Energy and exergy analyses in drying process of non-hygroscopic porous packed bed using a combined multi-feed microwave-convective air and continuous belt system (CMCB)

This paper is concerned with the energy and exergy analyses in the drying process of non-hygroscopic porous packed bed by combined multi-feed microwave-convective air and continuous belt system (CMCB). Most importantly, this work focused on the investigation of drying phenomena under industrialized microwave processing. In this analysis, the effects of the drying time, hot-air temperature, porous structure (F-Bed and C-Bed) and location of magnetron on overall drying kinetics and energy utilization ratio (EUR) were evaluated in detail. The results showed that using the continuous microwave application technique had several advantages over the conventional method such as shorter processing times, volumetric dissipation of energy throughout a product with higher energy utilization and less exergy efficiency in drying process. The results presented here provided fundamental understanding for drying process using CMCB in industrial size. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.