Design and Development of Hot Air-assisted Continuous Infrared Drying System for Shrimps
D. S. Aniesrani Delfiya, K. Prashob, S. Murali, P.V. Alfiya, Lekshmi R. G. Kumar, Manoj P. Samuel
Abstract
The study was aimed to develop a hot air (HA) assisted continuous infrared radiation (IR) drying system and dry the shrimp samples under HA mode (45 °C, 1.5 m/s), IR mode (4500 W, 1.5 m/s), and a combination of IR-HA mode (4500 W, 45 °C, 1.5 m/s). The shrimp samples attained a final moisture content of 15.12%, 11.66%, and 11.98% (w.b) and drying efficiency of 8.78%, 15.65%, and 36.25% under the HA, IR, and IR-HA mode of drying in 21.5 h, 3 h, and 2 h, respectively. In this study, the IR-HA mode of drying of shrimp was found to be efficient with the lowest drying time of 2 h, the specific energy consumption (1.80 kWh/kg), the water activity of 0.57, shrinkage of 7.27, rehydration ratio of 2.40, and the maximum color retention. Thus, the IR-HA drying mode is superior to both HA and IR drying modes for shrimps drying.