Experimental Tests of a Laboratory Stand for Research of Drying Processes

Ukraine is a fruitive land, where we grow a large number of different vegetables, fruits and other crops. To increase the shelf life, the products are processed in different ways, one of which is drying. The development of new technologies for the preservation of fruits, berries, vegetables and medicinal herbs is necessary to reduce costs and obtain products of better quality and nutritional value. In this article, the development of a laboratory stand for the study of drying processes is considered. Various tests of this "individual" stand were conducted on aerodynamic and temperature indices. The great advantage of this laboratory stand is the ability to adjust the amount of air passing through this booth and the amount of heat. The disadvantage of this booth is a calorifer installation that has too much power. During the tests, a modernization of the plant was performed to improve the output parameters for improved convection drying. Convection drying of plums and other fruits was carried out, and comparison of convective drying of plums in comparison with natural drying. Taking into account the previous one, it should be noted that now two main methods of drying are known - natural and artificial, convective (drying with heated air), which is more common. Natural drying is cheap and traditional, but its application depends on the weather conditions and requires large production space and time to receive the finished product. In addition, it is necessary to protect the fruits and berries from insects, small animals and from contact with sources of dirt. With convective drying, you can control these adverse factors and increase the average drying speed, but operating costs increase. In the future, at this laboratory stand, laboratory studies can be carried out to compare the effects of different amounts of "flow" of a drying agent at a constant temperature on the speed of drying of products and taste. It should also be noted that this stand on the study of convective drying can be used to study the processes of drying vegetables, fruits, berries, mushrooms and other plant material in the educational process, as well as for research