ERT 426 Food Engineering

Tutorial
Sem 2 2010/2011

Problem 1
A cabinet dryer is to be used for drying of a new food product. The product
has an initial moisture content of 75% (wet basis) and requires 10 minutes to
reduce the moisture content to a critical level of 30% (wet basis). Determine
the final moisture of the product if a total drying time of 15 minutes is used.
(Hint: Use equation of moisture removal rate).

Problem 2
A spray drier with a 5 m diameter and 10 m height is used to dry skim milk to a
final moisture content of 5%. The air entering the drier is 120 C, is heated from
ambient air at 25 C and 75% RH, and flows concurrently with the product
droplets (and particles) through the system. The skim milk is atomized into the
hot air at 45 C with a maximum droplet size of 120 micron diameter. The
critical moisture content for the product is 30%, and the particle diameter is
25 micron at the critical moisture content. The equilibrium moisture content of
the dry skim milk is 3.5% at the exit temperature of 55C from the drier. The
mass diffusivity for water vapor within the product particles is 7.4 10-7 m2/s
and the specific heat of product solids is 2.0 kJ/ kg K. The heated air leaves
the system at 5 C above the product temperature. The initial moisture
content of skim milk is 90.5% wet basis. Determine
(a) drying time per kg solids
(b) drying time of each droplet in the solid
(c) drying time for falling rate
(d) total drying time
(e) the production rate for the spray drier; kg of 5% moisture content
product per unit time.

NOTE:
Please read, study and understand the Example 12.4, 12.5 and 12.7 in your
text book.