DISCUSSION

The tray dryer is the device that is used for drying in industries. The concept of drying is
basically the process of water removal from the process material and other substances. The
removal of other organic solvents from solid is also said to be drying. Drying process plays the
important role in the industries especially in the food process industry. The wide varieties of
instant and dehydrated foods, which today are available to the consumer are amongst the
application of the drying rate. However, the quality specifications and energy conservation are
needed to be concerned in order to provide the consumer with best services of food and this can
only be done by using drying.

The experiment is done by using the SOLTEQ Tray Dryer (Model: BP722) and the sets
of green leaves. The general start up procedure and the experiment is begun. The data collected
are the velocity and the mass of the green leaves with the trays. The result of the experiment is
tabulated in table and the graphs of the relationship are plotted. The first relationship to be
discussed is the relationship between the moisture content with time. Basically, the moisture
content is the amount of the water in leaves which is needed to know as indication of the drying
rate. The higher the moisture content indicates the higher of the amount of water in the leaves.
The experiment is conducted for 90 minutes and the data of the weight of the leaves is recorded
in every interval of 10 minutes.

Then, the graph of the Moisture Content versus Time is plotted to observe the pattern of
the relationship. Theoretically, the graph will have the pattern of the linearly decreasing.
However, the graph obtained from this experiment is decreasing and further decreasing over
time. This condition maybe come from the few obstacles such as the leaves may initially contain
some water. This condition can be approved by the calculation of moisture content in the
experiment which is 1.252 at initial (time = 0), which is supposedly should not happen in any
ideal drying. Hence, the drying process is not taking place in its manner. The result is also
slightly different from the theory as the moisture content in the leaves may not easily dry as it
has the thick and semi-waxy layer at top of it.
 The other reason that can affect the inconsistent of the result is the time to collect the
data. This is occurs at which we not taking the data at the time at the point as it has long interval
that is 10 minutes interval. Hence, the human error can consume to the inconsistent of the data
collected.

Another relationship that needs to be study is the relationship between the drying rate and
moisture content. Theoretically, the graph will have the increasing pattern until it achieve the
equilibrium at some period of time. At that moment, the drying rate is said to be constant. To
observe the relationship, the graph of Drying Rate versus Moisture Content is plotted. From our
experiment, the curve on graph of the drying rate versus moisture content is totally different from
expected. The pattern of the graph shows the increasing and decreasing pattern of drying rate
versus moisture content. The plots seem shows the unstable drying rate is occur throughout the
experiment.

The inconsistent results obtained maybe come from the heater that is supposedly heat up
the air that being sucked into the chamber by axial fan. Therefore, it has a sensor that will cause
it to automatically control the power supply when the desired temperature is achieved and heat
up against once the temperature drops. However, the heater might be malfunction and this
lacking leads to the inaccuracy of the experimental results as the heater did not heat up the
temperature of the air flows. Thus, the drop and increase in temperature cannot be controlled and
affecting the moisture content in the leaves. To summarize it clearly, as the moisture content
pattern in the leaves is disturbed, the drying rate is also disturbed. So, before the experiment, the
equipment is needed to be check in order to get the maximum result accuracy.

The anemometer used in this experiment to calculate the velocity of the air by the fan.
The fan which produces high velocity of air can lead to the faster drying rate. This is occur as the
velocity of air can help the drying process in the leaving by fasten the drying rate of molecule
water in leaves. But, in this experiment, the velocity is not consistent. In such cases, the fan can
be said as the low efficiency fan because the velocity should be increase over time. Analogically,
the velocity of the air is low at earlier minutes of the experiment as the more air is needed to dry
the saturated moisture content of the leaves and as time passes, the velocity of air is lower as the
lesser moisture content in the leaves. However, the velocity in the experiment is not increasing
over time and this affect the drying rate.
 So, the experiment should be started by checking all the equipment. As the equipment is
controlled by the electric, the regular maintenance is needed to get the accurate result if the
experiment. The selection of the leaves also is amongst the things needs to be considered as
certain of the material cannot easily dry. When the material is not easily dry, the curve pattern
cannot be observed clearly in 90 minutes as the slow moisture changes over time is occur.

Reference

1. http://www.solution.com.my/pdf/BP772(A4).pdf
2. http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/5385/Drying_Variables_
ocr.pdf?sequence=1
3. buku separation (coplis tu)
4. http://www.uobabylon.edu.iq/uobColeges/ad_downloads/4_13474_558.pdf