Process and apparatus for drying liquid-borne solid material

PCT No. PCT/GB94/02594 Sec. 371 Date Sep. 23, 1996 Sec. 102(e) Date Sep. 23, 1996 PCT Filed Nov. 25, 1994 PCT Pub. No. WO95/15470 PCT Pub. Date Jun. 8, 1995A method and apparatus are disclosed for continuously drying, preferably with agglomeration and/or coating and sizing, and separating a solid product from a liquid feed material, especially bauxite slurry which passes through a very sticky phase during drying, without significant encrustation of the equipment used. The method comprises: spraying a liquid bearing solid material upwardly into a drying zone, feeding a drying gas into the drying zone from below The spraying liquid in substantially parallel flow, removing the mixture of the drying gas and entrained dried particles from the drying zone, separating the entrained dried particles from their mixture with the drying gas, returning the separated dried particles to the drying zone, and collecting the dried particles, characterized by arranging for the formation of a slower moving boundary layer within the feeding of the drying gas, through which boundary layer dried particles are allowed lo fall under gravity to be collected, and by collecting the dried particles continuously from below the spraying liquid.