Post-harvest technologies
M. Namjoo; M. Moradi; M. A. Nematollahi; H. Golbakhshi
Abstract
In this study, the air drying of cumin seeds was boosted by cold plasma pre-treatment (CPt) followed by high-power ultrasound waves (USp). To examine the impact of included effects, different CP exposure times (0, 15, and 30 s), sonication powers (0, 60, 120, and 180 W), and drying air temperatures (30, ...
Read More
In this study, the air drying of cumin seeds was boosted by cold plasma pre-treatment (CPt) followed by high-power ultrasound waves (USp). To examine the impact of included effects, different CP exposure times (0, 15, and 30 s), sonication powers (0, 60, 120, and 180 W), and drying air temperatures (30, 35, and 40 ºC) were selected as input variables. A series of well-designed experiments were conducted to evaluate drying time, effective moisture diffusivity, and energy consumption, as well as color change and rupture force of dried seeds for each drying program. Numerical investigations can effectively bypass the challenges associated with experimental analysis. Therefore, the wavelet-based neural network (WNN), the multilayer perceptron neural network (MLPNN), and the radial-basis function neural network (RBFNN), as three well-known artificial neural networks models, were used to map the inputs and output data and the results were compared with the Multiple Quadratic Regression (MQR) analysis. According to the results, the WNN model with an average correlation coefficient of R2 > 0.92 for the train data set, and R2 > 0.83 for the test data set provided the most beneficial tool for evaluating the drying process of cumin seeds.
Post-harvest technologies
F. Osloob; M. Moradi; M. Niakousari
Abstract
Accurate investigation of kinetics and development of high-precision seed drying models will help better studying the drying process by identifying effective parameters. Present study investigates the application of cold plasma (CP), as a pretreatment process, in air drying of canola seeds. This may ...
Read More
Accurate investigation of kinetics and development of high-precision seed drying models will help better studying the drying process by identifying effective parameters. Present study investigates the application of cold plasma (CP), as a pretreatment process, in air drying of canola seeds. This may bring about some complication into the drying kinetics investigation. Canola seeds with an initial moisture content of 27.5±1% (dry basis) were exposed to CP for 0, 15, 30, and 60 s prior to fluidization by air at temperatures of 40, 50 and 60 °C in a pilot scale fluidized bed heated by a solar panel. The results showed a decreasing trend in drying time from 40 to 60 oC. The shortest drying time corresponds to samples dried at 60 oC with no CP pretreatment. The longest period however occurred for samples dried at 40 oC with 60 s of CP pretreatment. The greatest effect of CP on reducing the drying time was observed at temperatures of 40 and 50 °C at the CP exposure time of 15 and 60 s, respectively. A reasonably accurate study of drying kinetics was accomplished using the superposition method. Accordingly, using experimental data, curves correspond to different drying conditions were plotted and in two steps these were shifted to a reference curve to acquire a final drying curve. The curve then was fitted to a second-order equation, and was validated using the experimental data. The correlation coefficients, mean square error and mean absolute error were 0.99, 0.03, and 0.023, respectively.
M. Moradi; J. Ghasemi; H. Azimi-Nejadian
Abstract
IntroductionSome unit operations of food process engineering such as drying consumes a high amount of energy. Therefore, analysis of energy and exergy can be a suitable method to manage the energy consumption of the drying. Hence, in the present research, analysis of energy and exergy for the drying ...
Read More
IntroductionSome unit operations of food process engineering such as drying consumes a high amount of energy. Therefore, analysis of energy and exergy can be a suitable method to manage the energy consumption of the drying. Hence, in the present research, analysis of energy and exergy for the drying process of lemon verbena leaves was performed.Materials and MethodsA cabinet solar dryer was employed to investigate the energy consumption of thin layer drying of lemon verbena leaves. The dryer had a galvanized solar plate collector which had a surface area of 0.75 m2 and to absorb the maximum solar energy, the collector painted with the black color. The collector was set at an angle of 45 degrees relative to the horizon and an electric blower was installed in the bottom of the collector to blow the ambient air through the solar collector and hence, hot air entered the drying chamber to dry the lemon verbena leaves. In order to record the air temperature and humidity in different locations of the dryer, an Arduino board with 8 smart sensors (AM2301, with temperature accuracy of 0.5°C and humidity accuracy of 3%) were used. To obtain the initial moisture content of the leaves, they inserted in an electrical oven for 16 hours at a temperature of 70°C. In order to measure the moisture content of the leaves during drying, they weighted at different times using a digital balance (A & D, Japan with accuracy of 0.001 g).Energy consumption rate of the drying was calculated by Equation (1):Where, Ein: energy consumption rate (kW), : mass flow rate of drying air (kg s-1), cp: specific heat of drying air (kJ kg-1 °C-1), Δt: temperature difference between the ambient air and drying air (°C).Also, the specific energy consumption of drying (SEC) was calculated by Equation (2):Where; SEC: Specific energy consumption (MJ kg-1 of removed water) t: drying time (s), and M: mass of removed water from the drying material (kg).Also, useful power can be calculated from Equation (3):Where; Eout: useful power (kW), ms: Evaporation rate (kg s-1), lg: latent heat of vaporization (kJ kg-1 of water)In order to calculate energy efficiency, Equation (4) was used: Also inlet and outlet exergy were calculated by equations (5) and (6), respectively: Where; T1: Inlet air temperature into the drying chamber (°C), T2: Outlet air temperature from the drying chamber (°C), T0: Ambient air temperature (°C).Also, Equations (7) and (8) were used to calculate exergy efficiency and loss, respectively:Results and DiscussionThe results of energy analysis showed specific energy consumption (SEC) increased with increasing of drying temperature and decreasing of air velocity. Accordingly, in the air velocity of 2 m s-1 and the temperatures of 30, 40, and 50 ˚C, SEC were 276.3, 694.7, and 708.0 MJ kg-1 of removed water, respectively. While SEC for an air velocity of 2.5 m s-1 and air temperatures of 30, 40, and 50 ˚C were 266.9, 469.8, and 638.0 MJ kg-1 of removed water, respectively, the corresponded values for air velocity of 3 m s-1 were as 217.0, 391.3, and 501.8 MJ kg-1 of removed water, respectively. Also, the results revealed that with an increase of temperature and a reduction of velocity, energy efficiency reduced, so that the maximum value of energy efficiency observed in an experiment with temperature of 30˚C and velocity of 3 m s-1. Also, the highest value of exergy efficiency obtained in temperature of 50˚C and velocity of 3 m s-1.ConclusionA hot air solar dryer was used for drying lemon verbena leaves. Results of specific energy consumption of drying showed a high amount of fossil fuels can be saved by using this dryer. Also, from the aspect of energy and exergy efficiency, using of the dryer in the lower temperature and higher air velocity is recommended.
