Drying Is A Mass Transfer Process Consisting of The Removal of Water or

Introduction
Drying is a mass transfer process consisting of the removal of water or

another solvent by evaporation from a solid, semi-solid or liquid. This
process is often used as a final production step before selling or
packaging products. To be considered "dried", the final product must
be solid, in the form of a continuous sheet (e.g., paper), long pieces
(e.g., wood), particles (e.g., cereal grains or corn flakes) or powder
(e.g., sand, salt, washing powder, milk powder). A source of heat and
an agent to remove the vapor produced by the process are often
involved.
In bioproducts like food, grains, and pharmaceuticals like vaccines, the
solvent to be removed is almost invariably water. Desiccation may
be synonymous with drying or considered an extreme form of drying.
In the most common case, a gas stream, e.g., air, applies the heat by
convection and carries away the vapor as humidity. Other possibilities
are vacuum drying, where heat is supplied by conduction or radiation
(or microwaves), while the vapor thus produced is removed by the
vacuum system. Another indirect technique is drum drying (used, for
instance, for manufacturing potato flakes), where a heated surface is
used to provide the energy, and aspirators draw the vapor outside the
room. In contrast, the mechanical extraction of the solvent, e.g., water,
by filtration or centrifugation, is not considered "drying" but rather
"draining".
Drying mechanism
In some products having a relatively high initial moisture content, an
initial linear reduction of the average product moisture content as a
function of time may be observed for a limited time, often known as a
"constant drying rate period". Usually, in this period, it is surface
moisture outside individual particles that is being removed. The drying
rate during this period is mostly dependent on the rate of heat transfer
to the material being dried. Therefore, the maximum achievable drying
rate is considered to be heat-transfer limited. If drying is continued, the
slope of the curve, the drying rate, becomes less steep (falling rate
period) and eventually tends to become nearly horizontal at very long
times. The product moisture content is then constant at the "equilibrium
moisture content", where it is, in practice, in equilibrium with the
dehydrating medium. In the falling-rate period, water migration from
the product interior to the surface is mostly by molecular diffusion, i,e.
the water flux is proportional to the moisture content gradient. This
means that water moves from zones with higher moisture content to
zones with lower values, a phenomenon explained by the second law
of thermodynamics. If water removal is considerable, the products
usually undergo shrinkage and deformation, except in a well-designed
freeze-drying process. The drying rate in the falling-rate period is
controlled by the rate of removal of moisture or solvent from the
interior of the solid being dried and is referred to as being "mass-
transfer limited". This is widely noticed in hygroscopic products such
as fruits and vegetables, where drying occurs in the falling rate period
with the constant drying rate period said to be negligible.[2]
Methods of drying
In a typical phase diagram, the boundary between gas and liquid runs
from the triple point to the critical point. Regular drying is the green
arrow, while supercritical drying is the red arrow and freeze drying is
the blue.
The following are some general methods of drying:
• Application of hot air (convective or direct drying). Air heating
increases the drying force for heat transfer and accelerates drying. It
also reduces air relative humidity, further increasing the driving force
for drying. In the falling rate period, as moisture content falls, the solids
heat up and the higher temperatures speed up diffusion of water from
the interior of the solid to the surface. However, product quality
considerations limit the applicable rise to air temperature. Excessively
hot air can almost completely dehydrate the solid surface, so that its
pores shrink and almost close, leading to crust formation or "case
hardening", which is usually undesirable. For instance in wood (timber)
drying, air is heated (which speeds up drying) though some steam is
also added to it (which hinders drying rate to a certain extent) in order
to avoid excessive surface dehydration and product deformation owing
to high moisture gradients across timber thickness. Spray
drying belongs in this category.
• Indirect or contact drying (heating through a hot wall), as drum drying,
vacuum drying. Again, higher wall temperatures will speed up drying
but this is limited by product degradation or case-hardening. Drum
drying belongs in this category.
• Dielectric drying (radiofrequency or microwaves being absorbed inside
the material) is the focus of intense research nowadays. It may be used
to assist air drying or vacuum drying. Researchers have found that
microwave finish drying speeds up the otherwise very low drying rate
at the end of the classical drying methods.
• Freeze drying or lyophilization is a drying method where the solvent is
frozen prior to drying and is then sublimed, i.e., passed to the gas phase
directly from the solid phase, below the melting point of the solvent. It
is increasingly applied to dry foods, beyond its already classical
pharmaceutical or medical applications. It keeps biological properties
of proteins, and retains vitamins and bioactive compounds. Pressure
can be reduced by a high vacuum pump (though freeze drying at
atmospheric pressure is possible in dry air). If using a vacuum pump,
the vapor produced by sublimation is removed from the system by
converting it into ice in a condenser, operating at very low
temperatures, outside the freeze drying chamber.
• Supercritical drying (superheated steam drying) involves steam drying
of products containing water. This process is feasible because water in
the product is boiled off, and joined with the drying medium, increasing
its flow. It is usually employed in closed circuit and allows a proportion
of latent heat to be recovered by recompression, a feature which is not
possible with conventional air drying, for instance. The process has
potential for use in foods if carried out at reduced pressure, to lower the
boiling point.
• Natural air drying takes place when materials are dried with unheated
forced air, taking advantage of its natural drying potential. The process
is slow and weather-dependent, so a wise strategy "fan off-fan on" must
be devised considering the following conditions: Air temperature,
relative humidity and moisture content and temperature of the material
being dried. Grains are increasingly dried with this technique, and the
total time (including fan off and on periods) may last from one week to
various months, if a winter rest can be tolerated in cold areas.
Applications of drying
Drying of fish in Lofoten in the production of stockfish

Food
Foods are dried to inhibit microbial development and quality decay.
However, the extent of drying depends on product end-use. Cereals and
oilseeds are dried after harvest to the moisture content that allows
microbial stability during storage. Vegetables are blanched before
drying to avoid rapid darkening, and drying is not only carried out to
inhibit microbial growth, but also to avoid browning during storage.
Concerning dried fruits, the reduction of moisture acts in combination
with its acid and sugar contents to provide protection against microbial
growth. Products such as milk powder must be dried to very low
moisture contents in order to ensure flowability and avoid caking. This
moisture is lower than that required to ensure inhibition to microbial
development. Other products as crackers are dried beyond the
microbial growth threshold to confer a crispy texture, which is liked by
consumers.
Non-food products
Among non-food products, some of those that require considerable
drying are wood (as part of timber processing), paper, flax, and
washing powder. The first two, owing to their organic origins, may
develop mold if insufficiently dried. Another benefit of drying is a
reduction in volume and weight.
Sludges and fecal materials from sanitation processes
In the area of sanitation, drying of sewage sludge from sewage
treatment plants, fecal sludge or feces collected in urine-diverting dry
toilets (UDDT) is a common method to achieve pathogen kill, as
pathogens can only tolerate a certain dryness level. In addition, drying
is required as a process step if the excreta based materials are meant to
be incinerated.
References
1. ^ "drying - definition of drying by the Free Online Dictionary,
Thesaurus and Encyclopedia". Farlex. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
2. ^ Onwude, Daniel I.; Hashim, Norhashila; Janius, Rimfiel B.; Nawi,
Nazmi Mat; Abdan, Khalina (2016-02-04). "Modeling the thin-layer
drying of fruits and vegetables: A review". Comprehensive Reviews in
Food Science and Food Safety. 15 (3): 599–618. doi:10.1111/1541-
4337.12196.
3. ^ Strande, L., Ronteltap, M., Brdjanovic, D. (eds.) (2014). Faecal
Sludge Management (FSM) book - Systems Approach for
Implementation and Operation Archived 2017-10-14 at the Wayback
Machine. IWA Publishing, UK (ISBN 9781780404738)

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Introduction

Drying is a mass transfer process consisting of the removal of water or

Drying of fish in Lofoten in the production of stockfish

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