%P 2375-2380
%C London
%V 3
%A M.F. Mohideen
%A M. Faiz
%A H. Salleh
%A H. Zakaria
%A V.R. Raghavan
%T Drying of oil palm frond via swirling fluidization technique
%D 2011
%L scholars1823
%J Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering 2011, WCE 2011
%O cited By 17; Conference of World Congress on Engineering 2011, WCE 2011 ; Conference Date: 6 July 2011 Through 8 July 2011; Conference Code:87249
%X Oil palm frond (OPF) is one of the largest available resources of biomass from oil palm plantations. Previous research works reported the high potentials of using the OPF as the main component for cattle feed. The production of cattle feed however, depends strongly on the drying efficiency of freshly pruned OPF. The current study proposes the swirling fluidization technique as a method for drying the OPF. A laboratory scale swirling fluidized bed dryer (SFBD) was constructed to carry out investigation on hydrodynamics and drying characteristics of chopped OPF in hot air stream at temperatures of 45°C and 60°C. OPF which consists of leaves (57 moisture content - wet basis) and stem (70 moisture content - wet basis) are dried separately in the SFBD. The average time taken to reduce moisture to 15 (as per required in cattle feed production) is about 60 minutes for leaves and 90 minutes for stems. It was found that the hydrodynamics and drying kinetics of both leaves and stems differ greatly. The leaves dry faster with large amount of moisture loss in early stages of drying before slowing down, in contrast with stems. This leads to a conclusion that the leaves are kinetic controlled while the stems are diffusion controlled and thus justifies the drying to be conducted separately. In conclusion, drying of OPF using swirling fluidized bed is effective for both continuous and batch drying. The ability to fluidize the highly irregular shapes of OPF at relatively low energy consumption is another strong advantage to use the swirling fluidization technique in comparison with other methods of fluidized bed drying as reported in the literature.
%K Batch drying; Cattle feed; Diffusion controlled; Drying characteristics; Drying efficiency; Drying kinetic; Fluidized bed dryers; Fluidized bed drying; High potential; Hot air stream; Irregular shape; Kinetic controlled; Laboratory scale; Low energy consumption; Main component; Moisture contents; Moisture loss; Oil palm; Oil palm frond; Swirling fluidized bed dryer (SFBD), Dryers (equipment); Energy utilization; Fluidization; Fluidized bed process; Fluidized beds; Hydrodynamics; Moisture; Moisture determination, Drying