"Published in Newark, California, USA"
2,000 kg of wet solids containing 70% solids by weight are fed to a tray dryer where it is dried by hot air. The product finally obtained is found to contain 1% moisture by weight. Calculate
(a) the weight of water removed from wet solids, and
(b) the weight of product obtained.
Solution:
The given word problem is about drying of a wet solids by hot air dryer which involves the principles of Stoichiometry. The total amount of a substance in the reactants or incoming ingredients must be equal to the total amount of a substance in the final products. In short, the Law of Conservation of Mass must be followed all the time. To illustrate the given problem, it is better to draw the flow diagram as follows
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| Photo by Math Principles in Everyday Life |
Basis: 2,000 kg of solids
Let x = be the weight of Product Solids
y = be the weight of Water Removed
Overall Material Balance of Hot Air Dryer:
Material Balance of Solids:
Substitute the value of x to the first equation, we have
Therefore,
Weight of Product Solids = 1,414.141 kg
Weight of Water Removed = 585.859 kg