Simplified heat and mass transfer modeling in a food processing plant

•Water residues in food production plants can be a source of microbial growth.•A simplified heat and mass transfer model for a food production plant was developed.•The model predicts well water weight evolutions and air temperature during drying.•This study can help to define optimized conditions to dry food production plants.

Inside a food production plant, bacteria can grow particularly in zones of high humidity leading to deterioration of food quality and safety. Cleaning and disinfection are currently practiced to reduce this hazard. However it is not always efficient; stagnant water is susceptible to be a source of microbial growth. To prevent this problem, drying must be performed but water may still not entirely evaporate at some locations. In order to optimize the drying process, a simplified heat and mass transfer model was developed in this study. Validation was performed by comparing the predicted water weight evolutions with the ones measured in a food processing plant. From model predictions, it was found that by reducing the air inlet relative humidity from 85% to 50%, the time needed to evaporate 90% of the initial water weight could be reduced by a factor of about 1.5. This shows the interest to dry the inlet air.