Thin-layer modelling of black tea drying process

P.C. Panchariya
a
, D. Popovic
b,
*
, A.L. Sharma
c
a
Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute, Pilani 333031, India
b
Institute of Automation Techniques, University of Bremen, D-28359, Bremen, Germany
c
Institute of Instrumentation, D.A. University, Khandwa Road, Indore 452017, India
Received 16 March 2001; accepted 25 June 2001
Abstract
An experimental dryer was developed for determining the kinetics of black tea drying. Drying characteristics of tea were ex-
amined using heated ambient air for the temperature range 80120C and air ow velocity range 0.250.65 m/s. The data of sample
weight, dry- and wet-bulb temperatures and air velocity of the drying air were recorded continuously during each test. The drying
data were then tted to the dierent semi-theoretical models such as Lewis, Page, modied Page, two-term and Henderson and Pabis
models, based on the ratios of the dierence between the initial and nal moisture contents and the equilibrium moisture content.
The Lewis model gave better predictions than other models, and satisfactorily described the thin-layer drying characteristics of black
tea particles. The eective diusivity varied from 1:14 10
11
to 2:98 10
11
m
2
/s over the temperature range. The temperature
dependence of the diusivity coecient was described by the Arrhenius-type relationship. The activation energy for moisture dif-
fusion was found to be 406.02 kJ/mol. Temperature and air velocity dependence on drying constant was described by the Arrhenius-
type and Power-type relationships. The coecients of determination were above 0.996 for both relationships. The Arrhenius-type
model was used to predict the acceptable moisture ratios at the experimental drying conditions and to understand better the in-
uence of drying variables on drying rate constant. The results illustrate that in spite of high initial moisture content, the drying of
tea particles takes place only in the falling rate period. This single-layer drying equation can be used for the simulation of deep-bed
drying of black tea. 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Thin-layer; Dhool; Moisture ratio; Non-linear regression; Predictions
1. Introduction
India is the largest producer of black cutting, tearing,
and curling (CTC) tea with a distinct characteristic,
taste, and avour. The tea leaves, after being plucked
from the tea bush, go through various processing stages,
such as withering, CTC, fermentation, drying, and -
nally packing. The drying operation in the tea industry
does not merely remove the moisture content because
there are many quality factors which can be adversely
aected by incorrect selection of drying conditions and
drying equipments. The consumer acceptability, ap-
pearance and organoleptic properties are the desirable
properties of high-quality tea.
To design and control a tea dryer and to dene op-
timum drying conditions, it is necessary to model the
actual process of drying in terms of mathematical rela-
tions. In the actual operation, black tea is dried in var-
ious types of deep-bed dryers. Due to its complexity, it is
dicult to investigate the drying characteristics of an
actual industrial drying bed directly. In our case the
actual deep-bed drying is analysed using process state
values such as drying air temperature, moisture content,
etc. that are calculated from heat and mass balance of
the drying process represented as a thin-layer drying
model. Although in the past many theoretical and
empirical models were developed for various foods and
agro-based products (Basunia & Abe, 2001; Can, 2000;
Kiranoudis, Maroulis, Tasami, & Marinos-Kouris,
1997), none of the works reported on Darjeeling black
tea.
Thus, the objective of this study was the development
of a suitable experimental thin-layer drying apparatus,
to nd out suitable model and to investigate the eect of
temperature and air velocity on the model coecients
which can describe the drying characteristics of black tea
particles.
Journal of Food Engineering 52 (2002) 349357
www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng
*
Corresponding author. Tel.:+49-421-218-3580; fax: +49-421-218-
4707.
E-mail address: popovic@iat.uni-bremen.de (D. Popovic).
0260-8774/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0260- 8774( 01) 00126- 1
2. Mathematical modelling
It has been accepted that drying phenomenon of
biological products during the falling rate period is
controlled by the mechanism of liquid and/or vapour
diusion. Thin-layer drying models that describe the
drying phenomenon of these materials mainly fall into
three categories namely, theoretical, semi-theoretical and
empirical. The rst takes into account only internal re-
sistance to moisture transfer while the other two consider
only external resistance to moisture transfer resistance
between product and air (Fortes & Okos, 1981; Hen-
derson, 1974; Whitaker, Barre, & Hamdy, 1969).
Assuming that the resistance to moisture ow is
uniformly distributed throughout the interior of the
homogeneous isotropic material, the diusion coe-
cient, D is independent of the local moisture content and
if the volume shrinkage is negligible, Ficks second law
can be derived as follows:
oM
ot
Dr
2
M: 1
Crank (1975) gave the analytical solutions of Eq. (1) for
various regularly shaped bodies such as rectangular,
cylindrical and spherical. Drying of many food products
such as rice (Ece & Cihan, 1993), hazelnut (Demirtas,
Ayhan, & Kaygusuz, 1998) and rapeseed (Crisp &
Woods, 1994) has been successfully predicted using
Ficks second law with Arrhenius-type temperature-
dependent diusivity.
The semi-theoretical models are generally derived by
simplifying general series solutions of Ficks second law
or modication of simplied models and valid within the
temperature, relative humidity, air ow velocity and
moisture content range for which they were developed
(Fortes & Okos, 1981). These models required small
time compared to theoretical thin-layer models and do
not need assumptions of geometry of a typical food, its
mass diusivity and conductivity (Parry, 1985). Among
semi-theoretical thin-layer drying models, the two-term
model (Eq. (2)), the Henderson and Pabis model (Eq.
(3)), the Lewis model (Eq. (5)), the Page model (Eq. (6))
and the modied Page model (Eq. (7)) are used widely.
Sharaf-Eldeen, Blaisdell, and Hamdy (1980) pre-
sented a two-term model to predict the drying rate of
shelled corn fully exposed to air. This model is the
rst two terms of general series solution to the analyti-
cal solution of Eq. (1). However, it requires constant
product temperature and assumes constant diusivity.
The two-term exponential model has the form
MR
M M
e
M
0
M
e
A
0
expk
0
t A
1
expk
1
t; 2
where M, M
0
and M
e
are the material, initial, and
equilibrium moisture contents in dry basis, respectively,
and A
0
; k
0
; A
1
; k
1
are the empirical coecients.
The Henderson and Pabis model is the rst term of a
general series solution of Ficks second law (Henderson
& Pabis, 1969)
MR
M M
e
M
0
M
e
A
0
expk
0
t: 3
This model was used successfully to model drying of
corn (Henderson & Pabis, 1969), wheat (Watson &
Bhargava, 1974) and peanut (Moss & Otten, 1989). The
slope of this model, coecient k
0
; is related to eective
diusivity when drying process takes place only in the
falling rate period and liquid diusion controls the
process (Madamba, Driscoll, & Buckle, 1996).
The Lewis model (Lewis, 1921) is a special case of the
Henderson and Pabis model where intercept is unity. He
described that the moisture transfer from the food
products and agricultural material can be seen as anal-
ogous to the ow of heat from a body immersed in cool
uid. By comparing this phenomenon with Newtons
law of cooling, the drying rate is proportional to the
dierence in moisture content between the material be-
ing dried and the equilibrium moisture content at the
drying air condition as:
dM
dt
k
0
M M
e
4
Notation
a; b drying constant
A; A
0
; A
1
drying constant
c; c
0
; c
1
drying constant
D
eff
eective diusivity (m/s)
D
0
diusivity coecient
E
a
activation energy (kJ/mol)
k; k
0
; k
1
drying constant
M moisture content
MR moisture ratio
R
2
correlation coecient
R universal gas constant
t time (s)
T temperature
Subscripts
i ith observation
0 initial
e equilibrium
350 P.C. Panchariya et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 52 (2002) 349357
or after integrating yields
MR
M M
e
M
0
M
e
expk
0
t: 5
Bruce (1985) also used this model to study the drying
behaviour of barley.
The Page model is a modication of the Lewis model
to overcome its shortcomings. This model has produced
good ts in predicting drying of grain and rough rice
(Wang & Singh, 1978), white bean (Hutchinson & Ot-
ten, 1983), shelled corn (Agrawal & Singh, 1977) and
barley (Bruce, 1985)
MR
M M
e
M
0
M
e
expk
0
t
n
: 6
Overhults, White, Hamilton, and Ross (1973) also
modied the Page model to describe the drying of soy-
bean
MR
M M
e
M
0
M
e
expk
0
t
n
: 7
The empirical models derive a direct relationship be-
tween average moisture content and drying time. They
neglect the fundamentals of the drying process and
their parameters have no physical meaning. Therefore,
they cannot give a clear accurate view of the important
processes occurring during drying although they may
describe the drying curve for the conditions of the ex-
periment (Keey, 1972). Among them the Thompson
model (Eq. (8)) was used to describe the shelled corn
drying (Thompson, Peart, & Foster, 1968) and the Wang
and Singh model (Eq. (9)) was applied to study the in-
termittent drying of rough rice (Wang & Singh, 1978)
t a lnMR blnMR
2
; 8
and
MR 1 at bt
2
: 9
The inuence strength of the experimental drying vari-
ables is determined by the values of the model parameters,
A
0
from the initial conditions and k
0
in the form of Ar-
rhenius- and Power-type equations in the following way:
In the Arrhenius type
k
0
a
0
V
a
1
exp
a
2
T

; 10
In the Power type
k
0
b
0
T
b
1
V
b
2
: 11
Here T is the absolute temperature of the air (K), V is the
air velocity (m/s), a
0
; a
1
; a
2
; b
0
; b
1
and b
2
are constants.
3. Materials and methods
3.1. Experiment design
Fresh macerated tea, which grows in the Darjeeling
Hills of India, was collected after the fermentation
process. The macerated tea, after fermentation called
Dhool, was well mixed and stored in a refrigerator in a
sealed container for experiments.
For drying experiments, a batch-type experimental
dryer was designed and fabricated. A schematic diagram
of a laboratory dryer is illustrated in Fig. 1. The dryer
consists of three basic sections: air ow control section,
heating control section, and sample platform. The con-
trol air ow was circulated in the dryer by a centrifugal
fan, driven by a 1.5 kW, three-phase electric motor. The
air ow rate was varied by adjusting a frequency mod-
ulator that controlled the rotational speed of the fan
motor, and hence the fan speed. The air was heated
while owing through electric heating elements which
were connected to a model TI series 305 controller from
Texas instruments, USA. The controller was interfaced
to a PC, which used a proportional-integral control al-
gorithm to adjust the drying air temperature to a given
set point.
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of experimental laboratory dryer setup.
P.C. Panchariya et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 52 (2002) 349357 351
The drying compartment of the test chamber had a
swinging door, so that the cylindrical sample tray could
be taken out or inserted back into the chamber. The
sample tray, made entirely of stainless steel, had a per-
forated plate bottom. Concentric air distribution baes
xed inside both transitions to the chamber provided
uniform air ow. The air ducting and the test chamber
were insulated to minimise heat losses from the system.
Air conditions throughout each drying experiment
were monitored on-line. The thermocouples and relative
humidity probes were connected to a data logger, con-
verting the analogue signals to digital outputs. The dig-
ital outputs were read by a personal computer through
the data acquisition program.
3.2. Experimental procedure
Experiments were performed to determine the eect
of process variables on the thin-layer drying character-
istics of black tea. The variables considered were the
drying air temperature, absolute humidity, and air ve-
locity. The change in absolute humidity was very low
and later on it was neglected. By considering the actual
drying range, a series of experiments were designed to
cover as broad a spread of conditions as possible. Five
temperature points were selected in the range 80120C
by 10C step. The experiments were conducted at dif-
ferent air velocities in the range 0.250.65 m/s by step of
0.20 m/s with constant air temperature at each. For es-
timation of the experimental error, 45 drying runs were
performed in a systematic manner, serving as three
replicates.
Prior to placing the sample in the drying chamber, the
system was run for at least one hour to obtain steady
conditions. Once the temperature had stabilised and the
air velocity was at the set value, the sample was placed
on the sample holder and on-line data logging system
was started. The ow of the heated air through the
samples was set in the upward direction. Water loss
from the samples was determined o-line. This was done
by weighing the sample tray outside the chamber peri-
odically using an electronic balance placed next to the
test chamber. The accuracy of the weighing system was
0.001 g. The weighing procedure took not more than 15
s after removing the sample tray out from the chamber
and this method is suciently accurate for generating
reproducible drying curves. In the initial stages of each
drying run, weights were recorded every minute, then
every 2 min till the end point. The average moisture
content of the samples for each weighing period was
calculated based on the net mass of the samples (100 g)
and the initial moisture content was determined before
each experiment. The initial and nal moisture contents
were determined by a Sartorious moisture meter by
drying the sample at 100C. During the experiments, the
dry- and wet-bulb temperatures of the air entering the
plenum chamber were measured on-line using thermo-
couples. The air velocity was measured by a hot wire
anemometer with a reading accuracy of 0:05 m=s, the
measurement location being 50 cm above the plenum of
the test chamber.
3.2.1. Equilibrium moisture content
The equilibrium moisture content of the black tea at
dierent drying conditions used in the drying experi-
ments was calculated using the following GAB equation
form:
M
e

a
w
M
m
ck
1 ka
w
1 cka
w
ka
w

; 12
c c
0
exp
c
1
RT
ab

; 13
k k
0
exp
k
1
RT
ab

; 14
where M
e
is the equilibrium moisture content (%
dry basis), a
w
is the water activity, and T
ab
is the absolute
temperature (K) and R is the universal gas constant
8:32 kJ mol
1
K
1
. The values of the constants c
0
,
k
0
; c
1
and k
1
are 0.02521, 0.99328, 14644.71 and 147.031,
respectively (Panchariya, Popovic, & Sharma, 2001).
3.3. Data analysis procedure
The collected data by on-line measurement as well as
o-line were analysed using non-linear regression tech-
niques. There are several criteria to evaluate the tting
of a model to experimental data. According to Noom-
horm and Verma (1986) a model is good when the
correlation coecient (R
2
) is high and mean square error
(MSE) is low. Other authors like Andriu, Stamatopo-
lous, and Zaropolous (1985); Chen and Morey (1989)
and Palipane and Driscoll (1994), besides, use the mean
relative deviation modulus P. In this study, the non-
linear regression method was based on the Levenberg
Marquardt (LM) algorithm (Marquardt, 1963) and is
the most widely used algorithm in non-linear least
squares tting. The LM algorithm, starting from some
initial parameter values, minimises v
2
by performing a
series of iterations on the parameter values and com-
puting v
2
at each stage. In order to do this, rst partial
derivatives were calculated for all values of the input
variables.
The empirical coecients can be estimated by tting
the total model employed to the experimental drying
curves. The goodness of t of the tested models to the
experimental data are the coecients of determination
(COD, R
2
), the reduced v
2
and the MSE between the
experimental and calculated values for the tested mod-
els. The v
2
can be described in equation form as
352 P.C. Panchariya et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 52 (2002) 349357
v
2

1
N n
X
N
i1
MR
exp
i

MR
cal
i

2
; 15
where MR
exp
i
is the experimental moisture ratio at ob-
servation i; MR
cal
i
is the calculated moisture ratio at this
observation, N is the number of observations, and n is
the number of constants. The lower the values of v
2
,
higher the value of coecients of determination (R
2
) and
lower the mean square of the MSE, which were chosen
as the criteria for goodness of t.
4. Results and discussion
As the tea samples (Dhool) were collected at dierent
times from the tea garden, it is obvious that the initial
moisture content of all the runs was not the same. In
order to normalise the drying curves, the data involving
percentage dry basis moisture content versus time were
transformed to dimensionless parameter called as mois-
ture ratio versus time. Fig. 2 shows the typical charac-
teristic drying curve (moisture ratio versus time) of black
tea particles during thin-layer drying operation at dif-
ferent temperatures.
The drying data were then tted to the dierent semi-
theoretical models such as Lewis, Page, modied Page,
two-term and Henderson and Pabis models, based on
the ratios of the dierence between the initial and nal
moisture contents and the equilibrium moisture content.
The models were evaluated based on MSE, correlation
coecient (R
2
), and the v
2
. The details of the statistical
analysis are presented in Table 1.
The Henderson and Pabis, the two-term, the Page
and the modied Page models obtained a coecient of
determination (R
2
) greater than the acceptable R
2
value
of 0.93 at all drying air temperatures (Madamba et al.,
Fig. 2. Variation of moisture ratio with time at dierent temperatures
and 0.45 m/s air velocity.
Table 1
Statistical results obtained from dierent thin-layer drying models
Model T (C) R
2
MSE v
2
10
4

The Henderson and Pabis model 80 0.943 0.0048 1.2423

90 0.944 0.0030 1.2078
100 0.947 0.0026 0.9778
110 0.939 0.0039 1.4722
120 0.931 0.0184 8.3845
The Page model 80 0.938 0.0348 9.2404
90 0.944 0.0030 1.2066
100 0.947 0.0026 0.9826
110 0.939 0.0038 3.4141
120 0.929 0.0159 7.2558
The modied Page model 80 0.932 0.0047 1.2403
90 0.934 0.0031 1.2065
100 0.936 0.0024 1.9821
110 0.938 0.0038 1.4131
120 0.921 0.0159 7.2530
The two-term model 80 0.946 0.0038 2.3094
90 0.947 0.0030 1.3046
100 0.950 0.0025 1.0042
110 0.944 0.0035 1.4371
120 0.937 0.0182 9.1006
The Lewis model 80 0.941 0.0048 1.2143
90 0.944 0.0030 1.1630
100 0.947 0.0026 0.9479
110 0.949 0.0014 0.1499
120 0.948 0.0026 1.0011
P.C. Panchariya et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 52 (2002) 349357 353
1996). The MSE and v
2
values were below 0.018 and
9:0 10
4
, respectively, for all drying air temperatures.
Though, the MSE and coecient of determination (R
2
)
values for all the models were quite reasonable but the v
2
values were greater than the values obtained by the Lewis
model. Hence, the Lewis model gave better predictions
than others, and satisfactorily described the thin-layer
drying characteristics of Darjeeling black tea particles.
The experimental results also illustrate the absence of
constant drying period and drying takes place only in
the falling rate period. This indicates that diusion is the
most likely physical mechanism governing moisture
movement in the tea particles. The results were consis-
tent with observations made by Temple and Boxtel
(1999) who reported the absence of the constant rate
period during drying of black tea (African variety).
Thus, the drying kinetic data for each experimental run
were interpreted using a Lewis model as discussed in the
previous subsection.
The variation of moisture ratio with time for each run
was used for calculating the drying constant (k
0
) of the
Lewis model using non-linear regression method. The
coecient of determination (R
2
), MSE and v
2
between
the experimental and calculated moisture ratios were
obtained. The coecient of determination (R
2
) was more
than 0.93 in all the cases. Tables 2 and 3 illustrate the
estimated values of the parameters involved with the
Lewis model along with their corresponding coecient
of determination (R
2
) and mean square of deviations
(MSE) with v
2
between the experimental and calculated
moisture ratios for each drying run. The results show the
reasonability of the estimated data and experimental
data. Figs. 36 show the details of the drying runs.
4.1. Eect of drying variables
Based on the above results, the Arrhenius model was
employed to examine the eect of other sample param-
eters like air temperature, absolute humidity, air veloc-
ity, and characteristic dimension on the thin-layer
drying kinetics of black tea particles. The drying curves
Table 2
Results of non-linear regression analysis for empirical constants of the Lewis model
Model T (C) k
0
R
2
MSE v
2
10
4

The Lewis model 80 0.0017 0.941 0.0048 1.2143

90 0.0024 0.944 0.0030 1.1630
100 0.0030 0.947 0.0026 0.9479
110 0.0036 0.949 0.0014 0.1499
120 0.0046 0.948 0.0026 1.0011
Table 3
Results of non-linear regression analysis for empirical constants of the Arrhenius and Power equations
Equation Parameters R
2
MSE v
2
10
4

a
0
a
1
a
2
Arrhenius 0.12563 1.15202 209.12341 0.99869 0.02318 1.654
b
0
b
1
b
2
Power 0.64801 10
7
2.14815 1.14635 0.9975 0.03154 1.734
Fig. 3. Variation of moisture ratio with time at dierent air velocities.
Fig. 4. Variation of drying constant k with temperature at dierent
air velocities.
354 P.C. Panchariya et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 52 (2002) 349357
(moisture ratio versus drying time) for a range of values
of a given variable by keeping the other variable con-
stant were drawn and compared.
Due to wetness of the Dhool, it is not possible to
precisely separate the particles of dierent characteristic
dimensions so this parameter was not included into
the experimental study. For the range of experimental
study, the absolute humidity had a smaller value and it
had a negligible eect on the drying curve in comparison
with other parameters.
The inuence of temperature on the thin-layer drying
curve is shown in Fig. 2. The increase in temperature
means the increase in drying rate and the gure shows as
expected. Fig. 3 shows the eect of air velocity on the
drying curve at constant temperature of 100C. This can
be interpreted as at a constant temperature, increasing
air velocity increases drying rate. Hence, the air ve-
locity has a signicant inuence on drying curves such as
temperature. Fig. 4 illustrates the variation of drying
constant (k
0
) with dierent temperatures and at dierent
air velocities.
From the above analyses, the external parameters
(temperature and air velocity) have a great inuence on
drying rate and total drying takes place in the falling
rate period only. The main cause behind this can be
interpreted as the Dhool is nothing but the ruptured and
cut portion of tea leaf, so the drying takes place not only
by the epidermis of leaf but also from the cut portion of
leaf as reported by Samejima and Yano (1985) in the
case of shredded tobacco leaves.
4.2. Calculation of eective diusivity and activation
energy
As described in previous subsections that the drying
of black tea occurs in the falling rate period only and
liquid diusion controls the process. Ficks second law
can be used to describe the drying of black tea particles.
General series solution of Ficks second law in spherical
coordinates is given below (Eq. (16)) in which constant
diusivity and spherical tea particle with a diameter of
0.0005 m were assumed
M M
e
M
0
M
e

6
p
2
X
1
n1
1
n
2
exp

n
2
D
eff
p
2
R
2
t

; 16
where D is the eective diusivity (m
2
/s) and R is the
radius of the tea particles (m). The rst term of Eq. (16)
is also known as the Henderson and Pabis model. The
slope, coecient, k, of this model is related to the ef-
fective diusivity
k
D
eff
p
2
R
2
: 17
The eective diusivity was calculated by Eq. (17), using
slopes derived from the linear regression of lnMR
against time data shown in Fig. 5. Generally, an eective
diusivity is used due to limited information on the
mechanism of moisture movement during drying and
complexity of the process. The eective diusivities
(D
eff
) during drying of tea particles varied from 1:141
10
11
to 2:985 10
11
(m/s) in the temperature range
from 80C to 120C.
Rizvi (1986) stated that eective diusivities depend
on the drying air temperature besides variety and com-
position of the material. The heat of sorption which is a
measure of moisture mobility within the food is another
factor that aects eective diusivity (Madamba et al.,
1996). Eect of temperature on eective diusivity is
generally described using Arrhenius-type relationship to
obtain better agreement of the predicted curve with ex-
perimental data (Crisp & Woods, 1994; Henderson,
1974; Madamba et al., 1996). Crisp and Woods (1994)
Fig. 5. Experimental and predicted logarithmic moisture ratio at dif-
ferent drying times.
Fig. 6. Arrhenius-type relationship between eective diusivity and
temperature.
P.C. Panchariya et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 52 (2002) 349357 355
reasoned that temperature is not a function of radial
position in the grain under normally experienced drying
conditions, and diusivity varies more with temperature
than moisture content
D
eff
D
0
exp

E
a
RT
a

; 18
where D
0
is a diusivity constant equivalent to the dif-
fusivity at innitely high temperature and E
a
is the ac-
tivation energy (kJ/kg). The logarithm of D
eff
as a
function of the reciprocal of absolute temperature (T
a
) is
plotted in Fig. 6. The results show a linear relationship
between (log D
eff
) and 1=T
a
or an Arrhenius-type re-
lationship (Eq. (18)). The diusivity constant (D
0
) and
activation energy (E
a
) calculated from the linear re-
gression are 1:68 10
7
m
2
=s and 406.028 (kJ/mol),
respectively. It is higher than the activation energy of
vegetable waste drying (19.8 kJ/mol) (Lopez, Iguaz,
Esnoz, & Virseda, 2000) and lower than the activa-
tion energies of onion drying (1200 kJ/kg) (Mazza &
Le Maguer, 1980) and paprika drying (2036 kJ/kg)
(Carbonell, Pinaga, Yusa, & Pena, 1986).
5. Conclusions
An experimental dryer system was designed and
constructed, and operated well when used to establish
thin-layer drying curves on black tea under a wide range
of drying conditions similar to those in actual industrial
black tea drying operations. The Lewis model adequately
described the single-layer drying behaviour of black
tea particles. Temperature dependence of the diusivity
coecients was described by an Arrhenius-type rela-
tionship. The activation energy for moisture diusion
was found to be 406.02 kJ/mol. The drying rate constant
was correlated well with the experimental drying vari-
ables like hot air velocity and hot air temperature using
the non-linear polynomial regression model. The drying
rate constant was greatly inuenced by the air velocity
and the air temperature. Further research about the ef-
fect of initial moisture content, air relative humidity and
layer thickness on drying characteristics is necessary for
the optimisation of black tea drying process.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge DAAD, Bonn,
Germany for their nancial support to carry out this
study.
References
Andriu, J., Stamatopolous, A., & Zaropolous, M. (1985). Equation
for tting desorption isotherms for durm wheat pasta. Journal of
Food Technology, 20(5), 651658.
Agrawal, Y. C., & Singh, R. P. (1977). Thin layer studies on short
grain rough rice. Transactions of ASAE, 77, 3531.
Basunia, M. A., & Abe, T. (2001). Thin layer solar drying character-
istics of rough rice under natural convection. Journal of Food
Engineering, 47, 295301.
Bruce, D. M. (1985). Exposed-layer barley drying, three models tted
to new data up to 150C. Journal of Agriculture Engineering
Research, 32, 337347.
Can, A. (2000). Drying kinetic of pumpkinseeds. International Journal
of Energy Research, 24, 965975.
Carbonell, J. V., Pinaga, F., Yusa, V., & Pena, J. L. (1986).
Dehydration of paprika and kinetics of colour degradation. Journal
of Food Engineering, 5, 179193.
Chen, C., & Morey, R. V. (1989). Comparison of four ERH/EMC
equation. Transactions of ASAE, 32(3), 983990.
Crank, J. (1975). The mathematics of diusion. Oxford, England:
Claredon Press.
Crisp, J., & Woods, J. L. (1994). The drying properties of rapeseed.
Journal of Agriculture Engineering Research, 57, 8997.
Demirtas, C., Ayhan, T., & Kaygusuz, K. (1998). Drying behavior of
hazelnuts. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 76, 559
564.
Ece, M. C., & Cihan, A. (1993). A liquid diusion model for drying
rough rice. Transactions of ASAE, 15, 156159.
Fortes, M., & Okos, M. R. (1981). Non-equilibrium thermodynamics
approach to heat and mass transfer in corn kernels. Transactions of
ASAE, 22, 761769.
Henderson, S. M. (1974). Progress in developing the thin layer drying
equation. Transactions of ASAE, 17, 11671172.
Henderson, S. M., & Pabis, S. (1969). Grain drying theory I.
Temperature eect on drying coecient. Journal of Agriculture
Engineering Research, 6(3), 169174.
Hutchinson, D., & Otten, L. (1983). Thin layer air drying of soybeans
and white beans. Journal of Food Technology, 18, 507524.
Keey, R. B. (1972). Drying: principles and practice. New York:
Pregoman Press.
Kiranoudis, C. T., Maroulis, Z. B., Tasami, E., & Marinos-Kouris, D.
(1997). Drying kinetics of some fruits. Drying Technology, An
International journal, 15(5), 13991418.
Lewis, W. K. (1921). The rate of drying of solids materials. Industrial
Engineering Chemistry, 13, 427.
Lopez, A., Iguaz, A., Esnoz, & Virseda, P. (2000). Thin-layer drying
behaviour of vegetable waste from wholesale market. Drying
Technology, An International Journal, 18(4&5), 9951006.
Madamba, P. S., Driscoll, R. H., & Buckle, K. A. (1996). Thin layer
drying characteristics of garlic slices. Journal of Food Engineering,
29, 7597.
Marquardt, D. W. (1963). An algorithm for least square estimation of
non-linear parameters. Journal of the Society for Industrial and
Applied Mathematics, 2, 431441.
Mazza, G., & Le Maguer, M. (1980). Dehydration of onion: some
theoretical and pratical considerations. Journal of Food Technol-
ogy, 15, 181194.
Moss, J. R., & Otten, L. (1989). A relationship between color
development and moisture content during roasting of peanut.
CanadianInstitute of FoodScience andTechnologyJournal, 22, 3439.
Noomhorm, A., & Verma, L. R. (1986). Generalised single layer rice
drying models. Transactions of ASAE, 29(2), 587.
Overhults, D. G., White, G. M., Hamilton, H. E., & Ross, I. J. (1973).
Drying soyabeans with heated air. Transactions of ASAE, 16, 112
113.
Palipane, K. B., & Driscoll, R. H. (1994). The thin layer drying
characteristics of Macadamia in-shell nuts and kernels. Journal of
Food Engineering, 23, 129144.
Panchariya, P. C., Popovic, D., & Sharma, A. L. (2001). Modelling of
desorption isotherm of black tea. Drying Technology, An Interna-
tional Journal, 19(5) (in press).
356 P.C. Panchariya et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 52 (2002) 349357
Parry, J. L. (1985). Mathematical modeling and computer simulation
of heat and mass transfer in agricultural grain drying. Journal of
Agricultural Engineering Research, 32, 129.
Rizvi, S. S. H. (1986). Thermodynamic properties of foods in dehy-
dration. In Engineering Properties of Foods, eds. M. A., Rao, &
Rizvi, S. S. H., Marcel Dekker Inc., N.Y.
Samejima, T., & Yano, T. (1985). Moisture diusion within shredded
tobaccoleaves. Agricultural andBiological Chemistry, 49, 18091812.
Sharaf-Eldeen, Y. I., Blaisdell, J. L., & Hamdy, M. Y. (1980). A model
for ear corn drying. Transactions of ASAE, 23, 12611265.
Temple, S. J., & Boxtel, A. J. B. (1999). Thin layer drying of black tea.
Journal of Agriculture Engineering Research, 74, 167176.
Thompson, T. L., Peart, R. M., & Foster, G. H. (1968). Mathematical
simulation of corn drying a new model. Transactions of ASAE,
11, 582586.
Wang, C. Y., & Singh, R. P. (1978). Use of variable equilibrium
moisture content in modeling rice drying. Transactions of ASAE,
78, 6505.
Watson, E. L., & Bhargava, V. K. (1974). Thin layer studies on wheat.
Canadian Agricultural Engineering, 16, 1822.
Whitaker, T., Barre, H. J., & Hamdy, M. Y. (1969). Theoretical
and experimental studies of diusion in spherical bodies with
a variable diusion coecients. Transactions of ASAE, 11,
668672.
P.C. Panchariya et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 52 (2002) 349357 357