Process and means for drying of sticky materials

1. Process for drying sticky materials in a single rotating drying means characterized in that the process comprises the steps:

a) establishing a ring shaped bed of material in the processing chamber of the single rotating drying means wherein said ring shaped bed comprises an amount of material M(t)=∫p dV with a moisture level of F(t)=1/M ∫pf dV where F(t)<f g with f g being the glue phase lower limit, and

b) that to this amount M(t) is added an amount of wet material m i with a moisture content f l , where f i >f h , where f h is the glue phase upper limit, and

c) that the relationship between m i *f i and M(t)*F(t) is regulated so that F(t)<f g , and

d) that sufficient fast mixing is established to maintain the mixture of said ring shaped bed and said added wet material below the glue phase lower limit f g so that f(X,t)<f g .

2. Process in accordance with claim 1 wherein the moisture content of the total material, F(t), is regulated to F(t)<f g by the amount supplied of m 1 being regulated.

3. Process in accordance with claim 1 characterised in that the evaporation {acute over (α)} is obtained by rotor blades being arranged in the means and by these blades coming into contact with material, establishing collision, contact and friction forces sufficient to evaporate the supplied moisture.

4. Process in accordance with claim 1 wherein the material in the processing chamber has a temperature above the evaporating temperature at the actual pressure to make the evaporation of water more effective.

5. Process in accordance with claim 1 wherein the drying takes place under reduced pressure.

6. Process in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the rate of evaporation {acute over (α)} is increased by heat being fed through the walls of the processing chamber or by heat carriers in the form of hot gas being fed directly into the processing chamber.

7. Process in accordance with claim 1 , characterised in that the feeding occurs over the whole length of the dryer over several feed inlets.

8. Process in accordance with claim 1 , means are arranged to monitor the material in the processing chamber, so that if the material moves towards the glue phase, then this will be communicated to a control device which controls the feeding of new material m 1 .

9. Process in accordance with claim 8 , wherein these means comprise a sensor that indicates the moisture level in the material, F(t).

10. Process in accordance with claim 8 , wherein these means comprise devices that measure the collision, contact and friction forces which must be brought about.

11. Process in accordance with one of the claims 1 - 10 , wherein the process is used in combination with other conventional drying processes.

12. Process in accordance with claim 11 , wherein the material which shall be treated is first dried in a conventional indirect dryer until the material has a moisture content near the upper glue phase limit.

13. Process in accordance with claim 12 , wherein and that the resulting dry material is re-circulated with untreated material to a consistency which can be treated in a conventional indirect dryer.

14. Process in accordance with claim 1 wherein a rotating rotor with rotor arms establishes said ring shaped bed of material with a tangential velocity at a tip of said arm in the range of from 10 to 100 meters per second.

15. A process for drying sticky material comprising the steps of

obtaining a mass of sticky material;

establishing a rotating annular bed of the material from a portion of said mass of material with a moisture content below the glue phase lower limit of the material;

adding untreated material with a moisture content above the glue phase f g upper limit of the material from said mass directly to said annular bed in an amount to maintain the total moisture content of said bed and said added material below the glue phase lower limit of said materials;

rapidly mixing the added material with said bed of material to obtain a mixture thereof while supplying a larger amount of kinetic energy to an inner circumferential part of said bed of material than the average kinetic energy in the remainder of said bed of material for conversion to heat energy to evaporate moisture from said mixture; and

delivering a flow of dried material from said mixture at a moisture content below the glue phase lower limit of the material and at a rate sufficient to maintain said annular bed of material.

16. An apparatus for dying a sticky material comprising

a cylindrical processing chamber and a rotor rotatably mounted in said chamber for establishing within said chamber a rotating annular bed of material obtained from a predetermined mass of the material outside said chamber and with a moisture content below the glue phase lower limit of the material;

at least one inlet to said chamber for adding material with a moisture content above the glue phase upper limit of the material from said mass to said annular bed in an amount to maintain the total moisture content of said bed and said added material below the glue phase lower limit of said materials;

a plurality of rotor arms on said rotor for rapidly mixing the added material with said bed of material to obtain a mixture thereof while supplying a larger amount of kinetic energy to an inner circumferential part of said bed of material than the average kinetic energy in the remainder of said bed of material for conversion to heat energy to evaporate moisture from said mixture; and

at least one outlet from said chamber for delivering a flow of dried material from said mixture at moisture content below the glue phase lower limit of the material and at a rate sufficient to maintain said annular bed of material.

17. An apparatus as set forth in claim 16 wherein each said rotor arm is radially spaced from an inner surface of said processing chamber by an amount of up to 0.1 m.

18. An apparatus as set forth in claim 16 wherein the number said rotor arms in relation to the area of an inner cylindrical inner surface of said processing chamber is of the order 10 to 100 per square meter.

19. An apparatus as set forth in claim 16 further comprising a plurality of sensors in said chamber for sensing the moisture content of said bed of material and the temperature of said bed of material and a control unit operatively connected to said sensors for controlling an input of fresh material into said chamber and the output of dried material from said chamber.