Woodchip drying in a screw conveyor dryer

Moisture content of raw biomass materials is a crucial parameter for system efficiency and the main purpose of the drying process is to reduce moisture content of the wet biomass. In this study, the drying characteristics of woodchip dried in a screw conveyor dryer had investigated experimentally. The experimental results demonstrated that drying rate had increased with the increasing drying air temperature and flow rate; however, the amount of volatile organic matters in the sample has kept constant. Furthermore, the results have showed that the best drying conditions in this study is 30 m(3)/h drying airflow rate, 200 degrees C drying air temperature, and co-current dryer type. With these conditions, moisture content of woodchip decreased from 60% to 27% ( wet basis, mass %). (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4766890]