Mathematical Modelling of the Drying Characteristics of Milled Sorghum Residue

During milling of cereal grains, bran which is separated from the starchy endosperm of the grain is a major by-product. In this study, milled sorghum residue was dried in a cabinet dryer under different conditions (temperature and air velocity). The obtained drying data were fitted into ten existing mathematical models and obtained the best model while, the effective moisture diffusivity and activation energy of the drying process was determined using Arrhenius type approach. The result shows that the initial moisture content obtained for the sorghum residue using standard oven drying method were 41.28 ± 0.33%, 49.52 ± 0.63 % and 47.06 ± 0.42 % on wet basis for the wet residue of variety A, B and C, respectively, at equilibrium point, the final moisture content of about 12.93 ± 0.14 – 14.31± 0.07 as temperature ranges from 40 oC to 70 oC and air velocity ranges from 0.8 m/s to 1.2 m/s. During the drying process, the drying rate falls more rapidly as it was initially high as a result of more moisture in the sorghum residue and the drying rate decreases slowly until reaching the reduced moisture content. The obtained values of effective moisture diffusivity (Deff) ranges between 9.89 x 10-10 and 22.21 x 10-10 m2/s, 9.45 x 10-10 and 20.62 x 10-10 m2/s and 8.56 x 10-10 and 20.76 x 10-10 m2/s for variety A, B and C, respectively. However, the result of the modelling shows that the drying characteristics of variety A and B of the sorghum residue can be predicted using Midilli et al. model while the drying behaviour of Variety C can be predicted using Hii et al. model.

A Statistical Optimization of Convective Drying of Corn Kernels in a Fluidized Bed Dryer

Food storage is an essential process for food security and it needs to be free from any biological contamination. For the same, agriculture produce needs to be completely dried before sending for storage. The present work discusses a systematic approach to model drying parameters of corn kernels in a fluidized bed dryer. Experiments were designed according to a higher level Box-Behnken design combined with response surface methodology. Four parameters were chosen to vary namely: amount of corn kernels (50 -100 gm), temperature of drying (50 – 80⁰C), air velocity (6.01 – 8.08 m/s) and drying time (30 – 60 min) for experiments as well as for the model. The reduction of moisture content was determined after each experiment for understanding the behaviour of drying process. The model equations were obtained and surface response plots were generated in MATLAB to investigate the drying behaviour of corn kernels with all four parameters. Ultimately, this work represents the dependence of moisture removal on all four parameters chosen with efficient use of response surface methodology and Box-Behnken design. Analysis of variance confirmed that velocity of air and amount of corn are the most significant parameters along with temperature and time of drying. Optimum condition with the model were obtained as 50 gm of corn kernels, 80 ⁰C drying temperature, 8 m/sec velocity of air, and 60 min time of drying for 73.3 % of moisture from corn kernels.

Drying of virus-containing particles: modelling effects of droplet origin and composition

Background and purpose Virus-containing aerosol droplets emitted by breathing, speech or coughing dry rapidly to equilibrium with ambient relative humidity (RH), increasing in solute concentration with effects on virus survival and decreasing in diameter with effects on sedimentation and respiratory uptake. The aim of this paper is to model the effect of ionic and macromolecular solutes on droplet drying and solute concentration. Methods Deliquescence-efflorescence concepts and Kohler theory were used to simulate the evolution of solute concentrations and water activity in respiratory droplets, starting from efflorescence data on mixed NaCl/KCl aerosols and osmotic pressure data on respiratory macromolecules. Results In NaCl/KCl solutions total salt concentrations were shown to reach 10-13 M at the efflorescence RH of 40-55%, depending on the K:Na ratio. Dependence on K:Na ratio implies that the evaporation curves differ between aerosols derived from saliva and from airway surfaces. The direct effect of liquid droplet size through the Kelvin term was shown to be smaller and restricted to the evolution of breath emissions. Modelling the effect of proteins and glycoproteins showed that salts determine drying equilibria down to the efflorescence RH, and macromolecules at lower RH. Conclusion Differences in solute composition between airway surfaces and saliva are predicted to lead to different drying behaviour of droplets emitted by breathing, speech and coughing. These differences may influence the inactivation of viruses.

Thin layer drying kinetics of Freshwater Clawed Lobsters (Astacus astacus)

Fresh-water Clawed Lobsters is seafood consumed in its cooked, dried or semi-dried state. Drying is a veritable technology for its storage beyond immediate consumption. This study thus, investigated the drying behaviour of the lobster on thin-layers. A laboratory convective oven dryer was used as the heating source, on the temperature range of 50 – 100°C applied in a varying manner on multiples of 10°C. The layer thickness was about 20-mm. As with high moisture sea foods, the drying profile showed a typical falling rate period with no distinct constant rate period for all the temperature levels used in this work. Moisture loss (diffusion) data obtained from the experiments were fitted to three popular semi-empirical thin-layer models of Page, Lewis, and Henderson-Pabis, respectively, and their suitability was validated using statistical parameters (of R2, RMSE and χ2). This was done to select thin-layer model that would suitably describe the drying kinetics of the samples over the range of temperature levels chosen in this work. Consequently, the Page model and that of Henderson-Pabis respectively were taken to have reliably predicted the drying behaviour of the samples at the chosen temperature levels. The effective diffusivity and the temperature-related activation energy values ranged from 2.239 × 10−8 m2/min - 4.005 × 102/min and 28.5kJ/mol, respectively. Drying rates along with characterizing drying constants and curves also showed an exponential increase with temperature.