Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 2735–2740

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

New practical method for evaluation of a conventional flat plate continuous

pistachio dryer
Ahmad Kouchakzadeh a,⇑, Teymur Tavakoli b
a
Agri Machinery Engineering, Ilam University, Ilam, Iran
b
Agri Machinery Engineering, Tarbyat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Testing a dryer is necessary to evaluate its absolute and comparative performance with other dryers. A
Received 25 April 2010 conventional flat plate continuous pistachio dryer was tested by a new practical method of mass and
Received in revised form 7 February 2011 energy equilibrium. Results showed that the average power consumption and heat loss in three tests
Accepted 28 February 2011
are 62.13 and 18.99 kW, respectively. The ratio of heat loss on power consumption showed that the effi-
Available online 29 March 2011
ciency of practical pistachios flat plate dryer is about 69.4%.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Mass and energy equilibrium
Flat plate dryer
Pistachios

1. Introduction
In the recent years, the production of pistachio (Pistachio Vera l.)
in central Iran has increased dramatically so that it is now about
380,000 hectares and produces annually 350,000 tons of pistachios.
Iran is the most important pistachio exporter [4].
Pistachio nuts grow in grape-like clusters and an outer skin,
called the hull, encases each nut. When ripe, the hull turns rosy
and the inside shell splits naturally, indicating the nut is ready to
be harvested. Harvest usually begins in early September and con-
tinues for 4–6 weeks. Iranian pistachios are mechanically shaken
from the tree (in under a minute) or by hand at a low rate of speed
and fall directly onto a catching frame. At the processing plant
workers use machines to remove the hull and dry the nut within
12–24 h after harvest, ensuring the highest quality standards.
Technological advances continue to improve sorting and grading
techniques. For example, electric eyes detect any dark-stained
shells and blow them away in a jet of air. Further processing
may include roasting, salting and dying the nut red to meet con-
sumer demand. More than 90% of the pistachios sold are roasted
and salted [13].
The pistachios moisture at harvesting time is about 40–50% (dry
basis (d.b.)) according to date and climatic location. However, for
storage and consumption pistachios need to dry 5–7%. Rate of dry-
ing pistachios in free air is slowly and needs 2 or 3 days period that
produce conditions in with fungus growth. So pistachios dryers are
needed where pistachios in bulk expose hot air at temperatures
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 9124532128; fax: +98 8412227015.
E-mail address: akouchakzadeh@mail.ilam.ac.ir (A. Kouchakzadeh).
50–93 °C for 3–8 h. Huge amount of fossil fuels is being burned
annually in these dryers [4]. During the drying process, nuts can
undergo undesirable reactions (especially rancidity) which cause
degradation of quality, because of the odd colors and flavors
formed [3]. The pistachio is a nut with high lipid content and very
rich in unsaturated fatty acids, this makes pistachio nuts very sen-
sitive product owing to rancidity [2]. In comparison with other
food products, studies on the drying of pistachio nuts are very lim-
ited. Drying temperature affects the sensory attributes of pistachio
nuts and its roasted flavor increases during high temperatures dry-
ing (116–138 °C). Drying to appropriate moisture content (5–7%
(d.b.)) is an important factor insuring good quality. Nuts dried to
5% (d.b.) moisture are rated higher in crispness, and sweetness
and lower in bitterness and rancidity than those dried to 7 or
12% (d.b.) moisture. Nuts at 7% (d.b.) also scored higher in sweet-
ness and lower in bitterness and rancidity than those at 12%
(d.b.) [10].
Two different commercial dryers such as flat plate continuous
dryer (Fig. 1) and vertical cylindrical dryer (Fig. 2) were used in
Iran to dry pistachio nuts, but their performance has not been stud-
ied yet.
There have been several applications in the field of agriculture
and food products dryer evaluation such as evaluation perfor-
mance studies of solar cabinet dryer while with a load of wheat
by Sharma et al. [15], test and evaluation the drying characteristics
of various herbs and the dryer performance under various condi-
tions by Fatouh et al. [5], determination of the most efficient col-
lector of solar dryer by Karim and Hawlader [9], performances
evaluation of a reverse flat plate absorber cabinet dryer by Goyal
and Tiwari [6] and study in energy and economic effectiveness of

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2011.02.022
2736 A. Kouchakzadeh, T. Tavakoli / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 2735–2740

Nomenclature

Ga air flow rate (kg dry air/s) E power consumption (kW)

Gp nuts flow rate (kg/s) Eave average power consumption (kW)
W1 initial absolute air humidity (kg water/kg dry air) Cs specific heat capacity of moist air (kJ/kg dry air °C)
W2 present absolute air humidity (kg water/kg dry air) T0 initial temperature (°C)
M1 initial nuts moisture content (%) Ta present air temperature (°C)
M2 present nuts moisture content (%) T temperature (°C)
ha1 initial moist air enthalpy (kJ/kg dry air) Tp present nuts temperature (°C)
ha2 present moist air enthalpy (kJ/kg dry air) hl enthalpy of vaporization (kJ/kg water)
hp1 initial nuts enthalpy (kJ/kg) W absolute air humidity (kg water/kg dry air)
hp2 present nuts enthalpy (kJ/kg) Cp specific heat capacity of nuts in bulk (J/kg °C)
q heat loss (kJ/s) Cw specific heat capacity of water (J/kg °C)
qave average heat loss (kJ/s) M nuts moisture content (%)

fruit and vegetable dryer by Ivanova et al. [8]. In the most applica- 2.1. Theoretical methods
tions, the differences between the initial and final weight of mate-
rial were measured. Then the difference in weight was taken as Flat plate continuous dryer is a crossflow dryer; the airflow is
water loss and expressed as kilograms water per kilograms dry perpendicular to nuts bed motion. A partial block model of this
matter for one-liter fossil fuel that was burned or for one kilo- drying was shown in Fig. 5. In this block, the mass and energy equi-
watt-hour of electricity that was consumed and in solar drying ex- librium may be expressed as:
pressed per sunlight intensity ratio. These methods do not depend
on any characteristics of food-stuff in the process of their thermal Ga W 1 þ Gp M1 ¼ Ga W 2 þ Gp M 2 ð1Þ
treatment and properties of air. After much searching, the applica-
tion of a practical method to determine the performance of flat Ga ha2 þ Gp hp2 ¼ Ga ha1 þ Gp hp1 þ q ð2Þ
plate dryer using physical and thermal properties of air and matter
that does not need to complicated partial differential equations where Ga and Gp are air and nuts flow rate, W1 and W2 are absolute
was not found. air humidity, M1 and M2 are nuts moisture, ha1 and ha2 are moist air
The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of a enthalpy, hp1 and hp2 are nuts enthalpy respectively in and out of
conventional flat plate continuous pistachio dryer with a new fea- the block and q is heat loss [16].
sible method. This manner could be utilized in similar case for Enthalpy of moist air can be expressed as:
other agricultural products. ha ¼ C s ðT a  T 0 Þ  Whl ð3Þ

2. Method and materials
A pistachio processing plant located in central Iran was selected
for this study. Fig. 3 shows the eight unit operations in this plant
[11]. The experiments were performed on a pistachio flat plate con-
tinuous dryer (CMD 4000, Momtazan Ind. Co. Fig. 4) that was set up
for use in Astan Ghods Razavi pistachio processing plant located in
Rafsanjan near Kerman, Iran. In this region, pistachio-harvesting
season begins in late August and last through late September. The
pistachio nuts were daily harvested to match the capacity of the
post-harvest processing units. After dehulling, washing and separa-
tion the nuts were sent to a flat plate continuous dryer.
where Cs is the specific heat capacity of moist air, T0 and Ta are the
initial and present air temperatures, hl is the enthalpy of vaporiza-
tion and W is absolute air humidity [16].
Enthalpy of nuts may be expressed as:
hp ¼ C p ðT p  T 0 Þ þ MC w ðT p  T 0 Þ ð4Þ
where Cp is the specific heat capacity of nuts in bulk, T0 and Tp are
the initial and present nuts temperatures, Cw is the specific heat
capacity of water and M is nuts moisture [16].
By using this theoretical equations the characteristic and
quantity of required air for drying nuts to given moisture content
could be estimated. In this study, we present a practical method

Fig. 1. Flat plate continuous pistachio dryer.

 A. Kouchakzadeh, T. Tavakoli / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 2735–2740 2737

for performance evaluation of a conventional flat plate continuous

pistachio dryer.

2.2. The measurement appliance

Several values were performed in dryer:

1. Air velocity and temperature throw the fans were measured by

anemometer AM-4202 LUTRON with the sensitivity 0.1 m/ s
and 0:8  C.
2. Air temperature outlet the heater was measured by thermome-
ter TM-915 LUTRON with a type k thermocouple and 1  C
sensitivity.
3. Air humidity before fan entry and outward flow the pistachios
bulk were measured by hygrometer HT-3500 LUTRON with
the sensitivity 0.1%.
4. Pistachios bulk temperatures in the inlet and outlet of latticed
vibrant plate were measured by thermometer TM-915 LUTRON
with a 250 mm length prop and 1  C sensitivity.
5. The measuring of pistachios movement on the latticed vibrant
plate was performed by color painting some of pistachios in
the inlet and recording the interval in outlet.
6. For determining the pistachios moisture content, samples of
pistachios in the inlet and outlet of latticed vibrant plate were
taken and kept in plastic bags and subsequently the moisture
content was determined by oven drying according to standard
method ASAE, 2005 [1].
7. Properties of moist air were taken from psychometric Corwin’s
calculators that compute the charts and nomograms for humid-
ity, volume percent, density of air, dew point of compressed air
and other things [7].
8. Specific heats of pistachios in respective moistures and temper-
Fig. 2. Vertical cylindrical pistachio dryer. atures were estimated from equations presented by Kouchak-
zadeh and Tavakoli [12] as follows:

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of pistachios post harvesting processes.

Fig. 4. Illustration of pistachio flat plate continuous dryer (CMD 4000, Momtazan Co).
2738 A. Kouchakzadeh, T. Tavakoli / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 2735–2740

Table 3
Measured values of pistachios dryer with pistachios loads.

Measured value Test Test Test

1 2 3
1 Air velocity throw the fans (m/s) 16.5 16.5 16.5
2 Air temperature throw the fans ð CÞ 35 36 33
3 Air temperature outlet the heater ð CÞ 85 83 80
4 Air temperature outlet the pistachios layer 74 74 71
plate ð CÞ
5 Air relative humidity before fan entry (%) 65 71 68
6 Pistachios bulk temperature in the entry of 24 28 25
latticed vibrant plate ð CÞ
7 Pistachios bulk temperature in the outlet of 68 65 61
Fig. 5. Cross flow model dryer. latticed vibrant plate ð CÞ
8 Pistachios moisture in the entry of latticed 44 48 40
vibrant plate (%)
9 Pistachios moisture in the outlet of latticed 33.5 36 32.1
vibrant plate (%)
Table 1
10 Pistachios velocity in latticed vibrant plate (m/ 0.005 0.005 0.005
Measured values of pistachios dryer without pistachios loads.
s)
Measured value Test Test Test 11 Pistachios bulk depth on the latticed vibrant 0.06 0.06 0.06
1 2 3 plate (m)
12 Primary pistachios moisture content (kg water/ 0.44 0.48 0.40
1 Air velocity throw the fans (m/ s ) 16.5 16.5 16.5 kg dry solid)
2 Air temperature throw the fans ð CÞ 35 36 33 13 Extremity pistachios moisture content (kg 0.335 0.36 0.321
3 Air temperature outlet the heater ð CÞ 85 83 80 water/kg dry solid)
4 Air temperature outlet the latticed vibrant 79 78 75
plate ð CÞ
5 Air relative humidity before fan entry (%) 65 71 68
6 Length of latticed vibrant plate (m) 8 8 8
7 Width of latticed vibrant plate (m) 1 1 1
Table 4
8 Edge height of latticed vibrant plate (m) 0.32 0.32 0.32
Calculated values of pistachios dryer with pistachios loads.
9 Diameter of latticed vibrant plate holes (m) 0.005 0.005 0.005
10 Diameter of fans vent (m) 0.5 0.5 0.5 Calculated value Test 1 Test 2 Test 3
1 Pistachios volumetric in latticed 0.0003 0.0003 0.0003
vibrant plate (m3/s)
2 Pistachios density in the entry of 507.812 515.03 503.77
Table 2 latticed vibrant plate (kg/m3)
Calculated values of pistachios dryer without pistachios loads. 3 Average capacity of latticed vibrant 0.157 0.160 0.155
plate (kg/s)
Calculated value Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 4 Specific heat of pistachios in the 1082.491 1083.013 1081.94
entry of latticed vibrant plate
1 Absolute air humidity before fan 0.025 0.028 0.024
entry(kg water/kg dry air) ðJ=kg  CÞ
2 Specific volume of air before fan entry 0.910 0.914 0.90 5 Enthalpy of pistachios at 25.98 30.324 27.049
(m3/kg dry air) temperature before latticed vibrant
3 Quantity of humid air before fan entry 3.560 3.545 3.598 plate (kJ/kg)
(kg dry air/s) 6 Specific heat of pistachios in the 4629.7 4475.118 4550.409
4 Specific heat of humid air before fan 1.052 1.058 1.050 outlet of latticed vibrant plate
entry (kJ/kg dry air  CÞ ðJ=kg  CÞ
5 Enthalpy of vaporization at temperature 2296 2301.12 2308.79 7 Enthalpy of pistachios at 314.8 290.9 300.85
after heater (kJ/kg water) temperature in the outlet of latticed
6 Enthalpy of air at temperature after 146.82 152.24 139.57 vibrant plate (kJ/kg)
heater (kJ/kg dry air) 8 Air absolute humidity in the outlet 0.030 0.033 0.027
7 Specific heat of humid air after latticed 1.052 1.058 1.050 of pistachios layer plate (kg water/
vibrant plate (kJ/kg dry air  C) kg dry air)
8 Enthalpy of vaporization at temperature 2311.3 2313.82 2321.37 9 Specific heat of humid air after exit 1.061 1.067 1.056
after latticed vibrant plate (kJ/kg water) point of pistachios layer plate (kJ/kg
9 Enthalpy of air at temperature after 140.89 147.31 134.76 dry air  CÞ
latticed vibrant plate (kJ/kg dry air) 10 Enthalpy of vaporization at 2323.86 2323.86 2331.33
10 Heat loss (kJ/s) 21.11 17.477 18.39 temperature after exit point of
pistachios layer plate (kJ/kg water)
11 Enthalpy of air at temperature after 148.2 155.64 137.92
exit point of pistachios layer bed
(kJ/kg dry air)
C p ¼ 150559:3M þ 387:87837T þ 283301:6M 2 12 Left side of Eq. (2) (kJ/ s ) 526.758 544.543 536.365
2 3 13 Right side of Eq. (2) (kJ/ s ) 598.228 615.76 601.765
 7:46351T þ 2315:373851MT  281406:5M 14 Difference between left and right in 71.47 71.217 65.4
Eq. (2) (kJ/ s )
þ 0:038866T 3  947:32602M2 T  10:165614T 2 M ð5Þ
15 Difference between left and right in 11.95 11.57 10.88
Eq. (2) (%)
where Cp, M, T are specific heat, moisture content and temperature
of bulk pistachios, respectively.
Eq. (5) is valid for above 50  C that pistachios on the outlet of
dryer have the same temperatures and the equation by Razavi
and Taghizadeh [14] was used for calculating the specific heats where Cp, M, T are specific heat, moisture content and temperature
at temperatures for inlet of dryer as follows: of bulk pistachios, respectively.
Eq. (6) was used for calculating the pistachios specific heats at
C p ¼ 0:00680T þ 0:13722M  0:00205M 2  0:11279 ð6Þ temperatures about 25—35  C for inlet of dryer.
 A. Kouchakzadeh, T. Tavakoli / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 2735–2740 2739

Fig. 6. The enthalpy of pistachios on the inlet and outlet of dryer.

Fig. 7. Power consumption and heat loss in pistachios dryer.

3. The tests

2. Dryer power consumption.

3.1. Dryer without load
Test1: E ¼ Gp ðHp2  Hp1 Þ þ q ¼ 66:45 kW
Test 2: E ¼ Gp ðHp2  Hp1 Þ þ q ¼ 59:17 kW
To evaluate the heat loss in dryer, three tests were down with-
Test 3: E ¼ Gp ðHp2  Hp1 Þ þ q ¼ 60:76 kW
out pistachios loads. Table 1 show the measured and Table 2 show
the calculated values.
Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 shows the results.The average power consump-
3.2. Dryer with pistachios loads tion (Eave) and heat loss (qave) in three tests are 62.13 and
18.99 kW, respectively.
Three tests were down with pistachios loads, the measured and
calculated values were shown in Table 3 and Table 4. 3. The ratio of heat loss on power consumption is:
   
q 18:99
4. Results and conclusions 1  av e  100 ¼ 1   100 ¼ 69:4
E av e 62:13
A comparison between a practical pistachio dryer and the theo-
retical equations from thermophysical properties of pistachios This ratio shows that the efficiency of practical pistachios flat
shows: plate dryer is about 69.4%.

1. The average differences power levels in practical and theoreti-

cal (row 14 Table 4) is 69.36 kJ/s and average percentage of differ- Acknowledgments
ences is 11.47% (row 15 Table 4). These differences may be due to
measurement tools errors or other logical errors in equations of The authors gratefully acknowledge the Astan Ghods Razavi
pistachio specific heats and or moist air properties. Pistachio terminal Rafsanjan, Iran.
2740 A. Kouchakzadeh, T. Tavakoli / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 2735–2740

References [9] Karim MA, Hawlader MNA. Development of solar air collectors for drying
applications. Energy Convers Manage 2004;45(3):329–44.
[10] Kashani Nejad M, Tabil LG, Mortazavi A, SafeKordi A. Effect of drying methods
[1] ASAE. Standard for measurement of moisture in grin and seed. Agricultural
on quality of pistachio nuts. Drying Technol 2003;21(5):821–38.
engineers yearbook; 2005. p. 564.
[11] Kouchakzadeh A, Shafeei S. Modeling of microwave-convective drying of
[2] Brooke DB, Bakker FW, Hall CW. Drying and storage of grains and oilseeds. Van
pistachios. Energy Convers Manage 2010;51:2012–5.
Nostrand Reinhold, New York, USA: AVI Publishing; 1997.
[12] Kouchakzadeh A, Tavakoli T. The effect of moisture and temperature on
[3] Chakaverty A. Post harvest technology of cereals, pulses and oilseeds. 3rd ed.
thermophysical properties of Iranian pistachios. Am J Food Technol
New Delhi: Oxford & IBH Pub. Co. Ltd.; 1995.
2010;5(3):195–206 [Academic Journals Inc.].
[4] Data and Information Administration (DIA). Agricultural statistic collection.
[13] Dadgar F. Salting and roasting pistachios in Iran. Kerman, Iran: Momtazan
Tehran, Iran: Ministry of Jahad Agriculture of Iran, Dept. of Budget and
Industrial Co. (MIC); 2009.
Programming; 2008.
[14] Razavi SMA, Taghizadeh M. The specific heat of pistachio nuts as effected by
[5] Fatouh M, Metwally MN, Helali AB, Shedid MH. Herbs drying using a heat
moisture content, temperature and variety. J Food Eng 2007;79:158–67.
pump dryer. Energy Convers Manage 2006;47:629–43.
[15] Sharma SJ, Sharma VK, Ranjana JHA, Ray RA. Evaluation of the performance of a
[6] Goyal RK, Tiwari GN. Performance of a reverse flat plate absorber cabinet
cabinet type solar dryer. Energy Convers Manage 1990;30(2):75–80.
dryer: a new concept. Energy Convers Manage 1999;40:385–92.
[16] Singh RP, Heldman DR. Introduction to food engineering, 4th ed. Academic
[7] <http://www.issi1.com/corwin/calculator,2011-Feb-06>.
Press; 2008.
[8] Ivanova D, Enimanev KR, Andonov K. Energy and economic effectiveness of
fruit and vegetable dryer. Energy Convers Manage 2003;44.