Experimental Investigation of a Heat Pump Assisted Fluidized Bed Dryer

The drying or dehydration is the controlled heating of food products to evaporate quantified amount of moisture that is originally present in it. Drying of food products is essential to enhance the shelf life of the product without quality losses over an extended period of time. It is an energy intensive process. The fluidized bed dryer with heat pump is one of the efficient method to reduce the energy. This project presents the design of fluidized bed dryer with heat pump. Drying was carried out in three different temperatures 50, 55 and 60°C. Comparisons of all three cases were made and it was found that inlet air temperature is the main parameter that affect the drying time. The drying time is decreases as the inlet temperature increases. Citation: Gokul G Nair, M A College of engineering, Kothamangalam; Dr. Jeoju M Issac , M A College of engineering, Kothamangalam; Nidhin A R , M A College of engineering, Kothamangalam; Binu Varghese , M A College of engineering, Kothamangalam; Swagath v mohan , M A College of engineering, Kothamangalam. "Experimental Investigation of a Heat Pump Assisted Fluidized Bed Dryer." Global Research and Development Journal For Engineering 26 2017: 124 - 129.