Title: A new empirical correlation to model drying characteristics of low rank coals

Authors: Saban Pusat; Mustafa Tahir Akkoyunlu

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yildiz Technical University, Besiktas, Istanbul, Turkey ' Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Ereğli Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Necmettin Erbakan University, Ereğli, Konya, Turkey

Abstract: In the present study, drying of Konya-Ilgn lignite (a Turkish lignite) was modelled by using thin-layer drying models from the literature and a new empirical model. The required experimental works were carried out at different experimental conditions in a fixed bed dryer. The experimental conditions were 0.4 m/s, 0.7 m/s and 1.1 m/s drying air velocities, 70°C, 100°C and 130°C drying air temperatures, 20 mm, 35 mm and 50 mm particle sizes and 80 mm, 130 mm and 150 mm bed heights. The performance of thin-layer drying models was evaluated by a statistical method. The results showed that the proposed model achieves better results than thin-layer drying models in the literature. Therefore, the proposed empirical model may be used to represent drying characteristics of any material. [Received: June 16, 2016; Accepted: December 7, 2016]

Keywords: drying; modelling; fixed bed; thin-layer; coal; lignite; low rank coal; drying kinetics; drying characteristics; Turkey.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2017.084476

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2017 Vol.15 No.3, pp.287 - 297

Received: 16 Jun 2016
Accepted: 07 Dec 2016
Published online: 07 Jun 2017 *

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