Drying Food Waste Using a Conventional Tray Cabinet Dryer

In order to reduce leachate from food waste a conventional tray cabinet dryer was designed and built, and the drying process of these wastes was investigated. A 2.7 kW heater equipped with an axial fan was used as the heating source. The experiments were performed at three temperatures of 50, 60, and 70 °C and three air velocities of 1, 1.5, and 2 m/s with a thickness of 3 cm. A conventional tray was used for drying. The Drying kinetics, effective moisture diffusivity and activation energy during drying of food waste were obtained. Results showed that improving air distribution in the back of the tray and no passing air on the sides of the tray causes that increase the drying rate significantly. The minimum drying process was occurred in temperature of 70°C and air velocity of 2 m/s at the 120 min. Effective moisture diffusivity of waste food during the drying process was in the range of 2.74×10-9-3.65×10-8 m2/s. The values for activation energy have ranged from a minimum of 21.6 kJ/mol in 1.5 m/s air velocity up to a maximum of 64.0 kJ/mol in 2m/s air velocity.