Mathematical modeling and simulation of an industrial concurrent rotary dryer

Drying of solids is of great significance in fertilizer and mineral industries as the quality of final product should meet the commercial required standards. A rotary dryer which has beeninvestigated in present study is used in ammonium nitrate (AN) plant located at Shiraz Petrochemical Complex (SPC). This plant is designed to produce 650 metric tons of finalproducts in a day. In this work, mathematical modeling of the concurrent rotary dryer for ANincluding heat and mass transfer equations between solid and air was developed. New correlations were proposed for AN equilibrium moisture and drying rate which were used in themodeling. The model was checked against the industrial data which showed a good agreement. The model predicts air and product moisture and temperature depending on working conditions of the rotary dryer. Regardless the slope and speed of the dryer, inlet AN moisture and air temperature has been shown to be the variables that have the greatest effect, on the outletmoisture content of the product

Keywords:

Ammonium nitrate plant , Rotary dryer , Mathematical modeling , Equilibrium moisture , Drying kinetics