Energy and exergy analyses in convective drying process of multi-layered porous packed bed

This paper is concerned with the investigation of the energy and exergy analyses in convective drying process of multi-layered porous media. The drying experiments were conducted to find the effects of multilayered porous particle size and thermodynamics conditions on energy and exergy profiles. An energy analysis was performed to estimate the energy utilization by applying the first law of thermodynamics. An exergy analysis was performed to determine the exergy inlet, exergy outlet, exergy losses during the drying process by applying the second law of thermodynamics. The results show that the energy utilization ratio (EUR) and the exergy efficiency depend on the particle size as well as the hydrodynamic properties and the layered structure, by considering the interference between capillary flow and vapor diffusion in the multi-layered packed bed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.