DRYING: Theory and Principles
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OBJECTIVES OF DRYING
• Drying is one of the oldest methods of preserving food.
• To preserve perishable raw food commodity against
deterioration or spoilage by reducing moisture content and
thus by reducing water activity.
• To reduce the cost and difficulty of packaging, handling,
transportation and storage by converting the material into
a dry solid, thus reducing its weight and in most cases
volume.
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• Moisture content dry basis and wet basis
• Absorbed/ Adsorbed moisture
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Equilibrium moisture / Free moisture
Bound moisture/ Unbound moisture
Equilibrium moisture curve
1.0
Bound Unbound
moisture moisture
Equilibrium Free
moisture moisture
RH
0,0
Moisture content, %dry basis
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BASIC DRYING THEORY
• Drying is a complex operation involving transient transfer of
heat and mass transfer.
• Sensible and latent heat must be transferred to the food to cause
the water to evaporate
• Physical changes that may occur include shrinkage, puffing,
crystallization, and glass transitions.
• In some cases, desirable or undesirable chemical or
biochemical reactions may occur, leading to changes in color,
texture, odor, or other properties of the solid product.
Rate of drying
Constant/ Falling rate period of drying
Drying curves
Evaporation from
the surface
Diffusion within the
commodity
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Typical drying rate curves: (a) drying rate versus
drying time and (b)drying rate versus water content
• Drying curve usually plots the drying rate versus drying
time or moisture contents.
• Three major stages of drying can be observed in the
drying curve.
• Transient early stage, during which the product is
heating up (transient period)
• Constant rate period, in which moisture is
comparatively easy to remove
• Falling rate period, in which moisture is bound or held
within the solid matrix
• Critical moisture content: The moisture content at the point
when the drying period changes from a constant to a falling
rate.
• The drying behaviours of food materials depend on the
porosity, homogeneity, and hygroscopic properties.
• Hygroscopic food materials enter into the falling rate faster
compared to non-hygroscopic food materials.
Constant rate:
• Section B to C of the curve, known as the constant rate periods,
represents removal of unbound water from the product.
• The surface of the product is very wet and water.
• And the water activity is equal to one.
• In the constant-rate period, the water is being evaporated
effectively as a free water surface.
• The rate of removal of water can then be related to the rate of heat
transfer, if there is no change in the temperature of the material and
therefore all heat energy transferred to it must result in evaporation
of water.
Falling rate:
• The falling rate period (from point C) is reached when the
drying rate starts to decrease, and the surface water activity falls
to less than one.
• At this point there is not enough water on the surface to
maintain a water activity value of one.
• The rate of drying is governed by the internal flow of liquid or
vapor.
• The falling rate period can be divided into two steps.
First falling drying rate (C to D)
Second falling drying rate ( D to E)
Falling rate:
• A first falling drying rate occurs when wetted spots in the
surface continually diminish until the surface is dried (Point D).
• Second falling rate period begins at point D when the surface is
completely dry and until the EMC is reached.
Movement of moisture during drying
Transport of moisture within the solid may occur by any one or
more of the
following mechanisms of mass transfer:
Capillary flow
Liquid diffusion, if the wet solid is at a temperature below the
boiling point of the liquid
Vapor diffusion, if the liquid vaporizes within material
Knudsen diffusion, if drying takes place at very low
temperatures and pressures, e.g., in freeze drying
Surface diffusion (possible although not proven)
Thermal diffusion
Hydrostatic pressure differences, when internal vaporization
rates exceed the rate of vapor transport through the solid to the
surroundings
• Combinations of the above mechanisms
Thank you
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