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Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar

Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University popularly known as HAU, is one of Asia's biggest agricultural universities, located at Hisar in the Indian state of Haryana. It is named after India's seventh Prime Minister, Chaudhary Charan Singh. It is a leader in agricultural research in India and contributed significantly to Green Revolution and White Revolution in India in the 1960s and 70s. It has a very large campus and has several research centres throughout the state. It won the Indian Council of Agricultural Research's Award for the Best Institute in 1997. HAU was initially a campus of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. After the formation of Haryana in 1966, it became an autonomous institution on February 2, 1970 through a Presidential Ordinance, later ratified as Haryana and Punjab Agricultural Universities Act, 1970, passed by the Lok Sabha on March 29, 1970. A. L. Fletcher, the first Vice-Chancellor of the university, was instrumental in its initial growth.

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Subject: Processing and Food Engineering × Author: Attkan, Arun Kumar × End date: 2013 × Start date: 2013 × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Development of a desiccant based food drying system
    (CCSHAU, 2013) Attkan, Arun Kumar; Yadav, Y.K.
    The performance of desiccant dehumidifier at different air flow rates, regeneration temperatures and at different inlet conditions has been carried out and the variation in absolute humidity, adsorption and desorption capacity was studied. It observed that when air entering the dehumidifier is more humid, it will be more humid leaving the dehumidifier. Process air outlet temperature is higher than the inlet air temperature due to the heat of sorption of moisture removed from the air is converted to sensible heat. The effect of regeneration temperature on process outlet absolute humidity has also been studied and it was observed that as regeneration temperature increases, the process out absolute humidity increases and similar effect has been observed with increase in air mass flow rate. Experimental tests were conducted to evaluate the performance of dehumidifier for air mass flow rate of 0.32 to 1.30 kg/s and regeneration temperature between 60 to 120°C and it was established that the regeneration temperature in the range of 90 to 120°C and air mass flow rate of 0.95 to 1.30 kg/s gave optimum performance. A desiccant based food drying system was developed and its performance was evaluated for drying of fenugreek leaves (methi) at drying air temperatures of 45, 50 and 55°C and results compared with tray drying. The parameter observed included moisture content, rehydration ratio, ascorbic acid, total carotenoids, moisture diffusivity and sensory evaluation. Results indicated that at higher temperature, drying rate was faster in desiccant dehumidifier dryer as compared to tray dryer. The moisture content of fenugreek leaves was reduced from 88.6 % (wb) to 5 % (wb) in 11, 10 and 8 hours in desiccant dryer as compared to 13, 11 and 9 hours in tray dryer at drying air temperature of 45, 50 and 55°C, respectively. The effective diffusivity values for desiccant drying and tray drying was varied in range of 4.06E-08 to 5.71E-08 m²/s and 3.40E-08 to 5.08E-08 m²/s, respectively. The fresh fenugreek leaves contained 209.2 mg/100 g ascorbic acid and 32.4 mg/100g of total carotenoids. The ascorbic acid retention among the dehydrated samples was maximum192.4, 185.3 and 170.6 mg/100g in desiccant dried fenugreek leaves and 170.5, 135.7 and 122.4 mg/100g in tray dried sample at drying air temperature of 45, 50 and 55°C, respectively. The fenugreek leaves dried at 45°C in desiccant dryer had superior green color and maximum retention of nutrients and hence the desiccant dryer is a promising alternative for food drying.