Mass Transfer in Infrared Drying of Gel-Coated Seeds

In order to contribute for a better understanding of mass transfer in drying of shrinking particles, in this study shrinkage and drying characteristics of sorghum seeds encapsulated into gel-based polymeric matrix were experimentally determined by using infrared (IR) radiation. IR drying of gel coated seeds was carried out at three different temperatures (65℃, 80℃ and 93℃). The shrinkage of the individual particles during drying was quantified by means of the volume and surface area changes evaluated from geometric measurements. The product quality was evaluated in terms of the changes of particle density and percent of cracks in gel coating incurred during drying. Surface area and volume of the gel-seed system decreased about 65% and 80% until the end of the process, respectively, stressing the need to take into account the surface area changes to calculate water flux density as function of moisture content and obtain an accurate interpretation of the drying mechanisms well as to include the volume shrinkage in mass transfer models to determine reliable values of moisture diffusivity. The IR drying behavior of gel-coated seeds was then characterized by the presence of three drying periods: heating up, constant moisture flux and falling moisture flux. Accelerated drying of gel coated seeds was obtained by applying higher IR radiation intensities. The effect of IR source temperature on the particle shrinkage was more pronounced at the constant moisture flux period and practically negligible at the decreasing moisture flux period. Neglecting shrinkage of individual coated-seeds during IR drying led to an erroneous absence of constant flux period and overestimation of the mass transfer by diffusion. Apparent density of the particles was greater at low-temperature IR drying than at high-temperature IR drying. Coated particles keep their original geometry, but a significant cracking of gel coating was observed at rapid drying rate conditions.

Infrared drying kinetics and moisture diffusivity modeling of pork

This study investigated the drying kinetics of pork slice in infrared drying condition.Drying temperature,slice thickness and initial moisture content were selected as influencing factors on the drying characteristics and drying rate of pork slice.Drying curves obtained from the experimental data were fitted to semi theoretical and/or empirical thin layer drying models.The effects of drying temperature and slice thickness on the model constants were evaluated by the multiple regression method.All the models were compared according to three statistical indexes,i.e.,root mean square error,chi-square and modeling efficiency.The slice thickness,drying temperature and initial moisture content have significant influences on the effective diffusivity coefficient of pork.The results showed that the drying rate of pork slices increased with the increases of drying temperature and initial moisture content.The decreases of slice thickness also led to an increase of drying rate.The Henderson and Pabis model can best describe the drying curves of pork.

Infrared thin layer drying of saffron(Crocus sativus L.) stigmas:Mass transfer parameters and quality assessment

Saffron is the most precious and expensive agricultural product. A dehydration treatment is necessary to convert Crocus sativus L. stigmas into saffron spice. To the best of our knowledge, no information on mass transfer parameters of saffron stigmas is available in the literature. This study aimed at investigating the moisture transfer parameters and quality attributes of saffron stigmas under infrared treatment at different temperatures（60,70, …, 110 ℃）. It was observed that the dehydration process of the samples occurred in a short accelerating rate period at the start followed by a falling rate period. The effective moisture diffusivity and convective mass transfer coefficient were determined by using the Dincer and Dost model. The diffusivity values varied from1.1103 × 10^-10m^2·s^-1to 4.1397 × 10^-10m^2·s^-1 and mass transfer coefficient varied in the range of 2.6433 × 10^-7–8.7203 × 10^-7m·s^-1. The activation energy was obtained to be 27.86 kJ·mol^-1. The quality assessment results showed that the total crocin content increased, when the temperature increased up to90 ℃ but, in higher temperatures, the amount of crocin decreased slightly. The total safranal content of the samples decreased slightly when drying temperature increased from 60 ℃ to 70 ℃ and then continuously increased up to 110 ℃. Also, the amount of picrocrocin increased from 83.1 to 93.3 as the drying temperature increased from 60 ℃ to 100 ℃.

Analysis of the Influence of Different Drying Methods on the Active Ingredients of Fresh Medicine

The heating area of the material is large and the thermal efficiency is high,but it is n ecessary to control the suitable drying temperature ofdiffere nt medici nal materials to preserve the effective in gredients.D iff ere nt kinds of Chinese medicine need different drying conditions to fulfill good drying requirements.Natural drying in the shade is one of the traditional drying methods,which takes a long time and is easily affected by the weather.The water volatilizes slowly.It is prone to mildew and discoloration during the drying process.However,it can better preserve the volatile oil components of Chinese medicine.The hot-air drying machine has lower requirements.The medicinal materials have a large heating area and high thermal efficiency,but it is necessary to control the appropriate drying temperature of different medicinal materials in order to preserve the active ingredients of the medicinal materials;it is not suitable for medicinal materials that stick and bind easily.The microwave drying method possesses superiority in drying some valuable medicinal materials such as Ren she n(Radix et Rhizoma Ginseng)and Lurong(Co「nu Cervi Pantotrichum),and the effective ingredients are preserved at a high degree;it can also achieve the purpose of killing enzymes and protecting glycosides and have a good bactericidal effect,but it is not suitable for Chinese medicines containing heat-sensitive ingredients,because it will destroy most of the proteins,amino acids,and peptides of Chinese medicine and result in the loss of efficacy.The far-infrared drying method is suitable for drying thin-layer medicinal materials and is friendly to the environment.Freeze-drying can preserve the active ingredients very well and greatly retain the efficacy,but it has obvious limitations in preserving some Chinese medicinal materials that need to kill enzymes and protect glycosides;besides,the cost is relatively high and the drying time is long.

Modeling of moisture loss kinetics and color changes in the surface of lemon slice during the combined infrared-vacuum drying

Color is one of the most important appearance attributes of food materials,since it influences consumer acceptability.In this study the effects of combined infrared-vacuum drying on the drying kinetics,moisture diffusivity,surface changes(shrinking)and color changes kinetics of lemon slices were investigated.Both the infrared lamp power and vacuum pressure influenced the drying time of lemon slices.The regression results showed that the quadratic model satisfactorily described the drying behavior of lemon slices with highest R value and lowest SE values.The effective moisture diffusivity increased from 2.92×10^-10 and 1.58×10^-9m^2/s when the infrared lamp power was increased from 300 to 400W.The colour parameters L^*(lightness),a^*(redness/greenness),b^*(yellowness/blueness),and DE(total colour difference)were used to estimate colour changes during drying.L^*,a^* and b^* values of dried lemon increased during drying.The rise in infrared power has a negative effect on the DE and with the increase of infrared radiation power it was increased.Different kinetic models were used to fit the experimental data and the results revealed that the power model was the most suitable to describe the color change intensity(DE).

Experimental Study on the Optimization of Heat and Mass Transfer of Industrial Drying of the TiO_2 Bulb by Infrared Radiation

The characteristics of radiation and drying properties of TiO2 bulb in the fixed bed with infrared radiation have been studied in this paper, and the experiments on drying dynamics has been analysed also. The optimization of heat and mass transfer data has been determined, which could provide the scientific basis for engineering design.

Effects of combined infrared and hot-air drying on ginsenosides and drying characteristics of Panax notoginseng(Araliaceae)roots

Exploring new drying technology can help to deal with the challenge of better preservation of rhizome medicinal materials in the traditional Chinese medicine industry.In current work,combined infrared and hot-air drying(IR-HAD)was employed to Panax notoginseng roots and its effect on drying kinetics,energy efficiency and quality,i.e.,rehydration ratio(RR),color parameters(L^(*),a^(*),b^(*)),total color difference(ΔE),Panax notoginseng saponins(PNS)content,and ginsenosides content(R_(1),R^(g1),R_(e),R_(d),R_(b1))were evaluated.Hot air drying(HAD)was used as the control.Results showed that the increase in drying temperature significantly shortened drying time and reduced energy consumption.The shortest drying time of 43.0 h and lowest specific energy consumption of 15.9 kW·h/(kg-water)were obtained by IR-HAD at 55°C.The decrease of radiation distance and the increase of radiation power led to the shortening of drying time.However,high drying temperature resulted in largeΔE values,large collapse structure,and RR of samples.The drying time of Panax notoginseng roots dried by IR-HAD at a drying temperature of 50°C was shorter(15.5%)than HAD dried at the same drying temperature.The contents of R_(1),R_(g1),R_(e),R_(b1),and PNS were higher when the samples were dried by IR-HAD than those dried by HAD at the same temperature of 50°C.Moreover,the IR-HAD dried samples shortened 15.5%drying time and saved 22.1%energy consumption compared with HAD.Therefore,the optimal process condition was Panax notoginseng roots under IR-HAD at drying temperature of 50°C,radiation distance of 12 cm and radiation power of 1350 W,which can shorten drying time,maintain high ginsenosides contents and satisfactory apparent qualities.

SYNTHESIS OF MESOPOROUS TiO_2 MATERIALS WITH HIGH SPECIFIC AREA USING INORGANIC ACIDS AS CATALYSTS

This paper presents a synthesis process for preparing mesoporous titaniumdioxide materials in the absence of any templates and using inorganic acids as catalysts. Tetrabutyltitanate was used as the precursor at ambient temperature, and four different inorganic acids,i.e., hydrochloric, nitric, sulfuric and phosphoric, were used as catalysts. The as-preparedmesoporous TiO_2 materials were characterized by SEM, XRD and nitrogen adsorption/desorptionmeasurements. The influences of different inorganic acids on the properties of TiO_2 were discussedand compared in details. Experiments showed that the inorganic acids have significant effects on thesurface area, pore volume, pore size, and pore size distribution of the products. The mesoporousTiO_2 materials catalyzed by phosphoric acid exhibited the largest specific surface area and largestpore volume with narrow pore size distribution. Vacuum and infrared drying methods tested in theprocess were found to have subtle impact on the structure of the TiO_2 materials prepared.