A new empirical correlation to model drying characteristics of low rank coals

In the present study, drying of Konya-Ilgin lignite (a Turkish lignite) was modelled by using thin-layer drying models from the literature and a new empirical model. The required experimental works were carried out at different experimental conditions in a fixed bed dryer. The experimental conditions were 0.4 m/s, 0.7 m/s and 1.1 m/s drying air velocities, 70 degrees C, 100 degrees C and 130 degrees C drying air temperatures, 20 mm, 35 mm and 50 mm particle sizes and 80 mm, 130 mm and 150 mm bed heights. The performance of thin-layer drying models was evaluated by a statistical method. The results showed that the proposed model achieves better results than thin-layer drying models in the literature. Therefore, the proposed empirical model may be used to represent drying characteristics of any material.