Drying of Porous Materials

Thermal drying has been recognized as an important unit operation as it is ener- intensive and has a decisive effect on the quality of most products that are dried commercially. Escalating energy costs, demand for eco-friendly and sustainable te- nologies as well as the rising consumer demand for higher quality products, have given fresh incentives to industry and academia to devote great effort to drying R&D. Fortunately, this area does not demand a massive perfusion of R&D funds to come up with valuable insights and innovations, with only a few exceptions. Indeed, there is already a sustainable level of R&D support―both in terms of human and ?nancial resources―around the world. Emerging economies of the world, such as China, B- zil, India, etc, have picked up the slack caused by the fully developed economies of the west moving towards nanotechnologies. Overall, the global R&D effort has been rising despite precipitous drops in North America and Europe. With 12–25% of the national industrial energy consumption attributable to industrial drying in developed countries, it is only a matter of time before high energy costs will stimulate further R&D in drying.

This book provides recent advances in research on drying of saturated particulates and porous materials. The present volume is based on the selected papers presented at the XI Polish Drying Symposium 2005. The selected contributions cover theoretical modeling as well as experimental research on heat and mass transfer in porous and multiphase media during drying. The comprehensiveness and profound treatment of the subject makes this book an excellent pioneering contribution to the science and technology of drying of particulate solids.

Audience: These articles written by experts in the field will be of interest not only to academic and researches in porous media but also to engineers active in food processes, nanotechnology or reaction technology.