Dehydration / demoisturization

[physior]

hello!

what is the fastest and most efficient way to dehydrate/demoisturize?

thanks!

 

[Bystander]

Dehydrate what? Are you talking about drying tobacco, grain, milk, or dehydrating gypsum?

 

[physior]

I was basically thinking of dehydrating an amount of air
then I would be interested in dehydrating sliced fresh (not cooked) potatoes

 

[Bystander]

Drying air and using the dry air for food dehydration? Probably don't want to bubble/sparge the air through sulfuric acid then. Standard dessicants like silica gel calcium sulfate that can be "recharged" by heating should be adequate for dehydrating foods. Potatoes? Gonna be slow. If you've got refrigeration capacity, you could run the air through a cold trap; maintenance and prevention of Legionaire's, or other organisms in a cold trap might get FDA or public health departments involved.

 

[physior]

no no, don't confuse these two things

just say I want to demoisture an amount of air only

 

[Bystander]

Silica gel, calcium sulfate, phosphorus pentoxide, Karl Fischer reagent, various temperature cold traps, molecular sieves, come to mind immediately, and various combinations. Some of these can be re-used, some can't.

 

[mnmman]

I've used perlite in the past to get food nice and crispy. But make sure you don't let the food come in contact with the perlite, might be dangerous, I'm not sure.

 

[Chestermiller]

no no, don't confuse these two things

just say I want to demoisture an amount of air only

Buy yourself a dehumidifier at Sears.

Chet