Automatic Sampling of Product Temperature and Moisture within a Heat Pump Apple Dryer Volume 3 - Issue 3

Felipe Espinosa and Federico Hahn*

• IAUIA Universidad Autonoma Chapingo, Texcoco México

Received:November 17, 2021   Published: December 3, 2021

Corresponding author: Federico Hahn, IAUIA Universidad Autonoma Chapingo, Texcoco México

DOI: 10.32474/ARME.2021.03.000164

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Abstract

Food losses in perishable fruits are present worldwide and in many cases half of the fruit harvested is lost. Drying is the oldest and most common food conservation process that increase product shelf life. However, some nutritional properties can be lost if dryer variables are not properly controlled. Heat pump drying (HPD) is useful for food products having high initial moisture as the dryer keeps the air relative humidity beneath 20%. A monitoring system was developed to check the homogeneity of each of the apple slices within a tray. The system touches all the slices within one row, before it moves to the next one. Product moisture was measured with a bifurcated optical fiber that acquired the 950nm and 800 nm wavebands and converted them to electrical signals with photodiodes. Surface plots show moisture measurements taken once the tray was inserted and two hours later.

Keywords: Heat Pump Dryer; Apple Slices; Moisture Fiber Optic Sensing; Product Temperature Sensing

Abstract| Introduction| Results| Conclusion| Acknowledgements| References|