Freze drying or lyophilization is a drying process used to dry sensitive products. The freeze drying process is conducted at low pressure and temperatures, so-called sublimation. It consists of three phases: freezing, primary drying and secondary drying. Freeze drying is increasingly being implemented in the pharmaceutical and food industries, and is also becoming increasingly popular for home use.
Using a laboratory lyophilizer, we dried the fruit and analyzed the influence of pressure and temperature on the duration of the process, consumption of electricity and final dry value of the fruit. We monitored the individual stages of freeze drying by measuring the temperature course in the vial. We compared the measured dry values of the fruit with the values from the literature. System pressure in the lyophilizer and shelf temperature have a significant impact on freeze drying process. By increasing the shelf temperature, we can intensify the freeze drying process.
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