Drying 09January2025
Additional Problems
1. A food product has an initial moisture content of 77% (wet basis) and a critical moisture
content of 30% (wet basis). Given that the constant drying rate is 0.1 kg H₂O/m²·s,
calculate the time required for the product to reach the start of the falling rate drying
period. Assume the equilibrium moisture content is negligible. The product is shaped like
a cube with 5 cm sides, and its initial density is 950 kg/m³.
2. In a laboratory test, the drying rate was determined to be 0.5 x 10⁻³ kg/m²-s as the
moisture content decreased from 0.4 to 0.1 on a dry basis. The critical moisture content
of the material is 0.08 (dry basis). A tray dryer is used to dry 100 kg (dry basis) of the
same material under identical conditions. The material has a surface area of 0.04 m²/kg
of dry solid. Calculate the time required (in seconds) to reduce the moisture content of
the solids from 0.3 to 0.2 (dry basis).
3. A wet solid is dried in a batch dryer under constant drying conditions from 25% dry basis
(db) to 10% db in 4.17 hours. The critical moisture content is 15% db, and the
equilibrium moisture content is 5% db. Determine the time required to dry the solid from
30% db to 8% db under the same drying conditions.
4. Ipil-ipil leaves will be dried in a moving train of trays dryers. The wet leaves containing
75 % water (wet basis) is to be dried to 15% (wet basis) in tray containing 1 m x 1.5 m.
The wet leaves are spread out in the tray to a uniform thickness of 8 cm. Calculate::
a. The number of trays needed to produce 1 MT of the dried leaves
b. The amount of water removed/MT of product. The density of the leaves is 0.75
g/cc
c. If dry hot air at 20% RH and a dry bulb temperature of 110oF is blown into the
dryer and moist air leaves at 105oF dry bulb and 86oF wet bulb temperatures,
how many ft3 of dry hot air will be needed per MT of product?
