This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Drying is one of the most important operations in the food and processing industry, primarily because of maintaining the quality of foods intended for storage and use over a longer period of time. Therefore, this process is justifiable to use wherever possible, and most often for drying fruits, vegetables, medicinal herbs, etc. The process of drying wet materials is a technological process, or more precisely, a set of heat and substance transfer processes, which is followed by structural-mechanics, and in some cases, chemical changes of the drying material. A well-conducted drying operation determines not only the quality of the finished product, but also the technical and economic parameters of production. In this paper, on the example of a tunnel dryer for raw plum, the calculations of the heat and material balance in the drying process are presented. These types of calculations, with the obtained experimental data, provide the basis for analysis, constructive improvement and modernization of tunnel dryers. This ultimately leads to the best technical and economic indicators, not just the drying process, but also the complete processing of the raw material.
The statements, opinions and data contained in the journal are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publisher and the editor(s). We stay neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
