Air dehumidification with advance adsorptive materials for food drying: A critical assessment for future prospective

In food processing, drying is an important unit operation for preserving the product quality by moisture content reduction. However, some drying processes suffer from technical and economical drawbacks mainly related to low process efficiency, high energy cost, and product quality degradation. Drying food products using dehumidified air at low temperature is one of the smart options to solve the abovementioned problems. This review presents some challenges and opportunities for dehumidifying air to enhance the driving force for drying. The potential of some solid materials, namely zeolite, silica-based materials, activated carbons (ACs), and other biomass-based materials, as moisture adsorbents for air dehumidification in food drying applications is also discussed. This paper also comprehensively reviews the recent approaches and emerging technologies in the development of high-performance adsorbents for air dehumidification and moisture adsorption-desorption characteristics, namely, adsorption isotherms and adsorption kinetics, of various adsorbent types. Moreover, some crucial parameters for advancing the research and development of adsorptive dehumidification systems are reviewed in this work.

Automated summary

Drying is a critical unit operation in food processing to maintain product quality by reducing moisture content. Using dehumidified air at low temperature is a smart option to overcome technical and economic drawbacks in the drying process. This paper discusses the challenges, opportunities, and emerging technologies in the use of dehumidified air and moisture adsorbents in food drying applications.