Aspen Plus is a powerful process modeling software that our ChemE team is utilizing to model the conventional dryer that is used by our sponsor.  

Posted below is a short video from Cornell about using Aspen Plus to model a dryer and all the involved pieces that are needed to make the simulation converge.

It is very interesting to see that we can simulate and model complex solids handling operations like this and we are excited to see what our team can do with this!

References: [1] Cornell CBE, “Chapter 4.3: Dryer,” YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzoqVnrn-Vs (accessed Nov. 4, 2024).

An interesting topic introduced by our mechanical engineering team is the use of Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling for heat transfer analysis.  

A tool called Ansys Fluent can be used to model heat transfer using CFD so that we can see both airflow patterns and heat transfer patterns inside a conveyor belt dryer. The company posted a great introduction video to this topic on YouTube that we want to share here with everyone. 

This tool is capable of modeling all three 3 types of heat transfer and checking our energy balance for convergence. Our mechanical engineers are excited to explore this 6 part lecture from Ansys to learn more about how it can be used for our project!

References: [1] “Heat Tranfer Modeling in Ansys Fluent,” YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltghqvkURUk&list=PLtt6-ZgUFmMK3oeH8EHABTg6UTfJyDWcF (accessed Nov. 4, 2024).

This week, we spent some time as a team learning what kinds of resources the university offers to its engineering students. Thanks to a workshop offered by the HWLEE Prototype Operations Manager, Jeff Bielling, we got the chance to see the UF HWLEE Prototype Lab. This lab is fully equipped to handle engineers trying to manufacture their project prototypes. It can handle many materials, types of manufacturing, and even assembly of parts. We are excited to see what this lab has that can help us with our project.  

In other news, we are actively preparing ourselves for PDR with our sponsor. We think we have created great ideas to present to them this Friday and are excited to see what they think.  

After a successful site visit last week, we had A LOT to discuss. We made some very good discoveries about the feed-stock that will assist us when researching and designing around the process. Having seen the physical dryer in-person, we now have a much better understanding of what we are dealing with, which will definitely help with making the simulation. The same can be said about the spray condenser.

Another thing we learned during our site visit was a lot of the limitations that come along with the process. The inlet can only handle a certain range of dry solids content which limits the types of feed-stocks that can be allowed into the process without mixing. There is also a limitation on the temperature of the cooling water used for the condenser due to the use of a cooling tower. This is because cooling towers cannot operate below ambient temperatures due to them using the surrounding air as a cooling medium. This is a huge limitation to any plant, especially during a Florida summer when ambient temperatures are at least 90 degrees Fahrenheit. We will be actively looking for ways to solve this problem.

References:

[1] Tencom Ltd. “How Can Pultrustion Improve a Cooling Tower?” Custom Fiberglass Pultruded Products, September 19, 2022. https://www.tencom.com/blog/what-is-a-cooling-tower.

We are so excited to be able to do our first site visit this week! We are eagar to see the physical process so that we all have a better understanding of the tools we are tryinf to improve.

In particular, we plan to take some samples of the feedstock back with us for further testing. Some of that may include:

• Creating drying curves for the different materials
• Recording thermodynamic data such as specific heat
• analyze the benefits of feedstock addatives
• test the possibilities of feed pre-heatment to remove load from the dryer

With the recent events of Hurricane Helene, we find it important to review hurricane readiness plans with a special twist – Industrial Manufacturing. From an article by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), there are 4 main steps to ensuring that your plant is hurricane ready. [1]

• Step 1: Make an Emergency planning team. They will create task lists and assign duties in the event of a storm emergency.
• Step 2: Analyze the capabilities and hazards present at your facility. It is important to have sources of backup power for emergency shut downs and to understand where wind can do the most damage so you known where on-site is the most hazardous.
• Step 3: Develop a plan for before, during and after the storm. It is important to be prepared for the storm, but you also need to be ready to respond to the aftermath and ensure everyone’s safety in the event of an incident caused by the storm.
• Step 4: Implement the plan. Always stay informed of the storms path and be conservative with your decisions to shut-down and evacuate if necessary. Storm tracking can be found at the National Hurricane Center website.

The Florida DEP has a checklist for hurricane planning that could be re-written for anyone’s use at the provided link: https://floridadep.gov/sites/default/files/Hurricane%20Preparedness%20Checksheet508Compliant.pdf
OSHA also has an article about preparedness with some more general notes that can be found here: https://www.osha.gov/hurricane/preparedness

Moving back to our project, we are super excited about the site visit we have planned for next week on October 4! We known it will be a visit full of learning opportunities that will help us move this project forward. We are also diligently working on our PDR draft, in which our simulation is really starting to take shape. We hope to have an update on a fully functional simulation soon!

References:
[1] DOE. Is your plant prepared for a hurricane?, 2006. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy06osti/40324.pdf.

Welcome New Team Member Thomas Scott! 

For our first order of business this week, we would like to welcome our new teammate, Thomas Scott to our team! We are excited to be able to work with you throughout this project.  

Back to work, we have been diligently researching dryer technology and have found all sorts of interesting things. One interesting topic was using ultrasound vibrations to break down cell walls in industrial food drying [1]. The intention of breaking the cell walls is to improve the total moisture removal from the feedstock to have a better-quality product, but some of that water is trapped behind the cell walls. The below graphic shows that ultrasound can be used to deteriorate the cell wall and make that moisture available for mass transfer. 

References:  

[1] Tsotsas, Evangelos, and Mujumdar, Arun S., eds. 2014. Modern Drying Technology, Volume 5 : Process Intensification. Newark: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. Accessed September 20, 2024. ProQuest Ebook Central. 

We are happy to reintroduce ourselves as Dry Guys! We completed the remaining groundwork such as deciding on our team’s name and having our team logo made, which you can see below! Thank you to Briana Sequeira for helping us with creating the logo. 

We had a successful meeting with our team’s coach, Dr. Cristian Cardenas, where he helped us clarify and improve some questions that we want to ask our liaison.   

We are excited to have a virtual meeting with our liaison later this week to clarify our scope of work and gain some insights into the current process technology at GreenTechnologies’ facility. 

With the information we gain from meeting with our liaison, we will begin working towards understanding their equipment and constraints. This information should aid us in beginning the preliminary design. 

Also, we all gathered for a group photo after class since we were dressed professionally for head shots provided by the IPPD team! 

Welcome to Team 7’s blog site! We are very excited to kick off our design project for our company sponsor, GreenTechnologies, LLC. Focused on improving the company’s drying process for fertilizer manufacturing, we look forward to exploring the world of process engineering under the tutelage of both our liaison engineers and coach.

This week, we laid the groundwork for our project start by reviewing each of the industrial processes involved in GreenTechnologies’ fertilizer waste treatment system. We look forward to meeting with our coach and company liaisons to refine our understanding of the project goals and start off strong!

Next week, keep an eye out for our official team name and logo!

See our team members listed below. We encourage you to visit our “Meet the Team” page for more information about us!

• Ryan Ames – Agricultural & Biological Engineering
• Sean Davis – Mechanical Engineering
• Joseph Dominguez – Mechanical Engineering
• Dionni Campbell – Mechanical Engineering
• Jacob Blechman – Chemical Engineering
• Ethan Vela – Chemical Engineering