INTRODUCTION

Drying is an essential unit operation in the chemical process industries with applications
ranging from forest products, and mineral processing to food products and pharmaceuticals.
Drying is a mass transfer process that includes removing relatively small volumes of moisture
or water from a process stream or material. In many businesses, the drying process is the last
procedure required before products are packaged and sold. As a result of drying out all the
moisture, the finished product from the procedure must be solid. There are many methods of
drying that exist in this industry such as freeze drying, oven drying, air drying, sun drying
and drum drying. Every method uses different kinds of drying equipment such as tray dryers,
rotary dryers, drum dryers, spray dryers and continuous tunnel dryers.

A tray dryer, also known as a shelf, cabinet, or compartment drier, is typically used to
dry solid materials that are pasty or lumpy. On a metal tray that can be removed, the material
is distributed evenly down to a depth of 10 to 100 mm. The heated air in the tray drier is
forced to dry by a fan that circulates it over and parallel to the tray surface. About 10 to 20%
of the fresh air is traveling over the trays during this operation, while the recirculated air is
being used to remind the trays to remove any bound water or moisture content. The moisture
that can be removed by drying is called free moisture. When using tray dryers, the drying
process typically takes longer. In industries, tray dryer operates about 12 to 48 hours for
solids to be dried. This is because tray dryers required low capital and maintenance cost, but
it have poor control and chances to produces more variable product quality.

First, 100g macaroni has been boiled in boiled water for about 10 minutes and tossed it.
Tare the balance without the drying tray, then put the drying tray into the dyer and the weight
recorded. 100g boiled macaroni has spread in tray. New weight been measured and exposed
surface area of the macaroni on the tray. Fan level and heating level has been set to the
desired value, then switch on the fan and heater. The stopwatch has started to count the
drying time. The inlet and outlet humidity and temperature has been monitored and the data
has been recorded. Used anemometer to measure the air velocity and calculate the air flow
rate. Experiment repeated with different level of heating.