Drying technologies in food engineering

Abstract

Drying is one of the primary methods of food preservation in the agro-industry and is a complex and energy-intensive process. In recent years, research in the fields of natural and technical sciences has focused on optimizing the energy requirements of industrial systems to sustainably develop and modernize various technologies. Many researchers deal with drying in the agro-industry, as evidenced by an enviable number of publications on this topic. In recent years, a large number of conferences and round tables on the implementation of energy-efficient technologies have been held in the Republic of Serbia. Conclusions have been adopted that The Republic of Serbia, except for the Law on Energy, has no accompanying regulations that would regulate the designing and constructing of centers for the drying, storage, and processing of agricultural products. Drying is one of the basic technological operations in the food processing industry. Attention was drawn to the extremely high energy consumption of drying plants. Some of the proposed solutions are rationalizing energy consumption at existing plants and adopting new, more economical plants based on new technologies. This paper reviews the available literature and research of a large number of international authors dealing with advanced drying technologies, improving the energy efficiency of drying systems and environmental aspects of drying to ensure sustainable development, with a tendency to provide a comprehensive insight into the complexity of the drying process, trends in the development of equipment and technologies, as well as ways to properly select the appropriate technologies depending on the specific feedstock being dried.