Four decades of Drying Technology: The role of the journal in globalizing and promoting drying R&D and industrial development in Brazil

Abstract

Over 40 years since the establishment of Drying Technology, Professor Arun Mujumdar has invested tremendous and pioneering effort in promoting research and development in drying science and technology as well as creating and disseminating innovative knowledge and tools to consolidate the world drying community in academia as well as industry. The great success of this peer-reviewed archival journal as well as IDS (International Drying Symposium) series he founded in 1978 at McGill University, Canada, indeed reflects his continuing effort toward this goal, which we acknowledge and thank him for. It is well known that Drying Technology and IDS are the most important journal and symposium series, respectively, devoted to drying and have been positively making impacts on the drying field on a global scale. We are honored to be invited to briefly describe the contribution of Drying Technology to enhancing both the quality and quantity of R&D in Brazil through these 40 years. As already known [1], due to its continental dimension and biodiversity, Brazil has a great diversity of products that need to be dried prior to their application and/or consumption. For this reason, drying R&D in Brazil began to be structured early in the 1970s to meet local requirements and demand from agro-industrial sectors. Around 30 theses (doctorate and master’s) were written in the area of drying. These works involved innovative or modified drying techniques for diverse products demanded by industries and cooperatives, but their results impacted drying R&D only locally [2]. In order to unite the Brazilian community of researches in particulate systems and share their knowledge and outcome, the Brazilian Congress of Particulate Systems (ENEMP) was created in 1973 by Professors Giulio Massarani and Affonso C. S. Silva Telles (in memoriam) from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and continued by Professor Jos e T. Freire from Federal University of S~ao Carlos. Drying is one of the most important areas covered in this forum. The ENEMP continuity until now reflects its success not only as a forum to unify the Brazilian community in particulate systems, but also to push R&D toward industrial needs and innovations. From the 1980s to 2000s, Professors Massarani and Freire formed the second generation of Brazilian drying researchers, many of whom are today research leaders in this area at universities in different regions of Brazil. Even with this improvement, in the 1980s and beginning of 1990s, international publications on drying were still scarce and did not reflect the real work performed by the Brazilian community. Aiming at a greater contribution of the Brazilian drying works into the international scenario, the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), represented by Professors Sandra C. S. Rocha and Maria Aparecida Silva, decided to accept the invitation of Professor Arun Mujumdar to organize in Sao Paulo the Inter-American Drying Conference (IADC) in 1997 and the IDS in 2004. In 1998, 16 selected Brazilian drying papers presented at IADC1997 were published in Drying Technology, volume 16(9–10). In 2005, IDS2004 insured about 15 selected Brazilian drying papers published in Drying Technology, volume 13(9–11). In 2006, two more issues of Drying Technology were specially devoted to the Brazilian drying work (volume 24, issues 3 and 4). In 2010, one special issue, volume 28(11), was assigned to the current and innovative aspects of R&D in Brazil with 7 selected papers presented in ENEMP2009. Therefore, an expressive increase in the Brazilian papers accepted and published in Drying Technology from 1990 to 2019 can be seen in Table 1 (3.9 papers/year in 1990s to 13.8 papers/year in 2010s). Data from Table 1 also quantify the immediate contribution of Drying Technology to the inclusion of the set of Brazilian drying works in the international scenario. Based on the values of views obtained on Nov. 11, 2022 [3], there is a significant interest by the global drying community in examination of the Brazilian drying works. A peak of 10765 views was achieved in year 2006, which remains at a high level even currently [3]. In addition, from the 2000s, the international research exchange has improved with increased international research collaboration and joint publications with international authorship. The number of citations of the Brazilian papers by other authors, basically the number of citations per total number of published papers in the decade, indicates the actuality and quality of the Brazilian drying works. This also shows the trends of the Brazilian community growth in searching for innovative drying technologies aiming at enhanced product quality, minimization of energy costs together with environment conservation. These themes are dictated not only by the national market but also by the international one. Drying Technology has contributed