PREFACE
Drying is an important unit operation used in numerous industries and well known
as a dominant industrial consumer of fossil fuel-derived energy in developed countries.
As standard of living rises in the developing world energy usage for drying operations
will rise along with the demand for energy-efficient, faster, environmentally friendly
(minimal carbon foot print) and cost-effective drying technologies will continue to
increase worldwide. Indeed, the growth in energy consumption for drying will increase
at a higher pace in the rapidly developing world, in particular the rapidly developing as
well as very large economies of China, Brazil and India. As the fuel prices rise, it is
necessary to develop sustainable drying technologies using renewable sources using
innovative ideas. Drying of food products has been a very important industrial sector for
many years. This is also reflected in the continuing success of the International Drying
Symposium (IDS) series and numerous sister conferences as a well as a premier archival
journal devoted exclusively to drying science, technology and engineering. Drying R&D
seems to have reached a sustainable level of activity around the globe, still there is
tremendous scope to carry out R&D in this complex process.
Although a large volume of highly recognized technical literature is available on
drying of foods, it is still a daunting task to access and assimilate the essence of this
voluminous literature for researchers in developing and under-developed countries. To
alleviate this problem, Professor Arun S. Mujumdar has initiated a series of e-books
which can be made available freely or at minimal affordable cost even in the poorer
countries with access to the internet. Indeed, the internet has ‘flattened’ the world in
providing access regardless of the state of the economic development. The first e-book
of this type is entitled Mathematical Modeling of Industrial Transport Processes, which
is available for free download at http://serve.me.nus.edu.sg/arun/. This e-book is also a
part of this activity and provides a simple convenient introduction to the basic
principles, terminology, selection and classification of dryers, details on commonly used
dryers and new developments in drying of foods, vegetables and fruits. Our main goal is
to make useful technical literature available for particularly those who have little access
to expensive books and journals. Students and faculty members can use these books for
teaching purposes as well as for research and industrial needs. Contributors of this book
have tried to put their ideas in simple terms without sacrificing quality. All chapters are
reviewed by the editors at the same standards as those used by well known
international publishers. Indeed all authors are writing by invitation and have a strong
publication record themselves. This is a professional service on their part. We all must
be grateful for this thankless service they are providing in the name of humanity and
sustainability of global resources.
It is important to note that authors and editors have made special efforts to ensure
that this book and its companion books properly credit relevant early work but the
chapters do not include any copyrighted material. This e-book is carried out as
professional service by members of our international network of researchers and
educators in the hope of making the knowledge contained herein available freely
without geographical or economic barriers. The internet has made the world “flat”; yet
access to knowledge is generally restricted. We hope that this effort will provide rapid
and free access to relevant knowledge freely to those who can most benefit from it. We
are truly grateful for the outstanding effort of our authors and referees for their truly
thankless contribution in the interest of global dissemination of useful information. We
believe the e-books we are planning can be used for teaching as well as R&D purposes.