DRYING CHARACTERISTICS OF TEA FLUIDIZED ON A VIBRATING BED .2. HANDLING OF DUST GRADES AND ITS IMPACT ON QUALITY

Extensive field data was collected on a Pilot Plant in 1979 to generat e basic design parameters for drying of tea on a vibrating fluidised b ed dryer and to improve quality of tea. A paper was presented in Dryin g '80 as Part I. Based on the above basic design, 400 dryers have been installed over the last 12 years in tea plantations around the world. Several improvements have been incorporated to handle dust grades as well as to improve the quality of tea further. This paper discusses th e importance of handling dust and analyses various de-dusting systems tried and the observations made vis-a-vis their impact on quality of t ea.