Freeze-drying, also known as lyophilization, is a process that removes water from food items while retaining their nutritional value and taste. It is a popular method of food preservation, especially for items that are perishable or require extended storage.
Personal freeze dryer machine can be performed using a range of equipment, each with its advantages and disadvantages.
Equipment Used In Freeze Drying
The process of freeze-drying requires specialized equipment to ensure that the food is properly preserved. The equipment used in freeze-drying includes a freeze dried food equipment, a vacuum pump, and a condenser. These components work together to remove moisture from the food and preserve it for extended periods.
Freeze drying warehouse
The freeze drying warehouse is the main component of the freeze-drying process. This device removes the water from the food by freezing it and then sublimating the ice into vapor. The freeze dried food equipment is made up of three main components: a freezing chamber, a drying chamber, and a vacuum pump. The food is placed in the freezing chamber, where it is frozen to below its freezing point. The drying chamber is then brought to a low pressure, which causes the ice to sublimate into vapor. The vacuum pump removes the vapor from the drying chamber, leaving behind the freeze-dried food.
Vacuum pump
The vacuum pump is an essential component of the freeze-drying process. It creates a low-pressure environment in the drying chamber, which allows the ice to sublimate into vapor. The vacuum pump can be either an oil-sealed or a dry pump. Oil-sealed pumps are the most common, but they require regular maintenance to prevent oil contamination of the food. Dry pumps are more expensive but do not require oil, making them a good choice for food processing.
Condenser
The condenser is the final component of the freeze-drying process. It captures the vapor produced by the sublimation of the ice and turns it back into a liquid. This liquid is then collected and disposed of, leaving behind the freeze-dried food. The condenser can be either an external or an internal component of the freeze dried food equipment. External condensers are separate from the freeze dried food equipment and require a separate cooling system, while internal condensers are built into the freeze dryer and do not require an external cooling system.
Process Of Freeze Dried Food Equipment
The freeze-drying process consists of several steps, including freezing, primary drying, and secondary drying. Each step is crucial to ensuring that the food is properly preserved and can be rehydrated later.
Prefreeze
The first step in the freeze-drying process is freezing. The food is placed in the freezing chamber of the freeze dried food equipment, where it is frozen to below its freezing point. Freezing the food ensures that the water molecules are locked in place and can be easily removed during the drying process.
Primary drying
The second step in the freeze-drying process is primary drying. During primary drying, the pressure in the drying chamber is lowered, causing the ice to sublimate into vapor. The vapor is removed from the drying chamber by the vacuum pump, leaving behind the freeze-dried food.
Secondary drying
The final step in the freeze-drying process is secondary drying. During secondary drying, any remaining moisture in the food is removed. This is done by raising the temperature in the drying chamber and lowering the pressure. The remaining water molecules are removed by sublimation, leaving behind completely dry freeze-dried food.
Freeze Dried Food Equipment
SJIA-N series freeze dried food equipment
1. Refrigeration adopts the world's leading technology LINDE-HAMPSON, with a recooler (using recooling for secondary cooling), high refrigeration efficiency;
2. Use environmentally friendly refrigerants (do not contain refrigerants banned by the state);
3. Refrigeration temperature: 3.1 Standard cold trap temperature (no load): ≤-60°C, room temperature ≤28°C, 3.2 Limit cold trap temperature (no load): ≤65°C, room temperature ≤25°C;
4. Adopt 7-inch touch screen, intuitive display and simple operation.
5. Support freeze-drying data curve recording function.
6. It is possible to set the requirements for the temperature of the cold trap when the vacuum pump is started, so as to avoid starting the vacuum pump when the temperature of the cold trap does not reach the effective low-temperature water capture performance, causing water to enter the vacuum pump;
7. With an additional set of sensors, it can be used to measure the temperature of the sample and record the data.
8. Temperature and vacuum with correction function;
9. With vacuum pressure display unit switch, support MBAR (millibar), PA (Pascal), TORR (Torr);
10. Upgrade the electric defrosting function.
Household freeze dried food equipment
Small food freeze dryers for home use are popular because they are relatively inexpensive and easy to use. They are also ideal for processing small to medium batches of food. ZZKD offers the following models:
freeze dryer food machine.
Features:
1. It can be equipped with remote monitoring and attack capabilities;
2. Heating the plate layer to accelerate the sublimation drying;
3. Small size, less space occupied;
4. One-button operation is simple, with built-in preset programs;
5. Expert mode, users can set their own operating parameters.
Production type freeze dried food equipment
Production food freeze dryers are large freeze dried food equipments that are usually the best choice for food factories.
Features:
1.The vacuum system adopts the combination of water-sealed pump and oil-sealed pump. The high-power oil-sealed pump unit is used to quickly pre-extract the air in the initial stage, and the low-power Roots water-sealed pump unit is used to maintain the working vacuum. It can reduce energy consumption, and at the same time, the water-sealed pump can extract water vapor, which avoids the disadvantages of oil-sealed pumps due to poor drainage performance, water vapor emulsifies and deteriorates the pump oil, and then causes the vacuum degree of the system to be unstable;
2.The heating is a closed water circulation system, which uses a three-way regulating valve to automatically adjust the heat supply of the water circulation system, precisely controls the temperature of the heating plate, and uses nitrogen to automatically set the pressure to ensure that the working temperature of the hot water is up to 100°C;
3. Adopt rear-mounted and lower-mounted water-catching cold traps. Compared with separate external cold traps, the passage is short, the resistance is small, the design of the water vapor passage is smooth, the water is evenly caught, and the water-catching efficiency is improved. The water-trap cold trap adopts the unique method of ammonia single cycle refrigeration. Compared with the general liquid supply method, the refrigeration liquid supply is stable and easy to operate. Small and medium-sized equipment can be refrigerated by Freon, and the supply flow is adjusted by the expansion valve.