Three stage single pass drying apparatus for particulate materials
AssigneeRonning Engineering Company, Inc.
InventorRichard Ronning
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A single pass, multiple stage, rotary drum heat exchange dryer (22) is provided for drying products such as distillers grains and includes a tubular shell (64) with a moist product inlet (66), an opposed dried product outlet (70), and an internal drying chamber (78). The chamber (78) includes a convection drying first stage (80), and conductive drying final curing stage (82) an intermediate stage (84); the intermediate stage (84) is subdivided into a plurality of contiguous drying zones (86-92). The zones (86-92) include individual flighting assemblies (164) which are of substantially the same density and heat transfer ratios.
Claims20
A rotary drum dryer, comprising:
- an elongated, hollow drum having a moist product inlet and a spaced dried product outlet, with a drying chamber between the inlet and the outlet;
- and
- fighting within said drum dividing the chamber into a plurality of drying stages along the length of the chamber, including a first stage adjacent said inlet, a final stage adjacent said outlet, and at least one intermediate stage between the first and the final stages,
- said intermediate stage including a plurality of drying zones arranged in successive order from a point proximal to said first stage and extending towards the final stage, each of said zones configured to define a heat transfer ratio calculated by dividing the total heat-transferring surface area within the zone by the volume of the zone, each of said zones having approximately the same heat transfer ratio each of said zones including heat transfer flighting comprising a plurality of strut elements coupled to said drum and extending inwardly thereof, with a number of spaced apart heat transfer plates secured to corresponding strut elements.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.