Drying of Spirulina with a continuous infrared-assisted refractance window™ dryer equipped with a photovoltaic-thermal solar collector

Impact of Biomass Drying Process on the Extraction Efficiency of C-Phycoerythrin

“…So far, the analysis and selection of novel and affordable technologies for removing excess moisture in cyanobacteria can only be found in a handful of scientific papers. According to Rezvani et al [ 12 ], a continuous infrared-reflectance window™ dryer coupled with a double-pass photovoltaic-thermal solar collector can be an alternate solution for drying the Spirulina sp. biomass without degrading highly valuable compounds such as phycocyanin.…”

“…Another example is the application of accelerated solar dryers [ 15 ], which can significantly reduce the moisture of Spirulina sp. However, the technologies proposed by Rezvani et al [ 12 ] and Stramarkou et al [ 15 ], which rely on the intensity of solar radiation available at the time, the latter can be a problem for year-round operation systems located in regions outside tropical areas. Additionally, another problem might be the excess heat in summer, which can significantly reduce the content of phycocyanin and other thermal-sensitive metabolites such as carotenoids, proteins, carbohydrates, secondary metabolites such as Indole-3-Acetic-Acid, polyhydroxybutyrates, and others that can be synthesized by the microorganism.…”

“…Over the years, several pre-treatment methods have been designed and tested for the efficient extraction of phycobiliproteins. According to the scientific literature, the most frequently reported pre-treatment methods are freeze–thaw [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ], enzymatic treatment [ 7 , 9 , 10 ], and drying of biomass [ 3 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. In the case of freeze–thaw, the biomass is first dried with a mild method such as freeze drying or spray drying; then, the biomass is rehydrated using a known volume of cold phosphate buffer or a mixture of green solvents and mixed using a bead-miller, sonicator, or another equipment available.…”

“…One of the main advantages of removing excess moisture is the reduction of the degrading time of the biomass and its metabolites by inner enzymes and exogenous organisms, which in turn increases its shell life [ 12 ], allowing the transportation and handling of the produced biomass until it reaches its final destination. There are some drawbacks that make this process less preferable.…”

Recent developments in tomato drying techniques: A comprehensive review

“…Currently, there is an emerging trend of using novel drying techniques that substantially increase the drying rates and enhance product quality. Thus, modern drying practices such as microwave drying (Guemouni et al, 2022), air‐impingement jet drying (Tan, Miao, et al, 2021), novel halogen drying (Al‐Hilphy et al, 2021), refractance window drying (Rezvani et al, 2022), spray‐drying, freeze‐drying, (G. Rajkumar et al, 2020), drum‐drying (Qiu et al, 2019), and so forth have also been attempted in tomato. These novel methods alone and in combination with other heating methods offer several advantages, such as reduced drying time, improved heat and mass transfer, better control over temperature, uniform heating, better product quality, efficient energy utilization, and the ability to easily integrate with other modes of heating (Delfiya et al, 2022).…”