On the Analysis of Drying Process

Abstract:

Drying plays an important role in processing agricultural grains/seeds, chemicals, and other materials. In the present work, drying process has been analyzed taking published data on different grains and seeds such as rapeseed, sunflower, soybean, corn, paddy, and wheat. Mathematical expressions have been established for important drying parameters such as critical moisture content, drying rates, time required to reach critical moisture content, total drying time, and diffusivity as function of drying air temperature. The expressions involve a coefficient parameter and an exponential function of drying air temperature, Aexp(− E/RT_g ),and interestingly it is shown that the same functional form with same Es can correlate the different relevant drying parameters. The coefficient parameters As and Es are decided by drying materials and drying process, and the values have been derived for different grains/seeds. The correlations are useful in analyzing the drying process.

Keywords:

• Drying rate
• Critical moisture content
• Diffusivity
• Grains
• Seeds

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors thank the Director, Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur, for kind permission to publish the paper. Financial support for the project obtained from TMOP&M, New Delhi is gratefully acknowledged.