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A small scale honey dehydrator

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Abstract

A small scale honey dehydrator has been designed, developed, and tested to reduce moisture content of honey below 17 %. Experiments have been conducted for honey dehydration by using drying air at ambient temperature, 30 and 40 °C and water at 35, 40 and 45 °C. In this dehydrator, hot water has been circulated in a water jacket around the honey container to heat honey. The heated honey has been pumped through a sieve to form honey streams through which drying air passes for moisture removal. The honey streams help in increasing the exposed surface area of honey in contact with drying air, thus resulting in faster dehydration of honey. The maximum drying rate per square meter area of honey exposed to drying air was found to be 197.0 g/h-m2 corresponding to the drying air and water temperature of 40 and 45 °C respectively whereas it was found to be minimum (74.8 g/h-m2) corresponding to the drying air at ambient temperature (8–17 °C) and water at 35 °C. The energy cost of honey moisture content reduction from 25.2 to 16.4 % was Rs. 6.20 to Rs. 17.36 (US $ 0.10 to US $ 0.28 (One US $ = 62.00 Indian Rupee on February, 2014) per kilogram of honey.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for funding this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141004, India

    R. S. Gill, V. S. Hans & S. S. Dhaliwal

  2. School of Energy Studies for Agriculture, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141004, India

    Sukhmeet Singh & Parm Pal Singh

Authors
  1. R. S. Gill
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  2. V. S. Hans
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  3. Sukhmeet Singh
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  4. Parm Pal Singh
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  5. S. S. Dhaliwal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. S. Gill.

Additional information

Parm Pal Singh is formerly senior research engineer

S. S. Dhaliwal is formerly associate professor

Highlights

• A small scale honey dehydrator has been developed to reduce the moisture content of honey below 17 %.

• Maximum honey dehydration rate was 197.0 g/h-m2 for range of parameters investigated.

• The dehydration cost per kg of honey varied between US $ 0.10 and US $ 0.28 for range of parameters investigated.

• Dehydration rate was 2.89 times as compared to that of previously developed desiccant honey dehydrator.

• Energy consumption was 3.2 times less than that of the desiccant honey dehydrator.

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Gill, R.S., Hans, V.S., Singh, S. et al. A small scale honey dehydrator. J Food Sci Technol 52, 6695–6702 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-015-1760-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-015-1760-0

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