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Objective: In order to preserve more volatile components of celery and reduce its moisture content. Methods: A hot-air coupled microwave drying system based on aroma detection was designed. An electronic nose （PEN3） was applied to detect volatile components, assisted with GC-MS to measure the specific content of volatile components. Based on constant temperature drying （50, 60, 70 and 80 ℃）, sensor 7 and 9 were chosen for subsequent combined control. Results: Comparing with constant temperature drying, the combined control drying using volatile compounds detection could retain more volatile substances, and a good balance had been achieved between the quality of the dried product and the drying rate. The drying time of combined control was 67 min, closing to constant temperature drying at 70 ℃ （63 min）. Meanwhile, optima color difference （16.313±1.745） and sensory evaluation （28.9） were obtained under combined control drying. Conclusion: Microwave coupled hot-air drying control of celery stalks based on volatile compounds detection could be applied to produce high-flavor celery stalks.

This paper presents the effect of drying control agents on the physicochemical and thermal properties of hydrophobic silica aerogels derived via the ambient pressure drying (APD) method by a surface silylation using a TMCS/n-hexane mixture. The structural and physicochemical properties of synthesized DMF-modified and unmodified hydrophobic silica aerogels were characterized using Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, thermo-gravimetric analysis, FT-IR, and Raman spectroscopic techniques. Based on the obtained results, the differences in structure between samples before and after a surface silylation and the effect of drying control agents were documented. The structural measurements confirmed the efficient silylation process (TMCS/n-hexane), as well as the presence of DMF residues of hydrogen bonded with unreacted Si-OH silanol groups within the silica backbone after surface modification. Based on TG analysis, it was found that DMF addition improves thermal resistance (up to 320 °C) and hydrophobic character of prepared aerogel. Modification of the silica aerogel synthesis process by DMF also resulted in a significant increase in BET—the specific surface area, for the unmodified aerogel was ~828 m2/g, and for the DMF-modified aerogel more than 1200 m2/g—much higher than the value of silica aerogels available on the market.

This paper presents the effect of drying control agents on the physicochemical and thermal properties of hydrophobic silica aerogels derived via the ambient pressure drying (APD) method by a surface silylation using a TMCS/n-hexane mixture. The structural and physicochemical properties of synthesized DMF-modified and unmodified hydrophobic silica aerogels were characterized using Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, thermo-gravimetric analysis, FT-IR, and Raman spectroscopic techniques. Based on the obtained results, the differences in structure between samples before and after a surface silylation and the effect of drying control agents were documented. The structural measurements confirmed the efficient silylation process (TMCS/n-hexane), as well as the presence of DMF residues of hydrogen bonded with unreacted Si-OH silanol groups within the silica backbone after surface modification. Based on TG analysis, it was found that DMF addition improves thermal resistance (up to 320 °C) and hydrophobic character of prepared aerogel. Modification of the silica aerogel synthesis process by DMF also resulted in a significant increase in BET—the specific surface area, for the unmodified aerogel was ~828 m2/g, and for the DMF-modified aerogel more than 1200 m2/g—much higher than the value of silica aerogels available on the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Enhancing the drying rate and dried products quality, as well as energy efficiency, is very tempting for the drying industry. Recently, a lot of investigations have illustrated that the drying temperature, air velocity, and sample thickness have significant influences on the drying process. However, few investigations took into account the relative humidity (RH) as an important hot-air-drying parameter in the drying process. Therefore, in the current work, white radish slabs were used to explore the drying characteristics and quality under the drying condition of a constant RH, decreasing the RH step by step and decreasing RH automatically, together with a constant air velocity of 1 m·s−1 and a drying temperature of 60 °C. Compared to continuous dehumidification, the step-down RH process was conducive to the material center temperature rise in the early stage of drying. When the material central temperature was increased and then the RH was reduced, the drying rate was increased and the overall drying time was shortened. The automatic-down RH control drying process includes three dehumidification processes. The respective RH control values were 40%, 30%, and 20% and the respective durations were 180 min, 90 min, and 60 min. The comprehensive quality evaluation showed that the comprehensive score of the automatic-down RH control process at 60 °C was the highest, which was 0.85. The L* and b* values of the automatic-down RH control were 26.0 and 1.67, respectively, which were better than those of the step-down RH, constant 20% RH, and constant 40% RH. The maximum rehydration ratio was 3.96 under the automatic-down RH control condition, and the quality was good. The lowest energy consumption under the condition of the automatic-down RH control was 0.90 kW·h·kg−1. The present work contributes to a better understanding of the effect of the RH on the drying characteristics and quality of white radish slices, which is useful for enhancing the drying rate and dried products’ quality as well as energy efficiency.

This paper presents predictive drying control design for a lab-scaled industrial pneumatic conveying dryer (PDC) involves with continuous/ batch processing of powder materials. The model predictive control (MPC) is an established method for drying control in various drying applications, such as fluidized bed dryers, rotary dryer, infrared dryer, timber dryers, baker's yeast dryers and so on. But the predictive control of PDCs have not been studied in the literature, however, these dryers are widely used in food, agriculture, and chemical industries, particularly suitable for batch processing of fine grained materials. The unavailability of any suitable control oriented first principle's model of these dryers make the predictive control design and implementation issues more challenging. Existing control methods for similar drying applications use outlet material moisture as a main control variable, online measurement, of which is difficult, costly, and unreliable due to the involvement of materials in granular/powder form. In the present contribution, an innovative control oriented model of the dryer is derived from first principle's encompassing a soft sensor-based online powder-moisture measurement procedure replacing the physical moisture sensors. The proposed physical sensor-less powder moisture control strategy stands on the traditional two-layer predictive control paradigm involving detection of an economically best operating point for batch dryer operation by optimizing the various process economic objectives followed by employing a suitable state space MPC (SSMPC) law for steering the process to operate at economically best operating point. The developed control strategy has been implemented and tested under practical settings and shown its effectiveness in improving the drying performance and product quality compared with an inbuilt auto-tuned proportional integral plus derivative controller of Honeywell make HC900 programmable logic controller.

Enhancing the drying rate and dried products quality, as well as energy efficiency, is very tempting for the drying industry. Recently, a lot of investigations have illustrated that the drying temperature, air velocity, and sample thickness have significant influences on the drying process. However, few investigations took into account the relative humidity (RH) as an important hot-air-drying parameter in the drying process. Therefore, in the current work, white radish slabs were used to explore the drying characteristics and quality under the drying condition of a constant RH, decreasing the RH step by step and decreasing RH automatically, together with a constant air velocity of 1 m·s -1 and a drying temperature of 60 °C. Compared to continuous dehumidification, the step-down RH process was conducive to the material center temperature rise in the early stage of drying. When the material central temperature was increased and then the RH was reduced, the drying rate was increased and the overall drying time was shortened. The automatic-down RH control drying process includes three dehumidification processes. The respective RH control values were 40%, 30%, and 20% and the respective durations were 180 min, 90 min, and 60 min. The comprehensive quality evaluation showed that the comprehensive score of the automatic-down RH control process at 60 °C was the highest, which was 0.85. The L * and b * values of the automatic-down RH control were 26.0 and 1.67, respectively, which were better than those of the step-down RH, constant 20% RH, and constant 40% RH. The maximum rehydration ratio was 3.96 under the automatic-down RH control condition, and the quality was good. The lowest energy consumption under the condition of the automatic-down RH control was 0.90 kW·h·kg -1 . The present work contributes to a better understanding of the effect of the RH on the drying characteristics and quality of white radish slices, which is useful for enhancing the drying rate and dried products' quality as well as energy efficiency.

Many of the production costs for producing tea are attributable to the process of drying the tea. E-manufacturing can assist companies to reduce these production costs by making crucial information available to decision-makers so that they can make informed decisions. This paper presents an application of e-manufacturing to the design of an automatic tea drying control system. This control system will ensure that the multiple drying parameters such as temperature, dryer-exit tea moisture content, and fuel consumption are maintained at optimal states during the course of the drying of tea. The additional aim of this system is to balance the cost of production and the quality of the final product. Using the Guggenheim-Anderson-De Boer (GAB) model, the optimum drying temperature was found to be 100-110°C, while maintaining a dryer-exit tea moisture content of 3 to 3.12 per cent, at a drying rate of 3 per cent per minute. A Barix control application to control the system’s activities, using the web user interface (WUI), was also developed.

Abstract This study presents a real-time drying control system that was developed to control air drying of sawdust in a pneumatic conveying dryer to produce high-grade wood pellets in the range of the target moisture content (MC). The real-time drying control system was installed with moisture sensors to control the ON/OFF periods of the fuel (pellet) supply motor for the sawdust to generate the heat necessary to dry the sawdust to an optimum level of 15% moisture content for pelletizing. The results of the experiment and the simulation showed that the drying efficiency improved when a buffer was introduced instead of using a conventional system, and the average moisture content of the dried sawdust was measured to be about 12.4% in a pneumatic conveying dryer without buffer and about 14.7%–15.2% in the developed real-time drying control system. This study shows that the real-time drying control system could dry the sawdust to the targeted constant moisture content, and the buffer in the pneumatic conveying dryer could improve the drying efficiency according to an increase in the resident time of the sawdust. Highlights • A real-time drying control system was developed to control the air drying process for sawdust in a pneumatic conveying dryer. • Drying efficiency was improved when the buffer was present instead of the conventional system. • The real-time drying control system dries the sawdust with constant range compared to the initial moisture content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Studies of terbium fluorescence intensity as a function of annealing temperature reveal the cause of increased fluorescence yields observed in rare earth doped sol-gel silicates prepared using -dimethylformamide (DMF) as a drying control chemical additive (DCCA). While gels prepared with DMF actually have lower fluorescence yields than gels prepared without DMF at lower annealing temperatures, DMF gels can be annealed at much higher temperatures while retaining high optical quality. At these higher temperatures, terbium fluorescence yields increase dramatically as the sol-gel network undergoes densification, closing the pores of the network and eliminating the fluorescence quenching silanols on pore surfaces. DMF is therefore found to enhance the fluorescence properties of rare earth sol-gel glasses by reducing micro-fracturing and facilitating network densification. Further investigations are underway to determine the effectiveness of other promising DCCAs, such as glycerol, and to explore the possibility of exploiting the solubility properties of DCCAs to improve rare earth dopant dispersion. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective: To prepare freeze-drying control materials of IgG antibody against Schistosoma japonicum for detection kits., Methods: The serum samples of schistosomiasis patients from endemic areas and normal people without history of schistosome infection or contact with infested water in Hubei Province were collected. All the sera were detected by the method approved by China Food and Drug Administration and selected for preparation of quality control samples., Results: Totally twelve positive quality control materials, ten negative quality control materials, and one sensitive and one precision quality control materials were screened. According to the positive serum level, the positive degrees of quality control materials were divided into strong, medium and weak levels. The stability could be valid for one year., Conclusions: The freeze-drying quality control materials of IgG antibody against S. japonicum for detection kits are prepared. They are easy to use and have good stability, and therefore, they may meet the requirement of quality control for the detection of schistosomiasis diagnostics kits.