Agricultural Process Engineering: Drying of Food Product

By
Mustapha Bello
University Putra Malaysia
Q1
a. Different stages of drying
In order to explain the different stages of dying, let us consider a theoretical drying
curve model below
Fig. 1 theoretical drying curve
The different stages of drying are:
I. The Rising Rate Stage (A-B): In this stage of drying, the rate of drying
increases as water is removed. This occurs as the product and the water within
the product experience a slight temperature increase. Physically, this is
behavior is attributed to the conditioning of sample, e.g. warming-up,
opening of pores etc. This stage is usually short and not always observed in
drying experiments.
The mechanism of water removal at this stage is by evaporation, moisture is
transferred and moves from the centre towards the surface by capillary action.
The surface of the food acts like the surface of a pure water and moisture
evaporates to the drying air. Air temperature and velocity are the controlling
factors.
II The Constant Rate Stage (B-C): This is the stage when the drying rate remains
Constant as water is removed. This constant rate period occurs when the
surface of the food is saturated with water and acts like a surface of
Water. Significant reductions in moisture content occur at constant occur at a
Constant rate and at a constant product temperature. This temperature is the
The wet bulb temperature of air.
The mechanism of water removal in this stage is as in the rising stage.
Moisture moves to the surface by capillary action and then
Evaporates in to the air. Constant rate continues as long as any amount of
Water lost by evaporation is replaced by water transported from the interior
To the surface by diffusion. Air temperature and velocity are also the
controlling factors here. Thus, the evaporation from the surface is the
rate-controlling mechanism.
This period continues until the moisture content is reduced to the critical
Moisture content, a point that indicates the on-set of the falling rate period.
III The Falling Rate Stage (C-D): As the drying continues beyond the critical
moisture content, the rate of moisture removal decreases with time, and
this stage is termed the falling rate period. At this stage, the supply of
water to the surface drops below the rate of evaporation and the moisture
content of the surface of the food is no longer saturated; the temperature of
the food rises during the falling rate period and approaches asymptotically
the dry bulb temperature of the air.
When the supply of water to the surface drops below the rate of
evaporation, the moisture content of the surface begins to decrease rapidly
and approaches quickly the equilibrium moisture content corresponding to
the relative humidity of the air on the isotherm of the material. From that
moment, internal transport and not evaporation is the rate-controlling
factor. Water moves to the surface by liquid water diffusion, water vapor
diffusion and capillary transport.
b. Definitions of Critical and Equilibrium Moisture Contents
I. Critical Moisture Content: This can be defined as the moisture content above
II. Which the rate of moisture removal decreases with time. In other words, it is
the moisture content at which the constant rate period ends and the falling
rate period begins.
III. Equilibrium Moisture Content: This can be defined as the moisture content of
a material after it has been exposed to a particular environment for an
infinitely long period of time. In other words, it can be defined as the
moisture content at which the internal product vapor pressure is in
equilibrium with the vapor pressure of the environment.

Significance of Critical and Equilibrium Moisture Content

Equilibrium moisture content signifies the minimum moisture content to which
A product can be dried under a given set of conditions whilst the critical
moisture content is significant in calculation of drying time as it tells whether
drying is in constant or falling rate period.
c. Structural construct and operation of tunnel and spray drier
I. Tunnel drier
A tunnel drier, as the name implies, consists of a long tunnel through which trucks
carrying stacks of trays travel with or against a stream of drying air. It consists of a
blower, a heater and trucks all contained in the tunnel as shown below


Fig 2. Outline of a tunnel drier
Fresh air enters and blown into the heater where its heated before its introduced into the
main tunnel. The heated air moves at an established velocity though trays of products
being carried on trucks. The products trucks are moved through the tunnel at a rate
required to maintain the residence time needed for the dehydration.
The product can be moved in the same direction as the air flow to provide concurrent
dehydration, or the tunnel can be operated in countercurrent manner, with the product
moving in the direction opposite to air flow. A mixed flow is another alternative.
With the concurrent systems, a high- moisture product is exposed to high-temperature air,
and evaporation assists in maintaining lower product temperature. At locations near the
tunnel exit, the lower-moisture product is exposed to lower-temperature air. In counter-
current systems, a lower- moisture product is exposed to high- temperature air, and a
smaller temperature gradient exists near the product entrance to the tunnel. A mixed flow
tunnel drier combines both concurrent and countercurrent flows.
II. Spray drier
A spray drier consists of the following elements:
i. An Air heater: this is where the drying is heated before being introduced in to
the drying chamber.
ii. An Atomizer: this is the element that used for producing atomic spray of the
liquid to be dried.
iii. A Pump: this is used for feeding the liquid product to the atomizer
iv. A Drying chamber: this is the chamber where the actual drying takes place. It
consists, most commonly, of a vertical section with a conical bottom.
v. Fan/Blowers: this element is used for moving air through the system
vi. A Cyclone: this separates the solid from liquid
An example of spray drier is shown below
Fig. 3 A Spray drier (courtesy of Berk)
Spray driers are used for drying liquid solutions and suspensions with the objective of
producing light, porous powders. The liquid is dispersed (atomized) as a spray of fine
droplets into a very hot air inside a large chamber. Because of their small size and the
high temperature of the air, the droplets are dried in a matter of seconds and
transformed into particles of solid powder. At the exit from the chamber, the solid
particles are separated from the humid air by the cyclones.
Spray drying is the accepted method for the production of milk and whey powders,
coffee-creamers, cheese powder, dehydrated yeast extract, instant coffee and tea, egg
powder and many other products in powder form. Spray drying is also one of the
methods used micro-encapsulation.
d.
Given data
Diameter of guava piece=6cm
Thickness of guava piece=3mm
Initial moisture content=80 %( d.b)
Final moisture content=5% (d.b)
Critical moisture content=200% (d.b)
Equilibrium moisture content=3% (d.b)
Diffusivity for constant drying=
9 2
5 10 m /s

1
st
diffusivity for the two stage=
8 2
1 10 m / s

2
nd
diffusivity for the two stage=
8 2
2 10 m / s

Moisture content at the beginning of the second stage=20% (d.b)

Solution:
i) using the following formula;
( ) ( )
( ) ( )
2 2 2
ln m m / m m ln 8/ D / 4
e c e
L
]
]
]

( ) ( )
( ) ( ) ( )
2 2 9 2
ln 0.05 0.03 / 0.8 0.03 ln 8/ 5 10 / 4 0.0015

]
]
]


3
3.65066 0.21002 5.48311 10

Solving for the , we have,
627.498 s
= 10.5 min
ii) for the first stage,
9 2
D=1 10 m / s

Using the same formula, we have,

( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
2 2 8 2
ln 0.2 0.03 / 0.8 0.03 ln 8/ 1 10 / 4 0.0015

]
]

1.51059 0.21002 0.010966
Solving for , we have,

119s
= 2 min
For
9 2
D=2 10 m / s

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
2 2 9 2
3
3
ln 0.05 0.03 / 0.2 0.03 ln 8 / 2 10 / 4 0.0015
2.14006 0.21002 2.1932 10
1.930046 2.1932 10
= 880.02 s
= 14.67 min

]
]

Thus the total time is 999.02 s or 17 min

Q2
a. method for obtaining sorption isotherm of a food
The sorption isotherm of a food can be obtained by placing weighed samples of the food
in jars, over saturated aqueous solution of salt and left to equilibrate at a constant
temperature and relative humidity. The samples are taken and weighted at intervals until
such a time when there is negligible or no change between successive weighing. When
this happens, it will be assumed that equilibrium is achieved. The moisture content is then
determined and is taken as the equilibrium moisture content (EMC).
The desired relative humidity is provided by the saturated salt solution which has a
known water activities at different temperatures. Other possible chemicals that may be
used are sulfuric acid, glycerol etc. Water activities of common salt solutions are
provided in the literature. Dividing a water activity by 100 gives us the equilibrium
relative humidity (ERH).
Having obtaining the equilibrium moisture content (EMC) at a particular temperature and
the corresponding equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) from the salt solution, a graph of
EMC versus ERH is then plotted. This graph gives us the sorption isotherm of the food.
b. The BET and GAB equations
The BET and GAB equations are mathematical models developed for prediction of
sorption isotherms of foods at low moisture content.
i. The BET equation: this is a model developed by Brunauer, Emmett and Teller
to address the short comings of the earlier models. It is used to fit and draw
the sorption data obtained for a given food. Applied to water vapor sorption,
the BET equation is written as follows:


( ) ( )
w
m w w
m
w
Ca X

X 1 a 1 a C-1
where:
X= moisture content,
X parameter of the equation, the BET monolayer
C = constant related to the heat of adsorption
a water activity

] +
]

m
X and C are called the parameters of the BET equation
Procedure for obtaining the BET parameters
In order to obtain the relevant parameters of the BET equation, sorption data of the
food is first determined experimentally. To find
m
X and C from the data,
the BET
equation is rewritten as follows:
( )
w
w
w m m
a 1 C 1
a
1 a X C X C

If the group

is plotted against
w
a
, a straight line is would be obtained,
m
X and C

are calculated from the slope and the intercept.
m m
C 1 1
slope , intercept
X X

m
C and X are obtained simultaneously from the above
The BET equations is found to fit well sorption isotherms, up to water activity values of
about 0.45
ii. The GAB equation: this is a model developed by Guggenheim Anderson and
DeBoer which has a wider range of applicability than the BET model. The
equation is given as:
( ) ( )
w
m w w w
C k a X
X 1 ka 1 ka Cka

+
The GAB equation is a three-parameter equation with k, C and
m
X
as constant.
m
C and X
have similar significance as in the BET equation. k is a third parameter
that corrects for the difference in properties of adsorbed water relative to liquid water
and permits the GAB equation to hold over a wider range of moisture content than the
BET. Both k and C are temperature dependent.

Procedure for obtaining GAB parameters
As in the case of BET, the sorption data is first obtained experimentally. The GAB
equation is then rearranged by taking reciprocal, thus,
[ ]
( )
w w
m w
w
w w
m m m
1 1 1 1
1 ka Cka
X X Cka C
a k C 2 1
1 C a a
X X C X Ck X Ck
]
+
]
]
] ]
+ +
] ]
] ]
Thus, a polynomial nonlinear regression of ( )
m
w
a
against a
X
| `

. ,
will give values for

, the coefficient of the quadratic term,

the coefficient of linear term,

the
intercept.
[ ]
m m m
C 2 k 1
= ; = 1 C ; =
X C X C X Ck

]

]
]
These three equations are used to evaluate C, k and
m
X
which are the parameters of
the GAB equation
c. BET and GAB parameters from the given publication sorption isotherms of
lupine at different temperatures
The following data was estimated from the sorption isotherm given in the publication:
w
a
EMC
0.2 0.02625
0.4 0.04375
0.6 0.08750
0.8 0.18750

This data is used to obtain the relevant parameters of the BET and the GAB equations
of lupine at 30 C
o
.
I BET parameters.
We calculate the values
( )
w
w
a
1 a m
and plot it against
w
a
. Thus,
BET Plot y = 24.486x + 4.5216
R
2
= 0.9503
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 0.5 1
aw
a
w
/
(
1
-
a
w
)
m
Series1
Linear (Series1)
Linear (Series1)
The plot gives us
y 24.486x 4.5216 +
From this,
Slope = 24.486 and the intercept = 4.5216
But the slope and intercept are given by;
m m
C 1 1
slope , intercept
X C X C

Therefore,
m m
C 1 1
24.486 and 4.5216
X C X C

Solving these equations simultaneously, we have,
C=6.4153 and
m
X
0.0345
The value of C falls within 2-50 which is the normal value for type II isotherm to
which the sorption isotherm falls.
II GAB parameters
Here we plot the values
w
w
a
against a
m
| `

. ,