Introduction

• Drying is one of the oldest methods of preserving

food. Primitive societies practiced the drying of
meat and fish in the sun long before recorded
history.

• Today the drying of foods is still important as a

method of preservation.

• Dried foods can be stored for long periods without

deterioration.
 The main reasons for this are that the
microorganisms which cause food spoilage and
decay are unable to grow and multiply in the
absence of sufficient water

 Many of the enzymes which promote

undesired changes in the chemical composition
of the food cannot function without water.

 Preservation is the principal reason for drying,

but drying can also occur in conjunction with
other processing.
 Losses of moisture may also occur when they are not
desired,

 Drying of foods implies the removal of water from the

foodstuff.

 In most cases, drying is accomplished by vaporizing the

water that is contained in the food, and to do this the latent
heat of vaporization must be supplied.

There are, thus, two important process-controlling factors:

(a) transfer of heat to provide the necessary latent heat of

vaporization,
(b) movement of water or water vapour through the food
material.
Drying processes fall into three categories

1. Air and contact drying under atmospheric pressure. In air

and contact drying, heat is transferred through the
foodstuff either from heated air or from heated surfaces.
The water vapour is removed with the air.

2. Vacuum drying. In vacuum drying, advantage is taken of

the fact that evaporation of water occurs more readily at
lower pressures than at higher ones. Heat transfer in
vacuum drying is generally by conduction, sometimes by
radiation.

3. Freeze drying. In freeze drying, the water vapour is

sublimed off frozen food. The food structure is better
maintained under these conditions. Suitable temperatures
and pressures must be established in the dryer to ensure
that sublimation occurs.
 Air Drying
• In air drying, the rate of removal of water depends on the
conditions of the air, the properties of the food and the
design of the dryer.

• Moisture can be held in varying degrees of bonding such as

free water or bound water.

• In drying, it is expected that the water that is loosely held

will be removed most easily.

• Thus it would be expected that drying rates would decrease

as moisture content decreases, with the remaining water
being bound more and more strongly as its quantity
decreases.
 CONDUCTION DRYING
• Other methods of drying which are quite commonly
encountered are drying by contact with a hot surface; a
continuous version of this is the drum or roller dryer where
the food is coated as a thin paste over the surface of a
slowly revolving heated horizontal cylinder.

In such a case, the food dries for as much of one

revolution of the cylinder as is mechanically feasible, after
which it is scraped off and replaced by fresh wet material.
 DRYING EQUIPMENTS

 Tray dryer
 Drum dryer
 Spray dryer
 Tunnel dryer
 Fluidized bed dryer
 Freeze dryer
 Tray driers

 Insulated cabinet fitted with perforated trays

 The food is spread out, generally quite thinly, on trays in which the drying
takes place.

 Hot air is blown to promote uniform air distribution through each tray

 Additional heaters placed above the trays to increase the rate of drying

 Used for small scale production

 Low capital and maintenance costs

 Relatively poor control and produce more variable product quality as food
dries more rapidly on trays nearest to the heat source
Tray Dryer
 Tunnel dryer
• Layers of food are dried on trays which are stacked on
trucks

• Trucks move semi continuously through an insulated

tunnel

• Typically, a 20 m tunnel contains 12-15 trucks with a

capacity of 5000 kg

• Types of air flow

– Parallel or co-current type
– Counter current
– Cross flow
Type of air Advantages Disadvantages
flow
Parallel Rapid initial drying Low moisture content
Little shrinkage difficult to achieve as
cool moist air passes
Low bulk density
over dry food
Less damage
No risk of spoilage
Counter currentMore economical use of energy Food shrinkage and
Low final moisture content as hot possible heat damage
air passes over dry food Risk of spoilage from
warm moist air meeting
wet food
Cross flow Uniform drying More complex
High drying rates Expensive to buy,
operate and maintain
 Drum dryer or roller dryer
• Heated surface drying or Contact drying method

• Heat is supplied by conduction

• Not necessary to heat large volumes of air

• Thermal efficiency is high

• Carried out in the absence of O2

• Heat consumption is less compared to hot air driers

– i.e 2000-3000 KJ/kg of water evaporated

• Thin layer of food is needed to conduct heat rapidly

• Consists of slowly rotating hollow steel drum

• Heated internally pressurized steam to 120-170°C

• Thin layer of food is spread uniformly over the surface

– By dipping
– By spraying
– By feed rollers

• Time taken to complete one revolution ranges between 20s-3 min

• Dried material is scraped by a doctor blade which contacts the drum surface along its length
 Type of drum dryer

Internal drum view

 Advantages
• High drying rates

• High energy efficiency

• Suitable for slurries in which particles are

too large for spray drying
 Disadvantages
• High capital cost of the machined drums

• Damage to heat sensitive foods

– Leads to move to spray drying for many bulk
dried foods
 Products
• Potato flakes

• Pre cooked cereals

• Dried soups

• Fruit purees
 Types
• Single drum
• Double drum or twin drum
– Clearance between is 0.25mm to 3 mm to
regulate the film thickness
– Rotates in opposite direction
– Efficient operation would not allow any
material to remain on the drum surface
– Free from any deposits before operation
 Process variables
• Solids content of feed

• Speed of drum – to control residence time

• Temperature of drum surface

• Roughness of the drum surface

• Adjustment of doctor blade

 Advantages of single drum

• Greater flexibility

• More surface area available for drying

• Easier access for maintenance

• No risk of damage
 Developments
• Use of auxiliary rolls to remove and reapply food

• Use of high velocity air to increase the drying rate

• Use of chilled air to cool the product

• May be enclosed in vacuum chamber to dry food at

lower temperature

All the above will improve the sensory and nutritional qualities of food
 Fluidized Bed Dryers

In a fluidized bed dryer, the food material

is maintained suspended against gravity in
an upward-flowing air stream.

Heat is transferred from the air to the food

material, mostly by convection

Dryers are compact and good control over

drying conditions

High drying rates

 Features
• Distributor
– To evenly distribute the air at a uniform velocity
around the bed of material

• Plenum chamber
– To produce an homogeneous region of air and
prevent localized high velocity

• Cyclone
– To separate out fine particles
 Developments of fluidized bed drier
• Torbed drier

– Fluidized bed of particles is made to rotate around a torus shaped chamber by hot air blown directly from
a burner

– High rates of heat and mass transfer

– Reduced drying time

– Suitable for agglomeration

• Spin flash drier

– Drying chamber fitted with rotor at the base

– Hot air enters tangentially, causes a turbulent rotating flow of air with the action of rotor

• Centrifugal fluidised be dryer

– Hot air is forced through the bed of food at a velocity high enough to overcome the centrifugal force and
fluidize the particles

– Rate of drying is high

 Spray drying
• Feed material is in the form of a liquid solution, capable of being dispersed into a
fluid like spray

• Fluid is atomized as fine droplets

• Comes in contact with a flow of hot air

• Dryer body is large so that the particles can settle, as they dry, without touching the
walls

• Droplets provide an extensive surface area for heat and mass transfer

• Suitable for heat sensitive products

• Sensible heat losses from the hot air provide the latent heat for evaporating liquid
from the product

• Commercial dryers can be very large of the order of 10 m diameter and 20 m high.
 Advantages
• Maintains quality and functional properties of the
product

• Relative simplicity and ease of control of the

system

• Preservation of most volatiles

• Energy usage comparable to that of other drying

methods is less
 Disadvantages
• High initial investment

• Hard to control final particle size

• Requires a pumpable feed

• Problems with product and dust recovery

 Spray drying involves…
• Atomization

• Droplet-air mixing

• Evaporation

• Recovery of dried product

 Types of atomiser
• Centrifugal atomizer
– Liquid is fed to the centre of a rotating disc (90-200 m/s)
– Droplets size 50-60um in dia

• Pressure nozzle atomizer

– Liquid is forced at high pressure thro’ a small aperture
– Droplet size 180-250um

• Two fluid nozzle atomizer

– Compressed air creates turbulence which atomizes the liquid
– Operating pressure is lower than pressure nozzle
– Wider range of droplet size is produced
• Atomization is critical step

• Achieved by pressure nozzle, rotary wheel or pneumatic nozzle

• Atomizer controls droplets size, size distribution and speed that

in turn determine the final character of the dry particle

• Contact between drying air and spray droplets can be

conducted either a co-current, countercurrent or combined as
mixed flow systems

• Cyclones are widely used in product recovery as they are highly

efficient, require low maintenance and are easily cleaned
1-reservoir 2- feed pump 3-prodcut feed pipe line 4- atomizer 5- drying
chamber 6-air fan 7- air heater 8-hot air duct 9-mixture of dried product &air
carrying duct 10-cyclone separator 11-heavy powder 12 – product tank 13-
exhaust air
Schematic Diagram of Spray Dryer
Air flow in the chamber
 Freeze Dryers
• The material is held on shelves or belts in a chamber that is under
high vacuum. In most cases, the food is frozen before being loaded
into the dryer

• Heat is transferred to the food by conduction or radiation and the

vapour is removed by vacuum pump and then condensed.

• The pieces of food are shaped so as to present the largest possible

flat surface to the expanded metal and the plates to obtain good
heat transfer.

• A refrigerated condenser may be used to condense the water

vapour.
Lab model freeze Dryer
 Purpose
• Application of heat under controlled conditions to
remove water from food

• To extend shelf life of foods by a reduction in

water activity

• To inhibit microbial growth and enzyme activity

• To reduce transport and storage costs

• To provide greater variety and convenience of the

consumer
 Pneumatic Dryers

 In a pneumatic dryer, the solid food

particles are conveyed rapidly in an air
stream, the velocity and turbulence of
the stream maintaining the particles in
suspension.
 Heated air accomplishes the drying and
often some form of classifying device is
included in the equipment.
 In the classifier, the dried material is
separated, the dry material passes out as
product and the moist remainder is
recirculated for further drying
 Rotary Dryers
• The foodstuff is contained in a horizontal inclined cylinder
through which it travels, being heated either by air flow through
the cylinder, or by conduction of heat from the cylinder walls.

• In some cases, the cylinder rotates and in others the cylinder is

stationary and a paddle or screw rotates within the cylinder
conveying the material through.