Drying is a common process for preservation of fresh products and fruits in order to ensure quality and shelf-stability. However, drying is also an energy consuming process which requires expensive fossil fuels or electricity and produces air pollutants that can damage the environment.
Therefore, the need for greener and energy saving dehydration techniques has been of great interest. One such approach is heat pump drying. [1]
A heat pump dehydrator utilises the latent thermal energy of the dried product as well as the electric energy of the heat pump to extract moisture from the product. The energy utilization efficiency of the system can reach about 40%-70%.
The performance of heat pump dryers can be characterized by several criteria including the COP and SMER (specific water extraction rate). These parameters are important for evaluating and improving the energy and drying efficiencies of such systems. In addition, an exergy analysis of the heat pump dryer is also useful in identifying the sources of existing inefficiencies in the system and reducing them.
Nyle Systems FD heat pump dehydrators are engineered to precisely control temperature, humidity, and dwell time to reduce the moisture content of food while maintaining color, texture, and nutrients. Our smallest system, the FD 60, has an impressive 18-rack capacity and removes up to 24 lbs of water per hour. Our largest system, the FD 675, has an enormous 138-rack capacity and removes up to 225 lbs of water per hour. heat pump dehydrator