Evaluation of energy consumption in different drying methods

This study was conducted to evaluate energy consumption in various drying systems including hot-air convection, use of microwave pretreatment with convection dryer, microwave drying, vacuum drying and infrared drying. Tests were conducted using pomegranate arils under various experimental conditions as follows. In convection dryer at six temperature levels (45, 50, 55, 60, 65 and 70 degrees C) and three air velocity levels (0.5, 1 and 1.5 m/s) at three pretreatments of control, 100W microwave pretreatment for 20 min and 200W microwave pretreatment for 10 min. Experiments in the microwave dryer were done at three power levels of 100, 200 and 300W and in vacuum dryer at five temperature levels (50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 degrees C) under 250 kPa pressure. For infrared drying, there were four air velocity levels (0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 1 m/s) and three illumination levels (0.22, 0.31 and 0.49 W/cm(2)). Experimental results showed that minimum and maximum energy consumption in pomegranate drying were associated with microwave and vacuum dryers, respectively. The use of microwave pretreatment in drying pomegranate arils in hot air dryer decreased drying time and energy consumption in comparison with pure convection drying. In infrared drying, it was found that drying time increased with air velocity which resulted in increased energy consumption. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.