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An Overview of Recent Developments and Some R&D

Challenges Related to Drying of Foods
a
Sachin V. Jangam
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore
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 Drying Technology, 29: 1343–1357, 2011
Copyright # 2011 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0737-3937 print=1532-2300 online
DOI: 10.1080/07373937.2011.594378
An Overview of Recent Developments and Some R&D
Challenges Related to Drying of Foods
Sachin V. Jangam
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Thermal dehydration is the most common and cost-effective
technique for preservation of foods and for the production of tra-
ditional as well as innovative processed products such as snacks with
desired functionalities. The basic intent of this article is to provide a
global overview of emerging and innovative thermal drying tech-
nologies that are already commercialized or show potential of indus-
Downloaded by [Universite Laval] at 07:25 18 March 2013
trial exploitation upon successful R&D to sort out some limitations.
New drying technologies are needed to enhance quality, reduce
energy consumption, improve safety, and reduce environmental
impact. Mathematical modeling can be used for cost-effective devel-
opment of untested novel designs to reduce the cost and time
required for innovation. As examples of emerging drying technolo-
gies we consider selected dehydration techniques with imminent
commercialization potential. These include heat pump–assisted dry-
ing, microwave-assisted drying, low-pressure superheated steam
drying, pulse combustion spray drying, pulsed and ultrasound-
assisted osmotic dehydration, as well as novel gas–particle contac-
tors such as impinging streams and pulsed fluidized beds. Multistage
drying, intermittent drying, and the use of hybrid drying technolo-
gies—which combine advantages of different dryers without some
of their limitations—will be outlined. This article also discusses
various methods of energy minimization, and the potential for use
of renewable energy will also be discussed briefly. Although this
overview emphasizes food dehydration, the themes covered are
applicable to other materials as well.
Keywords Advances in drying; Energy efficiency; Hybrid
drying techniques; Pretreatment; Renewable energy;
Sustainability
INTRODUCTION
Almost all types of foods in our day-to-day use require
some form of preservation to minimize or, if possible,
completely stop microbial spoilage. It is also necessary to
maintain desired levels of nutritional properties for the
longest possible time and to make value-added products.
The spoilage or deterioration of food products occurs at
different stages; for example, during harvesting, storage,
transport, or processing. The reason for this spoilage can
be attributed to the method of handling and mechanical,
Correspondence: Dr. Sachin V. Jangam, Department of
Mechanical Engineering, Blk-EA, #06-15, 9 Engineering Drive
1, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576; E-mail:
sachinjangam1@gmail.com
1343
physical, chemical, or microbial damage. Among these,
chemical and microbial damage are the most frequent.
Several chemical and enzymatic reactions can occur during
processing and storage of foods. There are various ways of
food preservation employed, which include drying, can-
ning, freezing, salting, vacuum packing, preserving in a
syrup form, food irradiation, etc. However, dehydration
by thermal means is one of the oldest, least expensive,
and most commonly used methods of food preservation.
Some loss of quality occurs during dehydration; the goal
is to minimize it.[1–4]
Numerous food products are routinely preserved using
dehydration, which include grains, marine products, meat
products, as well as fruits and vegetables. Raw food pro-
ducts have a wide range of moisture content, as low as
25–35% in grains to as high as 90% or more in some fruits,
which needs to be reduced to a low enough value to avoid
microbial growth. This limit is generally defined in terms of
water activity. These limits differ for various micro-
organisms in terms of water activity; the reader can find
these values elsewhere.[1] In addition, each food product
may need to be dried in a different way using a suitable
dryer type and by use of appropriate pre- and postproces-
sing to gain a satisfactory value addition to the dried pro-
duct.[1–4] The choice of dryer varies for different reasons as
discussed in the literature[1,2] and will be discussed in short
later under the section ‘‘Conventional Dryers for Foods.’’
The pre- and=or postprocessing steps are very important
to reduce the drying load as well as to make a better quality
product. Commonly used methods for pretreatment are
osmotic dehydration, blanching, salting, and soaking.
Postprocessing techniques such as coating, blending,
packaging, etc., are also important subsequent to drying
of some foods.
A number of articles have been published by Mujumdar
and coworkers[5–10] that have successfully led to a large
number of R&D projects in innovative drying techniques
ranging from impinging and opposing jets to superheated
steam drying, pulse combustion drying, and adsorbent
drying. Few radically new ideas for dehydration have
appeared in recent years. However, it is necessary to carry
 1344 JANGAM
out a significant amount of R&D to evaluate and establish
confidence in new concepts. Readers should read this
overview along with one or more of some earlier references
to get a broader picture. The book by Kudra and
Mujumdar[11] and several chapters in the latest Handbook
of Industrial Drying by Mujumdar[12] are also suggested
as complementary references.
Selecting the right drying method for a food product is a
complex yet important step by itself. Traditionally, food
products were dehydrated using an open sun-drying
method. Even though the method is still commonly practi-
ced for noncommercial purposes, it is necessary to develop
improved techniques of dehydration to make products of
high commercial value. Hygiene is another important issue
in conventional solar drying techniques that also needs
attention. Improvement in drying equipment such as solar
cabinet dryers, tray dryers, fluid bed dryers, vacuum freeze
dryers, etc., has resulted in much better product quality
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compared to traditional dryers.[1,3,4,11–13]
The environmental impact of large-scale drying opera-
tions has become a critical issue in recent years, with a
focus on developing sustainable technologies. Drying sys-
tems consume large amounts of energy—both thermal
and electrical—and hence result in high emission of green-
house gases as a result of fossil fuel consumption. This has
triggered the development of new sustainable technologies
with the use of renewable energies to eliminate harmful
emissions. Ratti[14] and Mujumdar[7] have discussed vari-
ous advances in drying of foods with respect to quality,
rehydration, and energy minimization. This article will
start with a brief review of some of the conventional drying
techniques used for food drying, their advantages and lim-
itations, and the scope for improvements in these existing
dryers. The latter part of this article will focus on recent
advances in pretreatment and drying of food products over
the last decade. This overview will emphasize more recent
developments (i.e., in the past 5 years) that typically extend
the understanding of earlier efforts with incremental
improvements. This section will also discuss some of the
new ideas for possible R&D in drying of foods. It should
be noted that improved energy efficiency also enhances
sustainability and reduces the carbon footprint of drying
processes.[9,12]
PRETREATMENT PROCESSES
Food products generally undergo some pretreatment
before drying to effect some beneficial changes—either
physical or chemical—that help enhance mass transport
and=or product quality. There are several pretreatment
methods employed, which include physical or chemical
methods as well as application of various energy fields to
achieve the expected changes in the dried product. Osmotic
dehydration, a commonly used pretreatment technique for
fruits and vegetables, involves diffusion of water from the
FIG. 1. Various pretreatment processes.
food material to an osmotic solution. The removed water
is further replaced by a solute from the osmotic sol-
ution.[1,3,4] It is a combination of dehydration and impreg-
nation processes resulting in modified functional properties
of food that are favorable for drying and result in better
product quality. In recent years there have been numerous
reports on the enhancement of osmotic dehydration. The
use of microwaves, pulsed electric fields, ultrasound,
blanching, and high hydrostatic pressure has resulted in
enhanced osmotic dehydration rates. There are also other
physical and chemical treatments used to enhance the
drying rate, which include freezing, thawing, pinning,
extrusion, abrasion or drilling holes on the food surface,
steam=hot water blanching, SO2 treatment, and the use
of high electric fields. Figure 1 summarizes the advances
in such pretreatment methods. Each one of these routes
has been used for selected food material depending on
the purpose of the pretreatment.
CONVENTIONAL DRYERS FOR FOODS
Selecting the right drying system is crucial for food
products for many reasons, as discussed previously; heat
sensitivity is one of them. A poor choice of drying system
and=or drying conditions can have an adverse effect on
physical and nutritional properties of the dried product.
The selection of a dryer for a particular food product
depends mainly on the type of feed, amount and type of
moisture, drying kinetics, heat sensitivity, physical struc-
ture of the material to be dried, quality requirements of a
dried food, and many other factors.[1,13] Dryers are
commonly classified based on the mode of heat transfer
(e.g., conduction, convection, or radiation) and mode of
operation (batch vs. continuous).
Figure 2 lists various conventional drying methods used
for food applications. This is a very basic categorization of
dryers based on the physical nature of the wet material to
be dried. For liquid feed, spray drying is still the most
common drying method, although rotary drum dryers are
also popular. Drying of liquids by spraying on beds of inert
 DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES IN DRYING OF FOODS
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FIG. 2. Conventional dryers for foods.
particles using some variant of the fluidized bed has
recently been used due to various advantages it offers.
Spray drying is a very expensive technique to use for low-
value products, mainly because of its low energy efficiency.
Therefore, a method such as inert bed drying has been
proposed and recently lot of work has been devoted to this
technique.[15–18] However, the spray-drying technique does
offer the capability to produce highly functional products
through encapsulation processes and controlling the par-
ticle size without milling or attrition, which might damage
the product.
For drying of particulates, there are a number of dryers
available and the choice depends on the size, size distri-
bution, and shape of the wet feed material; the feed
moisture; drying kinetics; etc. Commonly used dryers for
particulate materials are listed in Fig. 2. Variants of the
fluidized bed dryer are preferred over other drying systems
for particulate drying because fluidized beds provide very
high heat and mass transport between gas and particles
and have better thermal efficiency than, say, rotary dryers.
However, a few constraints need to be addressed, such as
the physical nature of the feed (particle size and particle
size distribution), which has resulted in several innovations
in fluidized bed dryers for better gas–particle contact,
including mechanical agitation, vibrations, pulsating effect,
and more.[12]
For sheet forms or extruded food products, drying can
be achieved on a belt conveyor or in a batch process by
use of either conductive or radiative heat transfer along
with convection and vacuum. However, pasty materials
are conventionally dried using indirect rotary, paddle, or
1345
drum dryers and, recently, using beds of inert particles with
some variant of the fluidized bed dryer as discussed pre-
viously for liquid suspensions. The more expensive techni-
ques such as freeze drying are employed mainly to produce
high-quality dried products that are ultra-heat-sensitive.
However, the cost of low-temperature vacuum processing
is many times higher than that of other convection dryers,
which makes it less attractive for most products. The heat
pump dryer (HPD) is a technique that combines a heat
pump system with any convective dryer to accomplish dry-
ing at a faster rate with very high energy efficiency, variable
drying conditions, and highly improved product quality
compared to conventionally used convective dryers. Details
on a heat pump drying system are discussed in the
following section.
There always exists a scope for improvement in almost
all conventional dryers in practice. This may involve mech-
anical changes, drying media, gas distribution system, time
cycles for drying, combining different heat transfer modes,
multistage operation, etc. Table 1 identifies some key areas
for further development of frequently used dryers.
ADVANCES IN DRYING SYSTEMS
Conventional dryers often have several limitations, such
as nonuniform product quality due to overdrying=
underdrying caused by long, inadequate, or nonuniform
exposure of the product to the drying medium; long drying
times due to low contact efficiency between the drying
medium and solids being dried; harder texture due to case
hardening of the product surface caused by overdrying; etc.
 1346 JANGAM

TABLE 1
Key areas of improvement in conventional dryers
Dryer type Scope for improvement
Tray Design of better air distribution system to achieve flow uniformity
Uniform moisture distribution
Use of intermittent techniques; combined mode of heat transport
Use of heat pump to dehumidify drying air
Fluidized bed Poor fluidization quality for Geldart’s class C and class D particles; improve the quality by mechanical
dryers means such as agitation, vibration, pulsation, etc.
Improve gas distribution system, better design of gas chamber and distribution plate
Use of internal heat exchangers for internal heat transfer
Use of combined heat transfer modes
Combining fluidized beds with heat pump system
Superheated steam drying, low-pressure drying, vacuum drying
Variants of spouted bed dryers
Spray dryers Improvements in drying chamber design for minimization of wall deposition
Improvements in atomization method for uniform particle size and size distribution, minimize
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agglomeration wherever necessary

Use of ultrasonic atomizers
Use of superheated steam
Application of computational fluid dynamics for efficient design of spray dryer chambers
Injection of supplementary air to reduce wall deposits
Rotary dryers New designs of flights and use of internal heat exchangers
Precise control of final moisture content by controlling residence time distribution
Improvement in hot air injection system
Model-based control
Drum dryers Heat transfer enhancement by radiant heat or impinging streams
Increase energy efficiency
Vacuum dryers Use of combined heating modes such as microwave
Use of radiative heaters
Freeze dryers Use of magnetic and electric fields to control crystal size
Reducing the cycle time
Atmospheric pressure operation

This gives rise to poor drying performance and higher
operating costs. Several studies have been reported over
the years to overcome the operational difficulties encoun-
tered in conventional dryers and to improve the quality
of the dried products.[3,4,12] Most conventional dryers used
in food processing are of direct or convection type and uti-
lize fossil fuels as an energy source. Typically such dryers
have low thermal efficiency, because it is not cost-effective
to recover heat from the low-temperature exhaust. In
addition, the combustion of fossil fuels leads to greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions. The long-term effect of GHGs has
been a major concern in recent years. Use of biomass
and renewable energy may mitigate the problems, but
much remains to be done to ensure wide acceptance of bet-
ter drying and preservation practices. The drying technique
and operating conditions selected for a particular product
affect the quality of the dried product as well as its
cost. When selecting a dryer—whether conventional or
innovative—one must evaluate both the energetic perform-
ance as well as quality attributes of the final product. It
should be remembered that a dryer successfully used for
one product can provide totally different performance for
another product.
New developments in dryers and emerging drying
technologies can be classified in different categories.
These categories represent areas in drying technology
that require improvement. However, all new developments
and emerging drying technologies must be cost-effective.
This is needed to ensure market acceptance, because
industry will not accept a new dryer for its novelty.[7,9]
New technologies are needed principally due to the
following reasons:

Drying of new products and=or processes

To improve thermal efficiency and capacities than
current technology permits
 DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES IN DRYING OF FOODS

Better quality and quality control than existing
dryer capabilities

Reduced fire, explosion, toxic hazards; safer
operation

Better overall efficiency (cost optimization)

Reduced environmental impact, use of renewable
energy (to make dryers sustainable)

Minimizing the capital, operating, and mainte-
nance costs

Shorter processing time while maintaining high
product quality

Better sustainability and lower carbon footprint
Some of the areas (including limitations) that require
R&D have been addressed by researchers in recent
years.[5–10] Table 2 briefly summarizes a number of inno-
vative modifications of conventional dryers adopted for
better performance. Significant improvements as well as
advancements have been made over the past few years that
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have led to new developments in drying that are briefly dis-
cussed in the following sections. Some general attributes of
the recently developed dryers include[7,9] the following:

Multimode heat input concurrently or sequentially
to match instantaneous (for batch) or local (for
continuous) drying kinetics without adverse effect
TABLE 2
Some selected innovative changes in conventional dryers
Type Variants
Rotary Internal heat exchanger coils
Axial flow replaced by jets of hot air
injection into rolling bed
Nauta dryers Planetary mixer; vacuum; heated
jacket þ microwave heating
Spray dryer Horizontal spray dryer
Various spray chambers=atomizer
Cylinder-on-parabolic cone chamber
to minimize wall deposits
Nanospray dryer; use of ink-jet
technology to generate uniform
particles
Fluid bed=spouted Pulsed flows; intermittent pulsing
bed dryers Intermittent, local fluidization=
spouting
Mechanical agitation; variable
vibration acceleration
Conductive heat transfer (internal
heat exchangers), jacket heating
Improved gas distribution system
Gas for fluidization=spouting (air,
superheated steam, combustion gas)
1347
on product quality; for example, convection
followed by or simultaneously with conduction,
radiation, or microwave heat input

Time-dependent heat input for batch drying to
match drying kinetics with heat input

Superheated steam as a drying medium at high,
atmospheric, or subatmospheric pressure

Low-temperature dehumidified air as drying
medium at modified atmosphere, which eliminates
the existence of oxygen

Multistage drying and hybrid drying that combine
different types of dryers or different types of heat
input; for example, microwave (MW)–vacuum
drying or spray drying followed by fluid bed=
vibrated bed as the second and=or third stage

Use of absorbents to remove water vapor as it is
generated to maintain a high driving force for mass
transfer even at lower temperatures. Adsorbents
must be edible for food applications for human as
well as animal consumption.
Heat Pump–Assisted Drying
The heat pump–assisted drying system incorporates a
refrigeration cycle, where condensation of moisture from
dryer exhaust air—in the evaporator of refrigeration cycle—
provides a dehumidification effect and the condenser pro-
vides a heating effect of the process air for circulation back
to the dryer. An auxiliary heater is generally used for better
control of the temperature of the process air at the dryer
inlet.[19–21] Therefore, the heat pump recovers the sensible
and latent heat of evaporated moisture in the dryer. The
recovered heat is recycled back to the dryer by reheating
of the dehumidified air and hence the energy efficiency is
increased substantially as a result of heat recovery that
otherwise is lost to the atmosphere in conventional dryers.
The HPD has been intentionally used for heat recovery
during the initial life of this technique. However, this
drying technique has become popular for other added
advantages such as the possibility of a wide range of oper-
ating conditions (air temperature, humidity), which pro-
vide options to make a better quality product. Because
HPDs use low-temperature dehumidified air as the convec-
tive drying medium, drying in an HPD can be carried out
at relative low temperature compared to conventional hot
air dryers. This is very useful for food products, which
are highly heat sensitive. The closed system of a heat pump
is very useful for retention of volatile components of the
foods to be dried, which otherwise are lost using the com-
mon convective dryers.[20,21]
Although HPDs have numerous advantages, they also
have some limitations, which include maintenance, high
capital cost, and current use of environmentally unfriendly
refrigerants. The heat pump system offers a simple way of
 1348
increasing the energy efficiency of drying systems. There
exists much scope for improvement in the performance to
reduce environmental impact. Figure 3 shows different
ways to potentially enhance the performance of HPDs.
One must always examine the total cost of drying, because
some improvements add to the capital cost and footprint of
the dryer.
The mechanical compression heat pump system is the
most common and suffers from lower coefficient of per-
formance (COP), a measure of the efficiency of heat pump
system. The performance of heat pumps can be enhanced
in various ways, such as use of multistage heat pumps, cas-
cade of heat pumps, heat pipes, absorption refrigeration,
chemical heat pump, etc. Among these, the chemical heat
pump (CHP) system has some undiscovered potential
for high-temperature applications but considerable R&D
will be required to determine its sustainability.[22] The
chemical heat pump stores or absorbs thermal energy
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from the exhaust of convective dryers, solar energy, or
geothermal energy in the form of chemical energy via
endothermic reactions in specially designed reactors
and rejects heat at a desired level through exothermic
reactions.[23] CHPs operate using thermal energy either
from waste heat or a renewable energy source and do not
release any gases that may have environmental impact.
The advances in chemical heat pumps involve mainly
developing new chemical reactions for wider temperature
range applications and less environmental impact. The
chemical heat pump system has also been used along with
solar energy for drying.[24] Interested readers can refer to
that latest reviews and a recently published guest editorial
in this journal.[23,25,26]
Several heating modes have been used along with con-
vective heating in heat pump drying. These include MW,
FIG. 3. Potential strategies for improvements of heat pump dryer performance.
JANGAM
infrared, radio frequency, and solar energy individually
or simultaneously. This enhances the drying rates, parti-
cularly during the final stages of drying. The solar-assisted
HPD has a lot of potential to make the system sustainable.
Solar energy can be used for auxiliary heating either by
direct heat transfer to the dehumidified air or using the
stored solar energy in a phase-change material.[24] Daghigh
et al.[24] have reviewed the application of solar-assisted heat
pump drying for agricultural and marine products. Hawla-
der et al.[27] have reported a complex solar-assisted heat
pump drying system that uses the solar energy for both
heating of the refrigerant in an evaporator and heating of
the drying air. Mujumdar[28] proposed application of inter-
mittent drying using HPD some 20 years ago to save oper-
ating costs and capital costs because it requires the use of a
lower capacity heat pump or use of a single heat pump to
supply drying air to several drying chambers. This strategy
is currently under active research and development at
several laboratories. The different drying chambers used
in such a system can be used to dry the same or different
products in different chambers.[7,29]
Islam et al.[30] have presented the effect of different tem-
perature–time profiles on the quality of agricultural pro-
ducts in a tunnel HPD. Various profiles are possible; for
example, cyclic temperature, step-down temperature, cyclic
pressure, variable gas flow, etc.[31] Atmospheric freeze dry-
ing (AFD) is another recently developed application of
heat pumps. A lot of research was carried out in the field
of atmospheric freeze drying of food, pharmaceutical,
and biological products. Claussen et al.[32] have critically
reviewed the concept of atmospheric freeze drying and
recent developments in this technology. A heat pump sys-
tem can be efficiently used to carry out AFD using air at
very low temperature, below the freezing point (generally
 DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES IN DRYING OF FOODS 1349

between 3 to 10 C). The process is very similar to com-

mon heat pump drying except that the air is cooled to a
very low temperature before using it for drying. A continu-
ous production line is a key in the development of such a
technique, and the first continuous plant for drying of
vegetables was started in 2005 in Hungary, designed by a
Norwegian company. This technique has been successfully
applied for various food products such as green peas, red
chilli, sweet corn, and others.[32–36]
Other possibilities for using heat pump drying include
the use of an inert atmosphere using a closed-loop heat
pump system.[37–41] This allows drying using various inert FIG. 4. Freeze drying—classification of new developments.
drying media such as CO2 and N2 in order to avoid
unwanted reactions due to oxygen resulting in undesirable
product properties. The option of a closed system allows strong can reduce freeze drying time and maintain quality.
the use of a minimum amount of drying gas that otherwise They concluded that microwave-based finish drying is an
could be very expensive. There have been few reports on excellent option but it requires optimization for various
heat pump drying using an inert atmosphere; however, products. This is an excellent area for future R&D because
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detailed research needs to be carried out for cost minimiza- not much has been published on hybrid processes utilizing
tion and to prove its applicability at a larger scale. freeze drying as the first stage or different drying techni-
ques as finish drying stages. Structural collapse must be
Freeze Drying avoided in finish drying.
It is known that freeze drying (FD) provides the best Woo and Mujumdar[43] have reviewed the use of electric
quality of a product in general. However, considering the and magnetic fields during freezing and their application to
fact that the technique is very costly—in terms of both freeze drying. Such an approach provides an opportunity
capital and operating costs—commercial applications of to control the ice crystals, which will subsequently affect
this technique in the food sector are limited. FD is unsuit- product quality. Zhang et al.[44,45] have carried out an
able for low-value food products; it is essentially used for extensive review of microwave freeze drying (MWFD)
some very high-value products to meet the quality demand. and its applications for various food products, including
There has been significant effort to replace freeze drying fruits, vegetables, as well as aquatic products. It has been
with other methods—for example, heat pump drying as reported that MWFD provides very high drying rates with
discussed earlier—in order to obtain quality closer to FD excellent rehydration and other properties. Cost remains an
products (if not the same) at comparatively low operating issue of concern. Figure 5 shows the concept of microwave-
costs. However, it is difficult to meet some of the character- assisted freeze drying used by Zhang et al.[44] They listed
istics that only freeze drying can provide, such as rehydra- some of the key advantages of MWFD, which include
tion properties, texture, and color. This has resulted in automatic adjustment of microwave energy absorption
some innovative research to improve the performance of
FD, especially to reduce both fixed and operating costs.
This is essentially done by including some external heat
source to enhance the drying rates without melting the fro-
zen product during drying. Figure 4 shows improvement
possibilities for freeze drying. Note that freeze dryers must
be operated under optimal conditions to obtain the quality
benefits.
Freeze drying provides top-quality dried products, but
the long drying times make it uneconomical. Hybrid drying
can possibly be combined with FD as a pre- or postdrying
stage to reduce drying times. Rother et al.[42] tested pre-
and finish freeze drying of diced carrots. Predrying with
hot air or vacuum drying reduces the water content but
destroys the porous structure as water is removed due to
surface tension effects. On the other hand, they showed
that postdrying using vacuum or MW–vacuum immedi-
ately upon freeze drying when the cellular structure is still FIG. 5. Typical microwave freeze-drying system.
 1350 JANGAM
level by different moisture contents; possible selective heat-
ing of the interior portions (microwave focusing effect);
rapid energy dissipation throughout the material; more
efficient drying in the falling rate period; and total energy
savings. However, the main limitation of using microwave
freeze-drying techniques on an industrial scale is the poten-
tial of plasma discharge, which occurs when the electric
field intensity in the vacuum chamber is above a threshold
value.
Intermittent Drying
Time-varying air flow, temperature, humidity, or oper-
ating pressure individually and=or by varying cycle of the
operating condition of a drying process can be utilized to
reduce the operating cost (e.g., thermal input and power
input). The objective is to achieve high energy efficiency
without exposing the product above its permissible tem-
perature limit. There are two ways to apply intermittent
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heat input. The first is to subject the drying materials to
intermittent heat input, time-varying flow of drying
medium, or cyclically varying the operating pressure in
the drying chamber. The main purpose is to allow internal
moisture to migrate to the material surface during a non-
active phase of drying, often called the tempering period.
Intermittent drying consists of two distinctive drying peri-
ods, namely, active drying and nonactive drying. During
active drying, heat is applied by the selected heat transfer
mode, whereas during the nonactive drying period, heat
input or flow of the drying medium is stopped. The two dis-
tinctive periods are carried out in an intermittent mode.
Because water content on the surface is increased during
the tempering period, the drying rate during the subsequent
active drying is increased, which helps to enhance the
FIG. 6. Time-varying cycle in drying.
drying kinetics. However, because the rate of drying is
finite during the passive period, the overall drying time is
increased somewhat, but this is compensated for by the
reduction in energy consumption and better product
quality due to lower product temperature. Islam and
Mujumdar[19,20] and Islam et al.[30] have carried out a
numerical study of the time-varying heat input in convec-
tive dryers and suggested various routes to enhance the
drying rates and quality. The system suggested by Islam
et al.[30] is shown in Fig. 6.
The second intermittent drying strategy is to apply step-
wise changes of operating conditions in order to minimize
the energy consumption. This is due to the fact that drying
toward the end of the process is controlled by internal dif-
fusion where the external factors have a limited effect on
the drying kinetics. Intuitively, one possible way to reduce
the energy loss is to gradually reduce the heat input to the
material as drying proceeds. One can also vary the mode of
heat input (e.g., convection, conduction, radiation, or
microwave=radio frequency heating). Multiple heat inputs
can be used to remove both surface and internal moisture
simultaneously. Figure 7 summarizes the various possibili-
ties discussed in this section.
Intermittent drying can be applied to any direct dryer,
batch dryer such as a tray dryer, convective dryer, con-
veyor dryer, fluidized bed dryer, spouted bed dryer, etc.
Mujumdar[28] identified and proposed for the first time
the use of multiple modes of variable levels of heat input,
simultaneous or consecutive, as well as cyclical variations
in velocity or operating pressure as technologies of the
future for batch and continuous heat pump–drying pro-
cesses. Using multiple modes of heat input, it is possible
to speed up drying kinetics without adversely affecting
 DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES IN DRYING OF FOODS
FIG. 7. Variations during intermittent drying.
the quality of dried products. Dryers such as the rotary,
spouted bed, and multicylinder paper dryer are all inher-
ently intermittent because heat is supplied intermittently
due to the inherent operational mode of the dryer,
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although none of the operating variables such as flow rate,
temperature, or pressure are altered with time. They are
still not called intermittent because the on and off times
of heat input cannot be altered independent of the other
operating variables. In addition to intermittent drying,
the flipping of the product—which may not be possible
with all dryers—can enhance the drying rate considerably
if used together. Note that intermittently applying high
pressure and low pressure can also augment drying rates
and yield products that are more porous.
Hybrid Drying Techniques
Hybrid drying techniques have become popular recently
because of flexibility of the drying operation. Hybrid dry-
ing techniques may include either the use of more than
one dryer for drying of a particular product (multistage
drying), use of more than one mode of heat transfer, or
multiprocessing dryers. The multistage drying is a com-
monly accepted way of enhancing drying performance.
Figure 8 describes some multistage drying possibilities for
FIG. 8. Some hybrid dryer configurations for foods.
1351
various feed properties. For drying of particulate material,
either some variants of a fluid bed or fluid bed with some
other technique are most commonly used in series to speed
up drying. However, for liquid feedstock, spray drying is
generally followed by the fluid bed dryer to reduce moist-
ure content to an acceptable level, which is not possible
by spray drying alone.[11] Note that the cost of drying
may increase exponentially for smaller throughputs due
to higher capital costs.
Microwave drying offers numerous advantages; for
example, enhanced drying rates, precise control, fast
startup and shutdown times, better quality of dried pro-
duct, smaller footprint of the equipment, etc. Infrared
drying is also useful to remove final traces of moisture at
a faster rate. These techniques are typically combined with
other drying methods to overcome the limitations of
uneven heating resulted from focusing, corner and edge
heating, an inhomogeneous electromagnetic field, irregular
shape, and=or nonuniform composition of the material.
However, the capital cost for these techniques is relatively
high and they require sophisticated mechanical and elec-
tronic components.[44,45] Microwave vacuum drying has
been shown to produce dried products with improved tex-
ture and color. A microwave field allows volumetric heat-
ing whereby heat is transferred to the inner core of the
material without the need of a temperature gradient even
during the initial stages of drying.
Recently, Zhang et al.[44–46] have dried various food
products with a combination of microwave and vacuum
drying, resulting in improved color and texture of dried
products compared to air-dried products. Reduction of
drying times in microwave is beneficial for color, porosity,
aroma, shrinkage, and rehydration. Microwave-assisted
freeze drying is another recently used hybrid technique
for various food products. The use of MW–freeze drying
results in much faster rates with very high product quality.
Recent reviews by Zhang et al.[44,45] detailed the main
advances in microwave-assisted drying of vegetables, fruits,
and aquatic products with a focus on drying kinetics and
the product quality. The method has already been applied
for numerous food products to prepare recently popu-
larized snack foods. As described earlier, Woo and
Mujumdar[43] have reviewed the application of electric
and magnetic fields in freezing and their effect on freeze
drying. Spray freeze drying is another hybrid drying tech-
nique used to prepare highly porous particles. This tech-
nique involves the spraying of a liquid feed in a cryogenic
atmosphere and then freeze drying the frozen droplets.
However, this technique is more pertinent in pharmaceuti-
cal applications where the activity of the product is more
important than the cost of the process.[12] The technique
of spray freeze drying can be used for food application as
well, provided that the necessary R&D work is carried
out to minimize the cost.
 1352 JANGAM
Modified Atmosphere Drying
As discussed earlier, the most common drying methods
employed for food dehydration use hot air as the drying
medium. In convective air drying, most food products
undergo quality degradation due to various unwanted
physical and chemical changes that occur during drying.
Most common are the browning reaction and shrinkage
of the products due to case hardening.[7,39–41] Browning
can be a result of either enzymatic or nonenzymatic
reactions. The most common enzyme present in fruits
and vegetables is polyphenol oxidase, which results in such
unwanted quality defects. The presence of oxygen also
results in various unwanted characteristics in dried food
materials.
To avoid oxidation of the drying material and destruc-
tion of its bioactive ingredients, hot drying air, which con-
tains 21% of oxygen, can be replaced with nitrogen or
carbon dioxide. By eliminating the oxygen content of the
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drying medium, oxidation and some undesirable reactions
that require oxygen are thus avoided. This in turn
reduces=eliminates browning of products and improves
retention of bioactive ingredients. As discussed earlier in
the HPD section, modified-atmosphere heat pump drying
reportedly increases the effective diffusivities of some food
products. Perera[37] and O’Neill et al.[38] have discussed the
application of modified-atmosphere drying for some food
products using a heat pump. A number of experimental
studies have been carried out on modified heat pump dry-
ing on various types of food products and have shown
great enhancement of product quality.[39–41] Although
commercialization of this technique has been limited, the
process has very high potential in food application.
Superheated Steam Drying
Superheated steam is an attractive drying medium for
some processes because the net energy consumption can
be minimized if the exhaust (also superheated steam) can
be utilized elsewhere in the plant and hence is not charged
to the dryer. Superheated steam does not contain oxygen;
hence, oxidative or combustion reactions are avoided. In
addition, it eliminates the risk of fire and explosion hazard.
The quality of superheated steam–dried (SSD) products
tends to be better than that using a conventional hot air
dryer. Superheated steam also allows pasteurization, steri-
lization, and deodorization of food products. This is parti-
cularly important for food and pharmaceutical products
that require a high standard of hygienic processing. In
addition, superheated steam drying provides higher drying
rates in both constant and falling rate periods under certain
conditions. Closed-cycle superheated steam drying enables
emitted odors, dust, and other hazardous components to
be contained and thus mitigates the risks of these hazards.
The pollutants are concentrated in the condensate of the
effluent steam. Desirable organic compounds can also be
contained using the superheated steam drying method.
Mujumdar has discussed the principles, advantages, and
limitations as well as diverse applications of superheated
steam drying technologies in a number of papers and
books.[47–50] Interested readers can refer to a detailed dis-
cussion in the Handbook of Industrial Drying[12,50] and a
recently published monograph by Shibata.[51]
Figure 9 describes the various possibilities of super-
heated steam drying technologies, classified based on the
working pressure inside the dryer. Some products are not
stable at 100 C if the dryer operates at atmospheric press-
ure; one option is to lower the operating pressure. Indeed,
silk cocoons and many fruit and vegetable products have
been successfully dried in low-pressure superheated steam
dryers.[52–56] Because the heat transfer for drying is still
by convection, the drying rates are very low at low steam
pressures. Infrared radiation or microwave heating may
be applied to raise low-pressure steam drying rates.
Although one can obtain good quality at low pressures,
the process is still not popular due to the large equipment
size required by the low drying rates. Other commonly
reported problems with superheated steam are the initial
condensation—which can be avoided by preheating the
feedstock—and ingress of air into the system, which
requires efficient sealing of the equipment. Many foods
and biomaterials are damaged at the saturation tempera-
ture of superheated steam. Perhaps it is necessary to
include supplementary heat sources, for example, micro-
wave radiation or conduction, to speed up drying rates at
low steam pressures. Much R&D is still needed in this area.
As energy costs rise and legislation on carbon emissions
becomes more stringent, superheated steam drying will be
more attractive. Experience gained in low-pressure steam
drying of wood may be transferred to drying of some food
products because the equipment is already available com-
mercially. Pronyk et al.[57] have provided a detailed dis-
cussion on superheated steam drying and dried various
food materials using superheated steam. The technique
has been applied to a number of food products at the
FIG. 9. Variations of superheated steam drying.
 DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES IN DRYING OF FOODS
laboratory scale, including various fruits, roots, beef, and
fish. A few authors claimed that the technique was also
successful on a pilot scale. However, the scale-up remains
a major limitation, as discussed earlier.
Impinging Stream Drying
Impinging stream dryers (ISD) are novel alternatives to
flash dryers for particulate materials with very high drying
loads.[58,59] Nevertheless, studies on ISD are still partial or
limited to very few applications. In these types of dryers,
the intensive collision of opposing streams creates a zone
that offers very high heat, mass, and momentum trans-
fer.[60] Hence, rapid removal of surface moisture is possible.
Other advantages of impinging dryers are smaller
footprints and high robustness due to the absence of any
moving parts. However, the design of such systems is very
important, particularly the feeding arrangement and the
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design of the impinging streams, which affect the value of
the volumetric heat transfer coefficient and in turn the
water evaporation rate. Choicharoen et al.[60] have carried
out performance evaluation of an impinging dryer with
okara as a drying material and concluded that ISD pro-
vides a very high volumetric heat transfer coefficient and
performance depending on the aforementioned parameters.
Figure 10 shows variations of impinging stream dryers
mainly based on geometry, drying medium used, and other
heat sources used in combination. There are more possibi-
lities based on geometries that require numerical as well as
experimental evaluation, essentially to enhance the gas–
solids mixing and increase heat transfer. It should be noted
that impinging stream dryers can use air, flue gas, or super-
heated steam as drying media. All of the aforementioned
advantages of ISD allow one to consider it as a possible
option for drying of various food products provided that
it can handle high throughputs. One can also consider
the design of multistage two-dimensional impinging stream
dryers that can be used for wet particulate solids or for
sludge-like feeds. Design and scale-up of such units is very
complex and requires significant R&D effort.
FIG. 10. Variants of impinging stream dryers.
1353
Contact–Sorption Drying
Contact–sorption drying can be achieved in two ways:
either by direct contact of a wet material with heated inert
particles and thereby removal of moisture as a result of
heat exchange or through contact of the wet material with
heated sorbent particles where the moisture is transferred
from the wet solids to the sorbent particles to achieve dry-
ing. The efficiency of drying can be enhanced by the use of
adsorbents such as zeolites, which have strong water
absorption ability. A typical contact–sorption drying tech-
nique involves good mixing of wet solid particles with the
sorbent particles to achieve the heat and mass transfer
and then separation of these two media. The sorbent parti-
cles are regenerated and returned to the dryer. Typical inert
sorbent particles (also called carriers) used for this purpose
are molecular sieves, zeolites, activated carbon, or silica
gel. The applications of contact–sorption drying reported
so far include drying of various grains and pieces of fruit.
The fruit pieces can also be dried in the presence of sugar
granules, which absorb moisture from the wet solids and
make the product taste sweeter (the dried product is called
a sugar-infused product). Rahman and Mujumdar[61] have
proposed atmospheric freeze drying of foods in a vibro-
fluidized bed dryer of adsorbent particles. This resulted in
reduced drying time and enhanced product quality. These
adsorbents can also be used for dehumidification of the
air used for drying. The system consists of two beds of sor-
bent particles, one of which is in desiccation mode (to
remove water from drying air) and the other one is in
regeneration mode. As noted earlier, adsorbents must be
edible, stable, and easy to regenerate. Kudra and
Mujumdar[11] have discussed this concept in detail, includ-
ing the possible limitations and requirements for future
R&D in this area. Because adsorbents must be regenerated
for reuse, it is important to make this step energy efficient
as well. Recent studies have suggested the use of super-
heated steam for regeneration due to its inherent energy-
saving features.[11]
Mechanical Dewatering
It is logical that dehydration without change of phase is
highly energy efficient, because there is no heat of vaporiza-
tion required and the associated equipment is simpler and
less expensive. Most of the food products have less surface
moisture and the drying occurs in a falling rate period,
which means a very long drying time. Hence, the use of
mechanical dewatering as a predrying stage reduces the
load on the main dryer.[62] The choice of dewatering tech-
nique for a specific food product depends on many factors,
such as particle size and initial moisture content; however,
the dewatering efficiency decreases rapidly with decreasing
particle size. The most important thing is to get the
required physical form of the product; hence, filtration
 1354
needs to be followed by a relevant drying technique.
Figure 11 displays different means of mechanical dewater-
ing, including application of positive or negative pressure,
electroosmosis, or the use of combined filtration and
drying.
During electrodewatering, the water in the sludge
contains cations (positive ions) that, under the effect of a
continuous or intermittent electrical current, are attracted
by the negative pole—in this case, the cathode. Through
viscous action, the movement of the cations through
the water in the sludge carries water molecules toward
the cathode, where the water is finally drained out of the
sludge. To compensate for the volume loss created by
the extracted water, the distance between the anode
and the cathode is adjusted by applying a mechanical force
to the electrodes and controlled pressure to the sludge to
be dewatered. However, in the case of mechanical dewater-
ing using pressure, current could be applied continuously
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or intermittently in order to minimize the power used.
The filter-cum-dryer assembly usually has a detachable
filtration system, inlet for hot drying gas, and liquid collec-
tor. The most commonly used is the Nutschfilter-cum-
dryer. This has been applied for various applications, one
of which is drying of lecithin. After extraction of oil, the
crude lecithin has a considerable amount of acetone (used
for extraction, which needs to be recovered in order to
minimize consumption of acetone).[62,63] A maximum por-
tion is removed by mechanical means and the remaining is
removed either by a conventional hot air dryer or using
inert gas in a closed loop—the choice depends on the kind
of product properties expected.
Variable Pressure Drop (Instantaneous/Cyclic) Method
Drying can be carried out by either a controlled instan-
taneous pressure drop method or cyclic pressure drop
method.[64,65] In a controlled instantaneous pressure drop
(DIC) method, the product is subjected to vacuum in the
DIC processing chamber and then exposed to steam
pressure followed by an instantaneous drop in pressure
toward a vacuum and finally a return to atmospheric
FIG. 11. Possibilities in mechanical dewatering.
JANGAM
pressure.[66,67] Dehydration by successive decompression
(DDS; déshydratation par détentes successives) is a process
particularly suited to thermosensitive products, in which
the product undergoes a series of cycles, during which it
is placed under pressure (<10 bar) for a defined time and
is then subjected to an instantaneous decompression to a
vacuum (5–90 kPa).[64–68] The product is maintained under
a vacuum for a defined time before the following cycle
begins. Each decompression step results in partial water
removal by autovaporization. The amount of water
removed depends on the water state in the system (free or
linked) as well as the processing conditions. The DDS
operation can be performed at room temperature, using
desiccated air to create the pressure. The major advantage
of this technique is considerable reduction in drying time
compared to normal vacuum drying and hot air drying
techniques used for food products. This technique is not
only used for drying but also for various predrying pro-
cesses such as steaming. These techniques of instantaneous
and cyclic pressure drop have been successfully applied for
various food products, including grains, fruits, vegetables,
and fish.[64–68]
Comparing the two methods, the DIC method can be
used mainly to solve the problem of shrinkage, which is
common in conventional hot air drying. However, the
DDS method is interesting in that the drying process is
gentle but relatively rapid so it can be used to dry heat-
sensitive biological products (including foodstuffs), which
maintains their general appearance and probably their
nutritional content.[68] The DIC process has also been
applied for spray drying of skim milk to increase the spe-
cific surface area of the powder and reduce the amount
of fine dust using a three-stage process.[69] DIC treatment
was used in between the atomization and the final drying
stage, which resulted in expansion of granules, increasing
the specific surface area and resulting in a faster final stage
drying. It was reported that the specific quality of the
powder, as determined by the customer’s needs in terms
of physical properties, can be achieved by using DIC
during spray drying.
Enhancement of Energy Efficiency
Drying is a highly energy-intensive operation resulting
in substantial operating costs and hence very expensive
dried products. Various researchers have suggested differ-
ent ways of reducing energy consumption, which include
better control, proper insulation, recycling of a part of
the drying air, recycling of a part of the dried product,
etc. The use of a heat pump system is one way of reducing
the energy consumption by recovering the heat from the
drying air. Simulation packages such as Simprosys can be
very helpful in solving complex drying flowsheets using
the above combinations to enhance the overall efficiency
of a drying system.[70] The use of renewable energy is one
 DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES IN DRYING OF FOODS
method of reducing the cost of drying operation and will be
discussed in the following section. It is well known that
indirect drying has higher thermal efficiency. Adding heat
indirectly to a direct dryer helps improve the energy
efficiency as well. Thus, internal heat exchangers can be
used in rotary dryers, fluid bed dryers, spouted bed dryers,
etc., to improve the volumetric heat=mass transfer rates
and thus make the dryer volume smaller while enhancing
efficiency. Berghel[71] has presented experimental results
for immersed heating tubes in a superheated steam spouted
bed dryer of sawdust and showed that the specific energy
consumption for drying was lowered. This concept allows
the insertion of heating elements in an existing dryer to
enhance its capacity and efficiency.
Another recently reported technique is known as
self-heat recuperative drying.[72] The system include the
compression of a drying gas coming out of dryer, part of
which is then used for internal heating of the dryer, pre-
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heating of the drying gas, and heating of the wet solids
entering the dryer. This system can result in considerable
savings compared to hot air and mechanical com-
pression–assisted drying; however, it has the disadvantage
of using a very expensive compression step.[72] Because
conventional drying methods use a large volume of air,
compression of such a large quantity of noncondensable
gas makes the overall system expensive, although the
thermal energy consumed is low.
Use of Renewable Energy
It must be pointed out that the use of renewable ener-
gies, for example, solar and wind, should be investigated
seriously, because current concerns over potential energy
shortages and global climate change will likely result in
legislative actions to minimize fossil fuel usage. A solar dry-
ing system, particularly for agro-products and marine pro-
ducts, is already viable, particularly in developing countries
where labor costs are low and the cost of fossil fuel energy
is very high. In the future, larger systems need to be
designed utilizing solar thermal, photovoltaic panels com-
bined with wind power. Because solar and wind energy
are necessarily intermittent, advances in thermal and elec-
trical energy storage systems are needed to make the use
of renewable energy viable in drying. To minimize the
use of oil or gas, one could use biomass to provide backup
heating in the absence of insolation and wind. The use of
thermal energy storage in water pools, pebble beds, and=
or phase-change materials can be coupled with the use of
intermittent energy sources like solar and wind energy.
Much R&D is needed at the systems level to make this
concept commercially viable. The main research and devel-
opment is needed to fabricate an efficient solar collection
system and allow better air circulation in solar dryers,
use of appropriate biomass as a supplementary option,
and use of wind energy for drying (either for heating or
1355
pumping of drying air) wherever possible. Because all
renewable energy sources are intermittent, it is necessary
to provide backup heat or heat storage during the day
(for solar energy) using phase-change material heat store
exchangers. The use of solar ponds to store energy on a
large scale is also a possibility worth exploring.
Another system that has as-yet untapped potential in
upgrading renewable energy is CHP, as discussed pre-
viously. Some work has been carried out on chemical heat
pumps for various applications, although their commercia-
lization is limited. Use of CHPs in drying has become a
subject of R&D only recently. Considering the fact that
the drying is highly energy intensive and the advantage of
chemical heat pumps to upgrade energy, CHPs will have
a great deal of importance in drying. However, the selec-
tion of a reaction scheme, design of reactors, etc., are the
issues of current R&D, especially for performance enhan-
cement. Chemical heat pumps can be used to upgrade the
renewable energy and store it for a long time for later appli-
cation when the renewable energy source is not available.
One could also consider phase-change material undergoing
melting=freezing to store=release thermal energy when it is
available only intermittently and coupling such exchangers
with CHPs. This idea has not yet been tested.
In the review by Woo and Mujumdar,[43] it was noted
that an alternative source of freezing (for freeze-drying
application) can potentially be found in a magnetocaloric
freezer. This form of freezer does not require a conven-
tional refrigerant or coolant, which reduces the environ-
mental impact from the dryer. However, more R&D is
required in this field before such a system can be commer-
cially available. It may also be possible to couple these
ideas with atmospheric freeze drying.
CLOSING REMARKS
A brief overview of the application of drying in food
processing is presented for both conventional and emerging
drying technologies. Kudra and Mujumdar[11] have pre-
sented comprehensive treatment of new drying concepts
at various stages of development. As energy costs soar,
energy efficiency will be key criterion for marketing of
dryers. Much R&D needs to be done to make some of
the new concepts commercially attractive. This overview
includes some innovative ideas that can stimulate further
R&D. For true sustainability, advances are needed not
only in the drying hardware and software but also in clo-
sely allied areas such as source of energy, energy conver-
sion, energy recovery from low-temperature heat source
such as dryer exhaust, environmental pollution control,
etc. To utilize solar=wind energy extensively, some innova-
tions are necessary in these techniques. For example, as
suggested by A. S. Mujumdar (National University of
Singapore, personal communication, April 13, 2011), stu-
dies are needed to design efficient wind farms that may
 1356 JANGAM
ideally utilize propeller-type large turbines along with smal-
ler vertical axis wind turbines to accommodate more tur-
bines in a form of given size. One may also develop
farm-scale inexpensive windmills to drive dryers and supply
electricity to farming communities.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Discussions with Professor Arun S. Mujumdar were
extremely helpful in the preparation of this article.
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