A Detailed Study of Vibro Fluidized Bed Dryer Exergy and Energy Models of Tea Process Application

Tea is a very beneficial drink for one's health. It is known for its anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory content that could prevent Coronary Heart Disease (CND). Unfortunately, without a proper processing step, tea will lose its benefits. One of the steps of processing tea is the process of drying. To achieve a good drying result, a machine with Fluid Bed Dryer (FBD) type is used. Along with the development of technology, the FBD machine is evolving into Vibro Fluid Bed Dryer (VFBD), in which the FBD machine is equipped with a vibrator. The application of vibrator is expected to maximize the drying result and to prevent case hardening. The analysis of exergy and energy is very important to optimize a process and to evaluate the performance of a device. This research aims to calculate the value of exergy efficiency of VFBD machine, to calculate the value of electrical energy efficiency from VFBD machine and also to make a Sankey Diagram from the electrics of VFBD machine exergy and energy. The analysis of exergy uses the second law of Thermodynamics that related to entropy meanwhile the analysis of energy uses the first law of Thermodynamics that related to the conservation of energy. The research resulted in the decrease of exergy value of the VFBD machine from 58,33% to 56,99% in which the decrease is caused by the irreversible process. As for the value of the total electrical energy efficiency of the VFBD machine is worth 86.71% obtained while the machine 20 minutes operated.