EXPERIMENT 8: DRYING AND PSYCHOMETRICS (TRAY DRYING)

OBJECTIVES

 Measure and calculate the surface area of potato slices

 Measurement and determination of air properties.
 Describe the drying process for a tray drier and indicate relevant variables that are used to
control the process.
 Calculate the drying times for different periods of a drying process.

DATA AND RESULTS

Weight of empty tray = 804.0g Initial Moisture Content = 0.408g

Weight of tray + potato = 885.03g
Weight of potato = 885.03g – 804g
= 81.03g
Table 1: Drying Rate and Moisture Content

Time Total Weight, Weight Moisture Mass Solid, X Drying

(min) Mp Loss Content Ms Rate,
(g) (g) (g) X/t
(min−1)
(0.408) (81.03) (81.03-33.06)
0 81.03 = 33.06 = 47.97 0.6891892 0.386784

10 71.55 9.48 29.1924 42.3576 0.6891892 0.360264

20 62.72 8.83 25.58976 37.13024 0.6891892 0.190944

30 53.36 9.36 21.77088 31.58912 0.6891892 0.098736

40 46.1 7.26 18.8088 27.2912 0.6891892 0.057732

50 40.44 5.66 16.49952 23.94048 0.6891892 0.0421056

60 35.28 5.16 14.39424 20.88576 0.6891892 0.031484

70 30.65 4.63 12.5052 18.1448 0.6891892 0.017427429

80 27.66 2.99 11.28528 16.37472 0.6891892 0.009486

 90 25.8 1.86 10.5264 15.2736 0.6891892 0.011605333

100 23.24 2.56 9.48192 13.75808 0.6891892 0.0066912

110 21.6 1.64 8.8128 12.7872 0.6891892 0

120 21.6 0 8.8128 12.7872 0.6891892 0

MOISTURE CONTENT VS TIME

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Figure 1: Graph of Moisture Content versus Time

DRYING RATE VS TIME

12

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Figure 2: Graph of Drying Rate versus Time

 DRYING RATE VS MOISTURE CONTENT
12

10

0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Figure 3: Graph of Drying Rate versus Moisture Content

CALCULATION

Moisture Content = Initial Moisture Content × Total Weight (Mass Product)

Example:

1) 0.408 × 81.03 = 33.06

2) 0.408 × 71.55 = 29.1924

Mass Solid = Total Weight (Mass Product) – Moisture Content

Example:

1) 81.03-33.06 = 47.97
2) 71.55 – 29.1924 = 42.3576

Mass Product – Mass Solid

X=
Mass Solid

Example:

81.03 – 47.97
1)
47.97
71.55 – 4 2.36
2)
4 2.36
DISCUSSION
Drying usually has been defined as a process of removal of relatively small amounts of water
from material. Drying process involves the removal of water or another solvent from a solid, semi-
solid or liquid by the means of evaporation. It requires a a source of heat and a sink that receives the
vapor produced. (Drying-New World Enccyclopedia, n.d.) The drying process begins with an initial
short period that allows for the food surface that is heated to reach similar conditions as the hot air (A
to B). (Brennan et al. 1990) For this experiment, the drying process classified as batch which is the
material was placed into the drying equipment and the drying process lasts for a predetermined
amount of time. The study of this experiment will be observing the drying curve based on the
moisture content of the potato within the time taken. Theoretically the dryer occurs in this experiment
by the supply of heat into the potato samples and use the air velocity in order passed over a heated
element that act as mass transfer to evaporate the moisture contain in potato.

From data and result, the total mass of tray and potato obtained were 885.03g while the total
mass of potato was 81.03g. Besides, Table 1 shows that the weight loss obtained from 0 min to 120
min were 9.48g until 0g. Meanwhile, the moisture content contained in the potato were 33.06 until
8.812 8 and drying rate of the potato sample from 0.386784 min to 0 min. It can be concluded that the
moisture content of potato decreases proportionally with time taken. This can be proved by graph in
Figure 1 which shows that the moisture content of potato decreases when the time increases. In this
experiment, the initial mass of potato used 81.03 g, then the weight of potato reduced from the
starting of experiment until the end for every 10 minutes which it used to calculate the moisture
contain in potato. The moisture content decreased as the time increase as the water in the potato
vaporized when the dry air flow through the potato. In the meantime, the concentration between upper
and bottom of the potato also shows the differences after the surface of the potato dried that shows the
moisture different. Hence, the transferred of the remaining moisture forms from bottom to the top of
potato sample which is known as diffusion process occur.

Furthermore, the drying rate with time taken also recorded in this experiment and the result
show that the drying rate will take a short time when the time is increasing for every 10 minutes until
120 minutes. Graph in Figure 2 shows the trend of the decreasing of drying rate of potato. At time 0 to
10 min, the graph shows that the graph is slightly decreases before drops rapidly at time 10 to 20 min.
Meanwhile, the drying rate are decreasing fluctuate and not stable because the error in collecting data
from the experiment. Next, for overall result, the drying rate and moisture content of potato also being
plotted and analysed in this experiment. Graph in Figure 3 illustrate the pattern of relation between
drying rate and moisture content of potato. The graph shows the drying rate increases when the
moisture content increase from 0% moisture up to 29%. However, at 30% until 33% moisture, the
drying rate is slightly increases as the drying rate should be remain constant. concluded that when the
potato contains high moisture, the drying process will take a longer time to dry it. This graph should
illustrate which one part of them shows the constant rate and another part is falling rate of drying
process. This is because constant rate is the rate where the drying at stable and when the potato
reaches the critical moisture content while falling rate take a longer time. However, this possibly
occur an error in collecting data from the experiment or human error.

In addition, velocity of the air inside the system also impacts on the drying rate and moisture
content. Although the fan’s speed is fixed at it’s at the lowest setting, the results shows that there are
changes in the velocity present. This could occur due to the equipment is malfunctioning or because
the surrounding air is affecting the system in the dryer unit or the equipment itself is at fault. At the
end of the experiment, we can determine the outcome from the experiment using batch dryer is
acceptable. However, the moisture content is not fully removed over a period of time, as the drying
curve shows the slightly different pattern as the theoretical one. This possibly happened because of
the error and mistake while conduct the experiment or collecting data. (CFB20504 Food Process
Engineering-Laboratory 8: Drying and Psychometrics, 2018)

CONCLUSION