Amir, Nizar and Gozan, Misri and Aroua, Mohamed Kheireddine and Alhamid, Muhammad Idrus (2025) Development and performance evaluation of a novel industrial-scale fixed bed dryer for alkali-treated eucheuma cottonii chips. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, 81: 104453. p. 104453. ISSN 2213-1388
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Drying alkali-treated Eucheuma cottonii chips (ATCC) in the seaweed industry demands significant resources, particularly energy, and generates substantial CO2 emissions, especially when fossil fuels serve as the primary energy source. Simultaneously, the global seaweed industry has become increasingly competitive, which demands technological advancements across processing stages, especially in drying. Here, we developed a novel industrial-scale fixed-bed dryer (FBD) for ATCC and assessed its feasibility to address these issues. Several critical parameters, including product quality, drying performance, and CO2 emission reduction, were evaluated to determine the novel FBD’s viability compared to a conventional FBD. Drying kinetics were also analyzed using 24 thin-layer drying models to identify the most appropriate model for describing ATCC drying behavior with the novel FBD. The results of this study indicated that the novel FBD effectively dried ATCC to a quality suitable for milling. The Improved Midilli-Kucuk and Hii et al. models provided the best fit for describing the drying kinetics. Additionally, the novel FBD reduced drying time by one hour, decreased specific energy consumption by 60%, improved drying efficiency by over 150%, and lowered drying costs by 55%. Consequently, it emitted 60% less CO2 than the conventional FBD. In conclusion, this study successfully developed a novel FBD that addresses the critical challenges of high energy consumption and CO2 emissions in ATCC drying and also offers multiple benefits for the global seaweed industry, aligning with the objectives of SDG 7, SDG 9, and SDG 13.