, Thin-layer drying models, Tray drier, Statistical measures, Effective diffusion coefficient

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Published Online

2015-04-13

How to Cite

Sridhar, D., Madhu, G. M. “Drying Kinetics and Mathematical Modeling of Casuarina Equisetifolia Wood Chips at Various Temperatures”, Periodica Polytechnica Chemical Engineering, 59(4), pp. 288–295, 2015. https://doi.org/10.3311/PPch.7855

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Articles