Heat Pump Drying of Green Sweet Pepper

Thin-layer drying experiments under controlled conditions were conducted for green sweet pepper in heat pump dryer at 30, 35, and 40°C and hot air dryer at 45°C with relative humidities ranging from 19 to 55%. The moisture content of sweet pepper slices reduced exponentially with drying time. As the temperature increased, the drying curve exhibited a steeper slope, thus exhibiting an increase in drying rate. Drying of green sweet pepper took place mainly under the falling-rate period. The Page equation was found to be better than the Lewis equation to describe the thin-layer drying of green sweet pepper with higher coefficient of determination and lower root mean square error. Drying in heat pump dryer at 40°C took less time with higher drying rate and specific moisture extraction rate as compared to hot air drying at 45°C due to lower relative humidity of the drying air in a heat pump dryer though the drying air temperature was less. The retention of total chlorophyll content and ascorbic acid content was observed to be more in heat pump–dried samples with higher rehydration ratios and sensory scores. The quality parameters showed a declining trend with increase in drying air temperature from 30 to 45°C. Keeping in view the energy consumption and quality attributes of dehydrated products, it is proposed to dry green sweet pepper at 35°C in heat pump dryer.     

The Application of Heat Pump in Drying of Biomaterials

ABSTRACT

The UN estimates that 6.4 billion people will be living on Earth by the year 2000. As a consequence, dried biomaterials demand will rise and equipments will have to be built or redesigned to accomadate changes. The design and innovations on industrial dryers require fundamental knowledge conceived in laboratory units. The new heat pump dryer operates at a wide relative humidity and the air temperature is adjustable from –20 to 100'C. Above and belw freezing point drying modes are done in the same plant which allows the control of biomaterial properties. The technique consists of two stages, unbound weakly held water removal by freeze drying. and tightly bound moisture desorption by medium temperature drying. The fluidized and shelf heat pump dryers have the required features to dry heat sensitive biomaterials. The dryers were built and extensive research on biomaterials has been conducted at The Norwegian Institute of Technology. Many emeriments were done on effect of heat pump drying conditions on–enrime and biological active bacteria solutions, fruits, cod fish, fish feed and shrimps. At optimum heat drying conditions, the bacteria Rhodococcus reached 100% viability and dried biomolecules attained full biolosical activity. The heat pump dryer allowed adjustment of the bio–mterial properties and quality according to its phase, shape and size. Dried samples showed improvements on survival rate. rehydration, colour, hardness and mono–multimolecular sorption isotherms over poorly dried products. Beneficial results were achieved for nearly all tests. This indicates that the heat pump dryer application has high potential in processing heat sensitive biomaterials.     

Saffron Drying with a Heat Pump–Assisted Hybrid Photovoltaic–Thermal Solar Dryer

Saffron is the most expensive spice and Iran is the largest producer of this crop in the world. Saffron quality is profoundly affected by the drying method. Recent research has shown that hybrid photovoltaic–thermal solar power systems are more efficient in comparison with individual photovoltaic and thermal systems. In addition, heat pump dryers are highly energy efficient. Furthermore, they are suitable for heat-sensitive crops such as saffron. Therefore, in the present study, the performance of a hybrid photovoltaic–thermal solar dryer equipped with a heat pump system was considered for saffron drying, in order to obtain a high-quality product and reduce fossil fuel consumption. The effect of air mass flow rate at three levels (0.008, 0.012, and 0.016 kg/s), drying air temperature at three levels (40, 50, and 60°C), and two different dryer modes (with and without the heat pump unit) on the operating parameters of the dryer was investigated. The results of the investigation showed that total drying time and energy consumption decreased as air flow rate and drying air temperature increased. Applying a heat pump with the dryer led to a reduction in the drying time and energy consumption and an increase in electrical efficiency of the solar collector. The average total energy consumption was reduced by 33% when the dryer was equipped with a heat pump. Maximum values for electrical and thermal efficiency of the solar collector were found to be 10.8 and 28%, respectively. A maximum dryer efficiency of 72% and maximum specific moisture extraction rate (SMER) of 1.16 were obtained at an air flow rate of 0.016 kg/s and air temperature of 60°C when using the heat pump.     

Calculation Steps for the Design of Different Components of Heat Pump Dryers Under Constant Drying Rate Condition

Heat pump–assisted dryers are an alternative method for drying heat-sensitive food products at low temperature and less relative humidity with lower energy consumption. The mathematical models of a heat pump dryer consist of three submodels; namely, drying models, heat pump models, and performance models. Heat and mass balance of both refrigerant and air circuits in all components of the system are used for development of mathematical models. The models are used for design of different components of heat pump dryers operating under constant drying rate condition. A simple stepwise design procedure for batch-type, closed-loop heat pump dryer is also presented.     

The Application of Heat Pump in Drying of Biomaterials

The UN estimates that 6.4 billion people will be living on Earth by the year 2000. As a consequence, dried biomaterials demand will rise and equipments will have to be built or redesigned to accomadate changes. The design and innovations on industrial dryers require fundamental knowledge conceived in laboratory units. The new heat pump dryer operates at a wide relative humidity and the air temperature is adjustable from -20 to 100'C. Above and belw freezing point drying modes are done in the same plant which allows the control of biomaterial properties. The technique consists of two stages, unbound weakly held water removal by freeze drying. and tightly bound moisture desorption by medium temperature drying. The fluidized and shelf heat pump dryers have the required features to dry heat sensitive biomaterials. The dryers were built and extensive research on biomaterials has been conducted at The Norwegian Institute of Technology. Many emeriments were done on effect of heat pump drying conditions on-enrime and biological active bacteria solutions, fruits, cod fish, fish feed and shrimps. At optimum heat drying conditions, the bacteria Rhodococcus reached 100% viability and dried biomolecules attained full biolosical activity. The heat pump dryer allowed adjustment of the bio-mterial properties and quality according to its phase, shape and size. Dried samples showed improvements on survival rate. rehydration, colour, hardness and mono-multimolecular sorption isotherms over poorly dried products. Beneficial results were achieved for nearly all tests. This indicates that the heat pump dryer application has high potential in processing heat sensitive biomaterials.     

A Method for Determination of Porosity Change from Shrinkage Curves of Deformable Materials

The novel low-cost band thermodynamic dryer equipped with a solar collector, a parabolic focusing collector, a heat exchanger, screw fan, and a drying cabinet with a band was designed and tested. The maximum temperature in the solar collector reached 85°C, which was 55°C above the ambient temperature. The required drying time was 4.5 h, much reduced from the traditional solar drying time of 48 h. The final moisture content of the Roselle calyx was 12% w.b., which is the recommended storage moisture content. Measurements of ambient temperature and humidity, air temperature, and relative humidity inside the dryer as well as solids moisture loss-in-weight data are employed as a means to study the performance of the dryer. Solar drying was compared with conventional sun drying and heated air drying, using the following evaluation criteria: drying time, dried Roselle color, texture, taste, and production cost. For evaluation, a model-based Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methodology was used. After the evaluation, the proposed continuous solar dryer was found to be better than conventional drying and heated air drying due to slower drying rate and better quality of the dried Roselle.     

Drying Kinetics and Quality of Shrimp Undergoing Different Two-Stage Drying Processes

An innovative two-stage drying concept is presented in this article. The work considered drying of shrimp using a superheated steam dryer followed by a heat pump (SSD/HPD) or a hot air dryer (SSD/AD) both from drying kinetics and dried product quality points of view. The experiments were performed using the first-stage superheated steam drying temperature of 140°C while the second-stage heat pump drying (or hot air drying) was performed at 50°C. The moisture content of shrimp at the end of the superheated steam drying stage was varied between 30 and 40% (w.b.). The effect of tempering between SSD/HPD was also investigated. Shrinkage, color, rehydration behavior, texture (toughness and hardness), and microstructure of dried shrimp were measured. The results showed that SSD/HPD dried shrimp had much lower degree of shrinkage, higher degree of rehydration, better color, less tough and softer, and more porous than single-stage SSD dried shrimp. It was also found that SSD/AD gave redder shrimp compared to shrimp dried in a single-stage superheated steam dryer. No improvement in terms of shrinkage and rehydration behavior was observed, however.     

ON THE STUDY OF TIME-VARYING TEMPERATURE DRYING—EFFECT ON DRYING KINETICS AND PRODUCT QUALITY

ABSTRACT

The ability of heat pump dryer to produce controlled transient drying conditions, in terms of temperature, humidity and air velocity, has given it an edge over other drying systems. Exploiting this characteristic, we studied and compared the effect of different temperature-time profiles on the quality of agricultural products in a tunnel heat pump dryer capable of providing up to 14.6 kW of cooling capacity. The product quality refers to the color change of the products. Samples of banana and guava were dried in batches in a two-stage heat pump dryer. The effects of the starting temperature of a selected profile and the cycle time on both drying kinetics and product quality were studied. It was observed that by employing a step change in drying air temperature with the appropriate starting temperature and cycle time, it was possible to reduce significantly the drying time to reach the desired moisture content with improved product color.     

Drying Kinetics and Quality of Shrimp Undergoing Different Two-Stage Drying Processes

Abstract

An innovative two-stage drying concept is presented in this article. The work considered drying of shrimp using a superheated steam dryer followed by a heat pump (SSD/HPD) or a hot air dryer (SSD/AD) both from drying kinetics and dried product quality points of view. The experiments were performed using the first-stage superheated steam drying temperature of 140°C while the second-stage heat pump drying (or hot air drying) was performed at 50°C. The moisture content of shrimp at the end of the superheated steam drying stage was varied between 30 and 40% (w.b.). The effect of tempering between SSD/HPD was also investigated. Shrinkage, color, rehydration behavior, texture (toughness and hardness), and microstructure of dried shrimp were measured. The results showed that SSD/HPD dried shrimp had much lower degree of shrinkage, higher degree of rehydration, better color, less tough and softer, and more porous than single-stage SSD dried shrimp. It was also found that SSD/AD gave redder shrimp compared to shrimp dried in a single-stage superheated steam dryer. No improvement in terms of shrinkage and rehydration behavior was observed, however.     

ON THE STUDY OF TIME-VARYING TEMPERATURE DRYING—EFFECT ON DRYING KINETICS AND PRODUCT QUALITY

The ability of heat pump dryer to produce controlled transient drying conditions, in terms of temperature, humidity and air velocity, has given it an edge over other drying systems. Exploiting this characteristic, we studied and compared the effect of different temperature-time profiles on the quality of agricultural products in a tunnel heat pump dryer capable of providing up to 14.6 kW of cooling capacity. The product quality refers to the color change of the products. Samples of banana and guava were dried in batches in a two-stage heat pump dryer. The effects of the starting temperature of a selected profile and the cycle time on both drying kinetics and product quality were studied. It was observed that by employing a step change in drying air temperature with the appropriate starting temperature and cycle time, it was possible to reduce significantly the drying time to reach the desired moisture content with improved product color.     

Energy Analysis of a New Design of a Photovoltaic Cell-Assisted Solar Dryer

In this study, a new type of solar dryer was designed and manufactured. This new solar dryer is composed of a heat pipe collector, a drying chamber, a load cell, an air circulation fan, photovoltaic cells (PvC), batteries, and halogen lamps. In this experimental study, tomatoes were used to test the drying process. The drying air was heated by the heat pipe collector and forced through the tomatoes by a blower fan during the daytime. The photovoltaic cells, which were used to run the fan, were also used to charge the batteries during the day. These charged batteries were used for running the halogen lamps during the night, when the halogen lamps were used to heat the drying-air-assisted photovoltaic cells. During the drying period, the drying air temperature, relative humidity, air flow rates, solar radiation, and loss of mass were measured in the solar dryer. Then, the measured data were used for energy analysis.     

农产品干燥加工节能减排工艺及装备研发

农产品干燥加工占干燥行业能耗的12%左右,是一项高能耗的过程。为促进农产品加工业的健康发展,本文介绍了回热热泵、真空带式干燥、旋流床气流膨化、太阳能和热泵组合干燥等四种节能减排的新工艺新装备,同时还探讨了农产品干燥加工节能减排的发展方向。     

The drying kinetics of seeded grape in solar dryer with PCM-based solar integrated collector

This paper presents a novel type of dryer for experimentally evaluating the drying kinetics of seeded grapes. In the developed drying system, it has been particularly included an expanded-surface solar air collector, a solar air collector with phase-change material (PCM) and drying room with swirl element. An expanded-surface solar air collector has been used to achieve high heat transfer and turbulence effect whiles a solar air collector with PCM has been used to perform the drying process even after the sunset. On the other hand, the swirl elements have been located to give the swirl effect to air flow in drying room. These advantages make the proposed novel system a promising dryer in that lower moisture value and less drying time. The drying experiments have been carried out simultaneously both under natural conditions and by the dryer with swirl flow and without swirl flow at three different air velocities. The obtained moisture ratio values have been applied to six different moisture ratio models in the literature. The model having the highest correlation coefficient (R) and the lowest Chi-square (χ²) value has been determined as the most relevant one for each seeded grape drying status.     

Drying Kinetics of Tomato Slices in Vacuum Assisted Solar and Open Sun Drying Methods

A lab model vacuum-assisted solar dryer was developed to study the drying kinetics of tomato slices (4, 6, and 8 mm thicknesses) compared with open sun drying under the weather conditions of Montreal, Canada. The drying study showed that the time taken for drying of tomato slices of 4, 6, and 8 mm thicknesses from the initial moisture content of 94.0% to the final moisture content of around 11.5 ± 0.5% (w.b.) was 360, 480, and 600 min in vacuum-assisted solar dryer and 450, 600, and 750 min in open sun drying, respectively. During drying, it was observed that the temperature inside the vacuum chamber was increased to 48°C when the maximum ambient temperature was only 30°C. The quality of tomato slices dried under vacuum-assisted solar dryer was of superior quality in terms of color retention and rehydration ratio. The drying kinetics using thin-layer drying models and the influence of weather parameters such as ambient air temperature, relative humidity, solar insolation, and wind velocity on drying of tomato slices were evaluated.     

The Development of Ginger Drying Using Tray Drying,Heat Pump–Dehumidified Drying,and Mixed-Mode Solar Drying

Mature ginger was pretreated by soaking in citric acid prior to drying in a single layer in a tray and heat pump dehumidified dryer at three temperatures of 40, 50, and 60°C and in a mixed-mode solar dryer at 62.82°C and a radiation intensity of 678 W/m². The drying data were applied to the modified Page model. Diffusivities were also determined using the drying data. Quality evaluation by color values, reabsorption, and 6-gingerol content showed best quality for ginger with no predrying treatment and dried at 40°C in a heat pump–dehumidified dryer. At drying temperature of 60 to 62.82°C, no pretreated dried ginger from mixed-mode solar dryer provided the shortest drying time and retained 6-gingerol as high as heat pump–dehumidified dryer.     

Investigation on Drying Performance and Energy Savings of the Batch-Type Heat Pump Dryer

Simulation of the heat pump cycle and the drying process has been carried out to obtain the design parameters of the dryer. The analysis indicates that a specific moisture extraction rate (SMER) greater than 3.4 kg/kWh can be obtained. A box-type heat pump dryer has been developed and investigated for the performance of drying of shredded radish. Heat pump drying took 1.0–1.5 times longer than hot air drying. However, the heat pump dryer showed considerable improvement in energy savings. The SMER of the heat pump dryer was about three times higher than that of the hot air dryer.     

Drying Kinetics and Antioxidant Phytochemicals Retention of Salak Fruit under Different Drying and Pretreatment Conditions

Kinetics of hot air drying and heat pump drying were studied by performing various drying trials on salak slices. Isothermal drying trials were conducted in hot air drying and heat pump drying at a temperature range of 40–90°C and 26–37°C, respectively. Intermittent drying trials were carried out in heat pump drying with two different modes: periodic heat air flow supply and step-up air temperature. It was observed that the effects of relative humidity and air velocity on drying rate were significant when moisture content in salak slices was high, whereas the effects of temperature prevailed when the moisture content was low. As such, it was proposed that drying conditions should be manipulated according to the moisture transport mechanisms at different stages of drying in order to optimize the intermittent drying and improve the product quality. Generally, loss of ascorbic acid during drying was attributed to thermal degradation and enzymatic oxidation, whereas the loss of phenolic compounds was mainly due to thermal degradation. Experimental results showed that heat pump drying with low-temperature dehumidified air not only enhanced the drying kinetics but produced a stable final product. Heat pump–dried samples retained a high concentration of ascorbic acid and total phenolic compounds when an appropriate drying mode was selected.     

Convective Drying with Time-Varying Heat Input: Simulation Results

Abstract

Intermittent drying aims to match the heat input rate to the drying kinetics of the material so as to avoid thermal degradation of heat-sensitive products in particular. This paper presents results of a liquid diffusion model to examine the effect of varying the rates of heat input by convection heat transfer. This is accomplished by varying the drying air velocity, varying the air temperature as well as its relative humidity over different periods of time in a sequential manner. One of the outcomes of this work is guidelines for use of a heat pump to dehumidify the drying air. While most heat pump dryers are designed to operate continuously, our results show that it is not necessary to use heat pump continuously over the entire drying period. This option saves running costs by reducing use of electrical power in the drying cycle. Furthermore, it is possible to save capital costs by utilizing a smaller heat pump for a given dry product output. Alternatively, a given heat pump system can be used to service two or more drying chambers that may dry the same or different products by simply switching the dehumidified and heated air from one chamber to the other sequentially. When the heat pump air is switched off, unsaturated ambient air maybe used to accomplish rest of the drying. It is shown that using heat pump air over only a part of the drying cycle does not increase the drying time appreciably.     

Solar Drying of Peeled Longan Using a Side Loading Type Solar Tunnel Dryer: Experimental and Simulated Performance

This article presents experimental and simulated results of drying of peeled longan in a side-loading solar tunnel dryer. This new type of solar tunnel dryer consists of a flat-plate solar air heater and a drying unit with a provision for loading and unloading from windows at one side of the dryer. These are connected in series and covered with glass plates. A DC fan driven by a 15-W solar cell module supplies hot air in the drying system. To investigate the experimental performance, five full-scale experimental runs were conducted and 100 kg of peeled longan was dried in each experimental run. The drying air temperature varied from 32 to 76°C. The drying time in the solar tunnel dryer was 16 h to dry peeled longan from an initial moisture content of 84% (w.b.) to a final moisture content of 12% (w.b.), whereas it required 16 h of natural sun drying under similar conditions to reach a moisture content of 40% (w.b.). The quality of solar-dried product was also good in comparison to the high-quality product in markets in terms of color, taste, and flavor. A system of partial differential equations describing heat and moisture transfer during drying of peeled longan in this solar tunnel dryer was developed and this system of nonlinear partial differential equations was solved numerically by the finite difference method. The numerical solution was programmed in Compaq Visual FORTRAN version 6.5. The simulated results agreed well with the experimental data for solar drying. This model can be used to provide the design data and it is essential for optimal design of the dryer.     

内加热式热泵干燥装置的结构与性能分析

内加热式热泵干燥装置可提高干燥器出口空气的温度和相对湿度,增加空气从物料中吸纳水蒸气的能力。介绍了内加热式热泵干燥装置的结构和工作原理,建立了其SMER计算方程,并对干燥器进口空气温度、干燥器出口空气温度和相对湿度、除湿器出口空气温度对SMER的影响进行了计算和分析。