Abstract
In tradition, there have been two kinds of drying methods, which are sun drying and artificial drying. The sun drying method which has been adopted traditionally has been replaced by the hot-air drying method which is one of the most general methods of artificial drying, with its simple drying system, low initial cost of drying plant, and easy operating method. But the hot-air drying method has some defects ; (1)much energy loss happens due to the discharge of hot air during the drying process, (2)control of drying rate is not easy on account of changing relative humidity of inlet air for uniform hot air temperature, (3)high temperature of floods in drying process brings about the production of low-grade drying products. Also, the hot-air drying method is inducing environmental and sanitary problems which are resulting from the emission of high temperature and high humidity air, including stick on the drying progress. Vacuum drying technique, whose drying time and 7uantity of exhausting energy is about 1/3 ~1/4 of hot air drying, is very excellent in the drying efficiency. As the results, it took about 20 hours for material to reach about 18% of the final moisture content in order to store products for a long time, from about 470% of the early moisture content at the beginning of drying, and maximum drying rate comes to about $0.35 kg/m^2hr$ at about 350% of the moisture content.