Tempering Drying and Energy Consumption

Abstract

The aim of this work is to optimize the drying process through the reduction of energy consumption and the improvement of the dried product quality using tempering or intermittent drying. The effectiveness of intermittent drying was evaluated by the determination of the sensible, latent, and total energies necessary to perform the drying process. The obtained results show that tempering drying is more effective than continuous drying. This effectiveness was evaluated by the energy consumption. A reduction of energy consumption varying from 13% to 67% was achieved. The drying time, energy consumption, and product quality were improved when using temporary drying. The decrease of the gradient of moisture content in the material during the period of no heating is considered as the main factor that increases the rate of moisture removal when the heating is resumed.