A Novel Approach on Atmospheric Freeze Drying: Basics,concepts and Methods

With increasing trend towards newer and better quality dried products,the development of appropriate drying technologies has become increasingly important. Vacuum freeze drying is the most widely used freeze drying process for highly heat products. This technique however, is expensive due to high fixed and operating costs as the moisture is removed via sublimation in vacuum. Therefore, efforts have been under way by a number of investigators to develop an atmospheric freeze drying system as a promising alternative cost- effective method. Conventional atmospheric freeze dryers utilize a bulky system of mechanical heat pumps to lower temperature and condensers to reduce humidity of the air. This book provides a novel technique of atmospheric freeze drying (AFD) in a vibro-fluidized bed dryer coupled with an adsorbent and multimode heat input. A detailed comparison is also presented. This book is useful for academics and industry personnel working in the area of low temperature dehydration processes. It should also be helpful to professionals in industry to implement new ideas for processing of high quality products.