Influence of Temperature and Air Velocity Changes on Drying Process of Peanut in Hot Air Dryer

Decrease of moisture content to safe level in order to reach maximum maintenance is the principle goal of drying agricultural products. Parameters of temperature and air velocity are considered the main important factors in drying process. Mathematical modeling of drying process is used to design and improve available drying system and also to control the process.
In this research, the effect of temperature (40, 50, 60 and 70 ºC) and air velocity (2 and 3 m.s-1) changes on drying time and rate of drying peanut using hot air dryer has been studied. Moisture variations during drying process under different conditions were fitted using various mathematical models including Newton, Two-term, Midili, Page, Modified Page and Logarithmic.
Factors of temperature and air velocity had significant effects on the drying time and the rate of drying (P Effect of temperature on the drying process was considerable, therefore an increase in this parameter led to a 67.8% decrease in time and a 109% increase in drying rate. The maximum influence of air velocity on drying time and rate was 37.3 and 20.9%, respectively. Moisture variations during the drying process were well fitted to a two-term model(R=0.999).