Moving Bed Dryers
Free-flowing solid particles are dried in a moving bed dryer by passing the particles adjacent to a heat exchanger plate containing a heated fluid while passing a dehumidified gas into the solid particles from a gas flow manifold in the heat exchanger plate. The moving bed dryer includes a source of dehumidified gas and at least one heat exchanger plate. Each exchanger plate contains an interior fluid flow channel connecting in continuous fashion a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet. In addition, each heat exchanger plate has a gas flow manifold on one end of the plate. Optionally, one or more partial gas flow manifolds located between the ends of a heat exchanger plate can extend across the plate so as to partially constrict the interior fluid flow channel between the fluid inlet and the fluid outlet. Each gas flow manifold and partial gas flow manifold has an inlet connected to the source of dehumidified gas and an outlet consisting of at least one aperture.