EVALUATION OF REFRACTANCE WINDOW DRYER HYBRID ENEGY

EFFICIENCY

Analysis Report

1.0 Introduction

Dehydrated natural vegetables and fruits have gained much importance as ingredients in other food products.
Maintenance of their quality attributes like color, aroma, and nutrients is a major challenge while drying
them, especially the heat sensitive ones. There are quite a number of drying machine being used today, and
they differ in drying speed, energy efficiency, and nature of products to be dried. Most drying technologies
entail the application of high temperatures. This leads to loss of flavor compounds, nutrients, bioactive
compounds and, discoloration. The drying system that shortens the drying time, produces quality dehydrated
products, at low operational cost with minimal damage to food products is the one considered to be an
optimum drying system (Trivedia et al., 2017 ). The existing main technical challenge faced by food
processors today is to identify a relatively inexpensive drying technology that is sensitive to food products,
and gives high-quality products at a relatively low production cost. Refractance window drying (RWD) has
been identified by previous studies as the method that can gives high-quality products at a relatively low
production cost. The Refractance window drying (RWD) system, operates at atmospheric pressure. The main
products dried using the technology are liquid foods, purees, and slices which are dried on one side of a thin
plastic film. The other side is in intimate contact with hot water at temperatures below the boiling point. The
thermal energy is transferred from the hot water through the belt to evaporate moisture from the product.
However, as drying is among the most energy comsuming unit operations in food processing operations, an
indepth evaluation and analysis of RWD energy consumption of this new drying system was needed. For this
reason, small scale RWD hybrid as show in Figure 1.1, was design, fabricated and evaluated for energy
consumption during dring of mango pulp and pineapple pulp.
 Figure 1.1: CAD model of RWD Hybrid

2.0 Materials And Methods

2.1 Preparation of Products for RWD Hybrid Energy Studies

Pineapples and mangoes were sliced into various thickness for analysis. Other samples were also pulped
separately using a house blender for the same anaysis. The fruits were then applied to the fabricated RWD
hybrid at 3 mm and 4 mm product thickness. The machine was then evaluated for power consumption while
drying at 65, 75, 85 and 95 ℃ respectively at the 3 mm and 4 mm products thicknesses.
2.2 RWD Hybrid Energy Study (Drying Test)
The energy study during drying of the mango and pineapple pulp and slices was conducted by use of the
fabricated RWD hybrid machine, which had an effective drying area 1.7 m long and 1.08 m wide. The effective
surface area was 1.836 square meters. The belt was fixed on movable trays which are held stationary on the
RWD hybrid drying bed where the hot was beneath the mylar and in non circulation mode. A thin layers of 3
mm and 4 mm mango and pineapple slices were applied on the Mylar belt. The analysis was done in three
drying experimental replicates to evaluate the energy consumption of the newly fabricated RWD hybrid. The
effective heating area was 1.836 square meters. The hot water basin/flume was 0.1 m deep.

2.3 Estimating Heat Quantities in RWD Hybrid

In order to accurately measure the energy consumption of the newly fabricated RWD hybrid, an energy meter
was used to monitor the energy consumption during the drying of food products. Energy consumption of the
dryer was measured with food product on the Mylar belt. Energy and time taken to raise water temperature
from 25℃ to preset temperatures, that is to say 65, 75, 85 and 95 ℃ were recorded and dryer efficiency was
calculated.

2.4 Sensible Heating of mango slices from 25℃ to End Point Product Temperature.

The energy Q sp supplied for sensible heating of mango slices was calculated from Equation 1.

Q sp =m p × c p × ∆ T (1)

Where, m p is the mass of mango slice processed per hour (kg/h), c p is the mean specific heat of mango slice
and ∆ T is the mean increase of mango slice temperature. Bon et al., (2010) found that the specific heat of
mango slices at a temperature between 20 to 80 ℃ with moisture content between 50 to 90% was 4.093
kJ/kg℃ .

2.5 Measurement of Thermal Efficiency

The temperature of hot water at the flume or hot water basin was regulated at the preset temperatures and
was monitored periodically using a portable infrared thermometer gun with its field of view targeted on a
marked stainless-steel body of the trough. The sensible heat given up by the hot water in the trough ¿ ¿) was
determined from Equation 2.

Q¿−w =Mass flow rate ( kg /h ) × sp . heat ¿ (2)

The rate of heat transfer through Mylar belt was obtained from Equation 3.

Q ∆T
=−kA (3)
t ∆X
 Q
Where , is the rate of heat transfer (J/s of W), k the thermal conductivity of mylar belt which is given as
t
0.15W/mK and ∆ T is the change in temperature and ∆ X is the Mylar thickness which is 0.5 mm.

3.0 Results and discussion

3.2 Power Consumption and Thermal Efficiency of RWD hybrid

3.2.1 RWD Energy Consumption Studies of RWD hybrid

It can be seen from Figure 3.1 that the machine consumed more power with increase in the preset temperate.
Differences in energy consumption of 0.17, 0.21, 0.29, and 0.55 kWh was observed while heating water from
25 ℃ to the set temperatures of 65, 75, 85, and 95 ℃ respectively. It was also observed from Figure 3.2 that
the power consumption reduced with increase in the drying time of food products as this meant that when
products lost more moisture content, they required less heat to evaporate the moisture that remained

4.5

3.5

2.5
kWh

1.5

0.5

0
65 ℃ 75℃ 85℃ 95℃
Drying temperature

Figure 3.1: Typical bar graph for RWD hybrid energy consumption with drying temperature
 Figure 3.2: Typical profile for RWD hybrid energy consumption with and drying time

The total energy consumed to achieve a final moisture of 12.4% was 11.16 kWh while heating at 95℃. Drying
at 95℃ was considered as the most cost-effective as compared to other temperatures as it took less drying
time as compared to other preset temperatures (65, 75 and 85 ℃). The evaporation of water from the
product at the air–pulp interface constituted a major part of energy consumption in RWD hybrid. The dryer
capacity data vary in a wide range because many factors influence the accuracy of energy audits (Barr &
Baker, 1997). In the case of the RW system, the product thickness and drying temperature are very critical to
the drying process. Based on the latent heat of vaporization of water of about 2300 kJ/kg, the thermal
efficiency of RW drying is comparable to drum drying. Heated air-drying systems usually have lower
efficiencies by comparison (Strumillo et.al, 1995).

3.2.2 RWD Hybrid Thermal Efficiency

Table 1 is some of the physical properties of products before and after drying. Insulation of the water trough
may be necessary for improving the overall efficiency. For the RWD hybrid system studied, it’s capacity of the
hot water system was enough for the load requirement for drying,
i
Thickness of pulp on the belt was 4mm.

Table 1. Some physical properties mango and pineapple pulp (With no cmc) before and after drying

Material Moisture content, wb (%) Moisture Drying time

removed (g) (Minutes)

m 1c i m 2c f mw
Mango pulp 86 7.7 4321 60
Pineapple pulp 89.2 2.2 4523 60
1 2
initial moisture content on a wet basis, final moisture
content on a wet basis, * values in the table are an average of three replicates.

Table 2. Water heater energy data & energy measurement of RWD pilot-scale study

Product Run/dry Water Duty Product kW Single Line Total Thermal energy
 dried time heater on- cycle, Thicknes consumed Phase Current, power, kW used, kW
(min) time (min) % s (mm) to dry Voltage, amperes
product volts
Mango 60 21 38.46 4 4.41 240 42 34.92 (38.46% *
pulp 34.92) = 13.33
Pineapp 60 16.85 46.67 4 4.53 240 42 34.92 (46.67% *
le pulp 34.92) = 14.71
Table 3 and 4 summarize the evaporation rate and the evaporation energy of RWD

Table 3. Evaporation Rate (Q) for Mango and Pineapple pulp

Material Evaporation Rate, Q
Mango pulp 4321 g/ (60*60*1000) = 0.0012 kg/s
Pineapple pulp 4523 g/ (60*60*1000) = 0.001256 kg/s
1
Q = moisture removed /time.

Table 4. Energy for Evaporation (Eev) for different materials.

Material Energy for Evaporation (E1ev)
Mango pulp 0.0012 kg/s * 2257 kJ/kg = 2.709 kW
Pineapple pulp 0.001256 kg/s * 2257 kJ/kg = 2.835 kW
1
Eev = Q * hfg ; hfg = latent heat of evaporation

3.3 RWD Thermal Efficiency

The RWD hybrid drying system is comparatively more efficient while drying mango pulp as compared to
drying pineapple as shown in Table 5.

Table 5. Thermal energy efficiency for mango and pineapple pulp

Material Thermal energy efficiency (%)

OEF1 = Eev/Total Energy input

Mango pulp = (2.709/11.16) *100 = 61.4

Pineapple pulp = (2.835/12.01) *100 = 62.6

1
OEEF equals energy efficiency

Results from the analysis indicated that RWD hybrid total thermal efficiency of 61.4 % for mango pulp and
62.6 % for pineapple pulp. The RWD thermal efficiency obtained in the study was far above to that obtained
by Nindo et al., (2003), pilot-scale study. His pilot-scale study had a thermal efficiency of 28 – 48%. The major
difference between this study and that of Nindo et al., (2003) is that in the current study, the mylar belt was
kept stationary, there was no water circulation and water heating was direct. (No external heating)., whereas
in his study, the mylar was continuously moving and the hot was in constant circulation. In Table 6, the
thermal energy efficiency of the fabricated RWD hybrid prototype is compared to those of some conventional
dryers. Energy efficiencies obtained for the tested products are comparable and are higher than hot air-
drying methods reported in the literature.
 Table 6: Comparison of energy consumption of RW with other selected dryers

Type of Dryer Typical capacity Typical product Thermal Efficiency

(kg/h) per m2 temperature (℃) (%)

Rotary dryer 30-80 m 3 About 175 50 - 25

Spray dryer 1-30 m 3 80 -120 51 - 20

Drum dryer (For pastes) 6 -20 m 2 120 - 130 78 - 35

Fabricated RWD hybrid 0.5 - 1 65 61.4 – 62.6

4.0 Conclusions
Studies conducted on the RWD hybrid, demonstrated that with water not circulating and with mylar
stationary (Trays) and heating at a preset water temperature of 95℃ and pulp thickness along the belt of 4
mm, complete drying of mango and pineapple pulp was achieved in approximately one hour. The results
obtained demonstrate that the RWD hybrid is energy efficient. The RWD hybid system designed is
comparatively efficient with very comparable efficiency rates of 61.4% - 62.6 % for drying mango and
pineapple pulp respectively with a static conveyor belt (Tray), directing heating and with no water
circulation.

References

Barr, D. J., & Baker, C. G. J. (1997). Specialized drying systems (Vol. 196). Chapman & Hall: New York.
Bon, J., Vaquiro, H., Benedito, J., & Telis-Romero, J. (2010). Thermophysical properties of mango
pulp (Mangifera indica L. cv. Tommy Atkins). Journal of Food Engineering, 97(4), 563–568.
Nindo, C. I., Feng, H., Shen, G. Q., Tang, J., & Kang, D. H. (2003). Energy utilization and microbial
reduction in a new film drying system. Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, 27(2), 117–
136.
Strumillo, C., Jones, P. L., & Zylla, R. (1995). Energy aspects in drying. Handbook of Industrial Drying,
2, 1241–1275.
Trivedia, M., D’costaa, V., Shituta, J., & Srivastava, S. (n.d.). Refractance Window Technology–A
Promising Drying Technique for the Food Industry.
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