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Drying Characteristic of Anchovy Fish

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Journal of Food Science and Engineering 3 (2013) 87-93 D DAVID PUBLISHING

Drying Characteristic of Anchovy Fish

Rahmat Subarkah1, Abdurrachim2, Jooned Hendrarsakti2 and Belyamin1, 3

1. Politeknik Negeri Jakarta, Mechanical Engineering Department, Depok 16425, Indonesia
2. Fakultas Teknik Mesin Dan Dirgantara, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung 41032, Indonesia
3. Transportation Research Alliance, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Automotive Laboratory, Block P21, 81300 Skudai, Johor Bahru,
Malaysia

Received: November 12, 2012 / Published: February 20, 2013.

Abstract: This paper focuses on the drying characteristic of anchovy fish (Anchovia engraulidae). It is necessary to understand the
drying behavior, quality of the products and time required to optimize the energy consumption of the process. The optimum velocity
and temperature of drying air for good quality dried anchovy fish was determined. In average, the fish are 7 cm in length and 3.0-3.5 g
in mass. Although some research on fish drying has been done, the study of drying of anchovy fish and its characteristic has not been
well reported. The fish to be dried were arranged on 15  15 cm2 tray in the drying chamber of 17  30 cm2. The hot air of 40 -70 °C
was delivered parallel to the tray with the velocity of 0.6 and 0.9 m s-1. It is found that thermal conductivity (k) and specific heat (cp) of
anchovy fish are function of the moisture content (MC). The higher moisture content results in higher thermal conductivity and specific
heat. Critical water content is also found in this experiment as well as the optimum drying condition. Drying rate period of anchovy fish
will change from the constant drying rate period to the falling drying rate period when critical moisture content is about 48.8%-50.3%
(wet basis). At these experiments, there is no case-hardening, even at temperature of 70 °C. To achieve the optimum result, the drying
process should be implemented in three steps, drying process at 70 °C for 150 min followed by drying at 50 °C for 100 min, and finally
drying at 40 °C till achieving equilibrium moisture content. This research will contribute to improvement of drying method to achieve
good quality of dried fish.

Key words: Anchovy fish, drying characteristic, drying optimization.

1. Introduction This paper focuses on the drying characteristic of

anchovy fish (Anchovia engraulidae). Drying
Huge fishing requires a good treatment of the
characteristic, quality of the products and time required
product in order to reduce high level loss of 30%-40%
to optimize the energy consumption of the process are
when arrive in market [1-4]. Ocano-Higuera et al. [5]
variables essentially to be understood. Although some
showed that on iced storage, ray fish maintains the
research on fish drying has been done [7-10], the study
good quality for 15 days. Besides, drying is another
of drying of anchovy fish and its characteristic has not
method to reduce the fish degradation. Generally
been well reported. The present study reports the
drying is performed by spreading the fish on the mat or
drying characteristic of anchovy fish including drying
floor, and dried it directly under the sun [6]. This is a
constant, drying time and dried fish quality.
simple and cheap method of drying. A disadvantage of
this method is the low quality of drying so another way 2. Drying Characteristic Review
to obtain better quality of dried fish is required. In this
2.1 Drying Rate
study, the method to be explored is one with tunnel
drying. Drying is a simple process to reduce moisture
content from raw food products to prevent quality
Corresponding author: Rahmat Subarkah, lecturer, deterioration and to preserve it for long period of time
research field: fluid thermal engineering. E-mail:
rahmat.subarkah@mesin.pnj.ac.id. [11]. Decreasing of the water activity will maintain
88 Drying Characteristic of Anchovy Fish

food quality by reducing microbial growth and
undesired chemical reaction [12]. It was found that the
deterioration or spoilage of fish is particularly due to
bacteria [13]. Generally, product moisture content must
be reduced to about 5%-10% in order to incapacitate
the microbial growth [14]. However, the dried fish has
less rigorous requirement of moisture content. The
maximum moisture content of dried fish can be 25% to
avoid microbial growth, and 15% to avoid mushroom
deterioration [15].
There are two periods of drying process. The first is
constant rate period at which the moisture is removed
at an even rate till the required critical moisture content
Mc. The second is falling rate period at which the rate
of moisture removal is decreased [16]. During first
period, the wet surface of the product behaves as a free
water surface and the period continues as long as water
is supplied to the surface. During second period, the
drying is characterized by subsurface evaporation
throughout till the equilibrium moisture content ME is
reached. Most of the drying actually takes place in the
falling rate period and involves the movement of
moisture in the material to the surface and continued
with the removal of the moisture from the surface.
For the constant drying rate period, the rate is
proportional to the free moisture content [17], i.e.,
dM
(1)
dt

M
dMo /( M  Mo) (2)
Mo
constant rate period (k1) and the falling rate period (k2).
It is expected that samples with higher k will be
dehydrated in a shorter period under identical
conditions. The value of k is obtained through
experiments.
2.2 Evaporative Heat and Efficiency
Relation between mass of water evaporated mw and
mass absorbed by drying air ma is shown by Eq. 5.
Ayensu and Asiedu-Bondziet [17]:
m w L  ma Ca (Tp  Tc ) (5)
where, L is latent heat of water in kJ and Ca is specific
heat of air in kJ kg-1 K-1.
While the efficiency of system is:
mw L
ηsystem  (6)
ma (hA  hp )
3. Experimental Set up and Measurement
Technique
3.1 Experimental Set up
The tunnel dryer used in drying of anchovy fish is as
shown in Fig. 1. This device consists of drying
chamber 20  17  30 cm3, blower of 35 watt, and
electric heater element of 2,400 watt, 30 cm in length
of honey comb and air conduit. At lower part of the
drying chamber, there is aperture applied to connect
tray with digital mass balance. The connection uses a
pipe which can move freely.

( M (t )  Mc )
(3)
( Mo  Mc )
Similarly, the drying rate equation for the falling rate
period is
( M (t )  M E )
(4)
( Mc  M E )
where, M is moisture content, Mo is initial moisture
content, MC is the critical moisture content, ME is the Fig. 1 Schematic of wind tunnel dryer: 1-Blower; 2-Electric
Heater; 3-Honey comb; 4-Filter; 5-Anemometer; 6-Drying
equilibrium moisture content, tC = time to attain MC, tE
chamber; 7-Specimen; 8-Data acquisition; 9-Digital mass
= time to attain ME, total drying time t = tC+ tE and k is balance; 10-Tray; 11-Thermocoupel; 12-PC; 13-Isolator.
the drying constant which can be evaluated for the
 Drying Characteristic of Anchovy Fish
The fresh fish was purchased from local market.
Twelve anchovy fishes with mass 3.0-3.5 g and length
± 7 cm to be dried were then packed into the drying
chamber. Fish was compiled to tray made of mica 15 
15 cm2 in size. The distance between fishes is 2.5 cm.
Blower was applied to achieve constant air flow in
drying chamber. The changing of velocity of air flow
was done by arranging cross-area part of input blower.
The air coming from blower was flown through the
heater elements and the air temperature was controlled
automatically.
Drying process was conducted with various
conditions of air in the tunnel dryer. Velocities of air
selected were 0.6 and 0.9 m s-1. While the temperatures
of air selected were 40, 50, 60 and 70 °C.
The process was to dry anchovy fish from initial
moisture content Mo of about 80% (wet basis) to
equilibrium moisture content ME of 14% or less [17].
The ambient of air temperature is 25 °C and the relative
humidity is 64%. The experiment was started with
measuring some parameters: mass, water content and
thermal properties of anchovy fish. The next was
measurement of the mass reduction of anchovy fish
minutely along the experiment. At the end of the test,
some parameters were then measured, i.e., the mass,
water content and thermal properties of fish.
3.2 Heating and Adiabatic Evaporation Processes
Fig. 2 is a psychrometric chart for heating and
adiabatic evaporation processes. If ambient air
temperature TA = 25 °C and relative humidity = of the chamber were also negligible; the temperature of
64% is heated to TB = 51 °C, then relative humidity is
reduced to = 15%. If this heated air is used to
remove moisture from a thin layer of sample, the
adiabatic evaporation continues along a line of constant
wet-bulb temperature (Twb-BC = 27.1 °C) until an
intersection with the relative humidity curve of = fish drying at different air temperature, air velocity and
22.2% is reached, and drying air temperature is reduced
to Tc = 46 °C. The decrease of temperature from B to C
represents the maximum amount of heat available
for evaporation of water per kg dry air circulated. The
89
Fig. 2 Psychrometric Chart for Heating and Adiabatic
Evaporative Process.
humidity ratio ω changes from ωB = 0.01295 to ωC =
0.01502 kg water kg dry air-1, and ΔωC-B = 0.002249 kg
water kg dry air-1.
To dry mi = 3.76 × 10-3 kg of anchovy fish from 79%
to 21% moisture content, the amount of water to be
extracted is approximately equal to mf = 2.761 × 10-3
kg. Since ∆ω = mw/ma = 0.002249 kg water kg dry air-1 ,
then ma = 1.228 × 103 kg.
Heat required to evaporate water mw is equal Qwater =
mw, L = 6.562 kJ, the quantity of heat added as a result
of heating the air from 25 to 51 °C is Qheater = ma (hA -
hB) = 61.22 kJ. Then the efficiency is η = 10.7%.
4. Results and Discussion
The drying chamber was considered as adiabatic in
operation. Equipment and the dry samples were of
negligible heat capacity. Heat losses through the walls
wet sample was at the thermodynamic wet-bulb
temperature of the air flowing in the chamber. All the
heat absorbed through the evaporation of water was
accounted by the decrease in dry-bulb air temperature.
The curve that describes the behavior of anchovy
load are shown in Figs. 3-8. The curve of
dimensionless moisture content (wet basis) was
constructed as a function of drying time and the curve
of drying rate as a function of drying time.
90 Drying Characteristic of Anchovy Fish

Fig. 3 MC at V = 0.6 m/s & any temperatures. Fig. 6 Drying rate at T = 50 °C & any velocities.

Fig. 4 Drying rate at V = 0.6 m/s & any temperatures. Fig. 7 MC at T = 50 °C, V=0.9 m s-1 & any load.

Fig. 5 MC at T = 50 °C & any velocities. Fig. 8 Drying rate at T = 50 °C, V = 0.9 m s-1 & any load.
 Drying Characteristic of Anchovy Fish 91

Experiment result data can be calculated to obtain
the value of fish drying characteristics as shown in
Table 1.
The influence of drying air temperature change at a
constant velocity is shown in the Figs. 3 and 4. Fig. 3
shows that the moisture content decreased with
increasing temperature. Brian and Gorman [18]
showed the same result but it is mentioned that the
increase in air temperature may also increase the
evaporation of volatile material. Fig. 4 shows warming
period phenomenon before constant drying rate period.
The higher drying air temperature causes shorter
warming period. Data in the Fig. 4 explain why lower
hot air temperature requires more time of drying to
achieve the same moisture content. This is because
when lower air temperature is implemented, it will
spend more time for warming period. As result of it, the
duration of constant drying rate period which is defined
by the time to attain MC decreases with increasing
drying air temperature whereas drying constant k1 and
k2 increased.
In the experiment of drying air temperature 70 °C,
relative humidity of drying air was measured at 8%
meanwhile for other experiment at 60 °C, 50 °C and
40 °C are 11%, 16% and 27%, respectively. Higher
temperature of drying air causes relative the humidity
decreases, these cause vaporizations of water from fish
surface into the air faster. Dry air picks up moisture
from the surface of fish faster than humid air.
Higher drying air temperature also causes higher the
drying capability. Drying capability of air can be
evaluated from adiabatic evaporation process. The
adiabatic evaporation process follows a line of constant
wet-bulb temperature till the intersection with the
saturation curve of = 100%. The difference of humidity
ratio of air between pre drying and saturation (Δω)
shows the drying capability of air. For the experiment
of drying air temperature 70 °C, the difference is
0.01468 kg water kg dry air-1, while for experiment at
60 °C, 50 °C and 40 °C are 0.01221, 0.00992 and
0.00665 kg water kg dry air-1, respectively. This
experiment shows that the higher air drying
temperature causes the drying capability increases and
the vaporization of water from fish surface into the air
faster.
Experiment with drying air temperature of 70 °C did
not produce a hard crust which would retard movement
of moisture. Hard crust phenomenon can severely
reduce the rate of drying and must be avoided. The
absent of hard crust as evidenced by the results of
experiment after 10 h drying showed that moisture
content is reduced when drying air temperature of
70 °C is used rather than 60, 50 or 40 °C. Mac Gregor
[19] found out that 90 °C is the max temperature for
drying food. Above it, the food will be deteriorated.
Besides, Gazor and Minaei [20] mentioned that air
temperature of 90 °C changes the flavour of Pistachio.
The system efficiency decreased with increasing
drying air temperature. The effectiveness of the high
drying air temperature is only at the constant drying
rate period. At the drying air temperature of 70 °C,
high temperature is useful to reduce moisture content
only in the first 110 min. After that the high
temperature did not significantly reduce the moisture

Table 1 Drying characteristics of anchovy fish samples.

Moisture content (wb) (%) Time to attain MC (min) Drying constant (min-1)
Sample dried Efficiency (%)
MC M10 tC k1 k2
-1
V=0.9 m s & T=50 °C 49.1 23.4 240 0.007 0.006 10.7
V=0.6 m s-1 & T=40 °C 49.7 28.7 300 0.0059 0.005 10.2
V=0.6 m s-1& T=50 °C 49.7 22.7 240 0.0075 0.007 10
V=0.6 m s-1& T=60 °C 50.01 14.8 150 0.0098 0.009 8.66
V=0.6 m s-1& T=70 °C 49.5 9.6 110 0.0121 0.010 8.34
V=0.9 m s-1& T=50 °C, 1 layer 50.32 23.6 260 0.0065 0.006 -
-1
V=0.9 m s & T=50 °C, 2 layers 48.8 45.4 510 0.0051 0.005 -
M10 = moisture content after 10 hours drying.
92 Drying Characteristic of Anchovy Fish
content. The rate of water evaporation from the surface
of fish is smaller than the drying capability of air.
The influence of drying air velocity changes at a
constant temperature is shown in the Figs. 5 and 6.
Those figures show the similar trend of decreasing
moisture content. For velocity of drying air equals to
0.9 m s-1, it has the higher drying rate. Kaleta and
Go´rnicki [21] found the same phenomena for apple
drying. Increasing the velocity of drying air caused the
drying constant of constant rate and falling rate period,
k1 and k2 increased whereas the time to attain MC
decreased.
Higher the velocity of drying air causes coefficient
of convective heat transfer greater. At temperature
40 °C and velocity of drying air 2.1 m s-1, the result of
calculated heat transfer convective coefficient is 38.93
W m-2 K-1. When the velocity are 1.6, 0.9 and 0.4 m s-1,
the coefficient convective are 38.91, 38.89 and 38.88
W m-2 K-1. The difference of heat transfer convective
coefficient is not wide because the decrease of moisture
content with different velocity of drying air is also not
significant.
The efficiency increased with increasing drying air
velocity. Drier must expel air to discard moisture,
therefore allow new, lower humidity air to enter the
system. The rate the air is exhausted from a drier
affects the entrance of new air and therefore affects the
relative humidity and rate of drying. This is the primary
way, the moisture gets out of the drier after it has
evaporated from the fish. The rate of surface
evaporation from fish is proportional to the velocity of
air passing over it.
The influence of loading mass changes at a constant
velocity and temperature are as shown in the Figs. 7
and 8. The graph of moisture content as a function of
drying time (Fig. 7) and that of drying rate as a function
of drying time (Fig. 8) show that moisture content
decrease of 1 layer of fish is faster than 2 layers of fish.
Surface area per kilogram of fish for 1 layer is twice
larger than 2 layers. This shows the more surface area
per kilogram of fish the higher the water evaporation
from fish.
After 10 h of drying, the moisture content of 1 layer
and 2 layers of fish experiment is 23.6% and 45.4%,
respectively. To get the same final moisture content, 2
layers of fish experiment need twice period than 1 layer
of fish. From the visual inspection after experiment, for
2 layers of fish experiment shows that the moisture
content is not uniform.
The study was not able to obtain optimum drying
condition using variation of temperatures and
velocities data. The higher temperature and velocity of
drying air the shorter the time to reach the critical
moisture content. At the same time, this higher
temperature will reduce the efficiency of the system
while higher velocity helps to increase the efficiency of
the system. With this condition, it is difficult to
conclude optimum drying condition. In order to be able
to obtain optimum drying condition some
modifications should be made. The drying rate and
energy used should be taken into account. From the
experimental data, the optimum drying conditions may
be obtained through three steps of the drying process.
First step is to run experiment at 70 °C for 150 min of
drying time, the second is at 50 °C for next 100 min,
and then the third one is at 40 °C till the equilibrium
moisture content.
The measurements of thermal properties were done
in the initial and final experiment. Measurement of
thermal properties of fish used KD2 PRO Thermal
Properties Analyzer, Decagon Devices, Inc. Only
thermal conductivity (k) and specific heat (cp) are
measured. The average of thermal properties measured
of anchovy fish as a function of moisture content is as
shown in Table 2. The value of thermal conductivity
and specific heat decreased with decreasing moisture
content.
Table 2 Thermal properties of anchovy fish.
Parameters Initial Final
Moisture content (wb) (%) 0.8127 0.3513
Thermal conductivity (k) (W m-1 K-1) 0.1666 0.062
Specific heat (cp) (J g-1 K-1) 1.563 0.62
 Drying Characteristic of Anchovy Fish
5. Conclusions
Drying rate period of anchovy fish will change from
the constant drying rate period to the falling drying rate
period when critical moisture content is about
48.8%-50.3% (wet basis). At these experiments, there
is no case-hardening, even at temperature of 70 °C.
Higher temperature and velocity of drying air will
shorten the time to attain the critical moisture content.
The higher temperature will reduce efficiency of the
system because the rate of water evaporation from the
surface of fish is smaller than the drying capability of
air. The drying condition itself should be modified to
obtain optimum drying condition. The optimum drying
condition can be obtained by operating the drying
process in three steps, first step is to run experiment at
70 °C for 150 min, the second is at 50 °C for next 100
min, and then the third one is at 40 °C till equilibrium
moisture content.
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