Energy analysis of the convective drying of iron ore fines

Drying operations in iron ore processing plants have a particularly high energy demand due to the massive solid flow rates employed this industry. A 33 full-factorial design was applied investigate effects of air temperature, airflow velocity, and solids load on drying time specific consumption (SEC) convective fines fixed bed. The results demonstrated that each condition associated with an optimal minimized SEC. 73 g (bed height about 0.8 cm) identified validated as terms for configuration highest temperature (90?C) velocity (4.5 m/s). This resulted 29.0 s corresponding SEC 12.8 MJ/kg reduce moisture from 0.11 kg water/kg dry target 0.05 solids. Identifying optimum values process variables should assist designing operating energy-efficient dryers fines.