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.
Claims21
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.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.