JPS6222548A - Green tea dryer having far infrared ray generator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain product green tea having high flavor, by mounting a far infrared ray generator in a drying chamber of a tray conveyor type hot-air dryer, irradiating coarse green tea with far infrared rays and heating the coarse green tea even to the interior. CONSTITUTION:A far infrared ray generator 5 is mounted in a drying chamber 1 equipped with tray conveyors 3 therein, and a hot-air producer 2 is additionally provided in the drying chamber 1 to supply hot air to the drying chamber 1. Coarse green tea loaded onto the tray conveyors 3 is irradiated with far infrared rays at the same time. As a result, the volume of the hot air to be supplied to the drying chamber 1 can be reduced by the quantity of the far infrared rays to be applied to the coarse green tea. For example, the volume of the hot air can be kept at the volume sufficient to maintain the interior of the drying chamber 1 at a given temperature. Therefore, the degree of heating the coarse green tea on the surface layer parts of tray conveyors 3 is eased. In addition, energy of the far infrared rays reaches to heat even the interior of the coarse green tea. Finally, the uneven heating of the coarse green tea is eliminated to give the aimed excellent green tea having high flavor as a whole.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a dryer for green tea, and is characterized in that it uses both hot air drying and far infrared ray drying.

(Conventional technology) Green tea is made by steaming fresh raw tea leaves, then processing them by rough rolling, medium rolling, rolling, fine rolling, etc. to make rough tea, which is then further processed by drying, pasteurization, etc. to make the final product. shall be.

Green tea is dried and its moisture content is adjusted to improve its shelf life and prevent the loss of its aroma during storage. scent is enhanced. Therefore, green tea.

Drying by heating is an essential requirement.

Green tea has traditionally been dried using a hot air drying method. This dryer is a so-called tray conveyor type dryer, and consists of a drying chamber equipped with a tray conveyor inside and a hot air generator.The hot air generator heats fresh air.
This is supplied as a drying medium to the drying chamber, and the crude tea loaded on the tray conveyor is heated and dried.

By the way, the tray conveyor type hot air dryer does not damage the sweets and has high drying efficiency.

This is an advantage, but on the other hand, rough tea is loaded on the tray conveyor to a considerable thickness, so the surface layer is heated by direct contact with the hot air, while the lower layer is heated indirectly. Therefore, differences in the degree of heating cannot be avoided. As a result, the coarse tea in the surface layer is heated and dried excessively, causing its aroma to escape, while the lower layer is not sufficiently heated or dried, resulting in insufficient aroma development, which is the cause of the production of green tea. As a result, green tea ends up being of inferior quality with little aroma.

For this reason, it has been desired to develop a drying method that can uniformly heat and dry rough tea to obtain green tea with a high aroma. However, rough tea is extremely brittle and easily crushed, making it impossible to use a uniform drying method such as a stirring drying method, so it had to be unevenly dried using a tray conveyor dryer.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned points, and when crude tea is heated by far infrared rays, compared to the case where crude tea is heated only by hot air or far infrared rays, Focusing on the fact that the internal heating reduces the difference in the degree of heating between the surface layer and the lower layer, we installed a far-infrared generator in the drying chamber of the tray conveyor type hot air dryer to dry brown tea. Far-infrared rays are irradiated to heat the rough tea to the inside, thereby reducing the degree of heating of the rough tea on the surface layer and increasing the degree of heating of the inside than when drying with hot air alone. The aim is to obtain a green tea product with a high aroma.

(Example) The present invention will be specifically described below based on the illustrated example.

In the figure, numeral 1 is a drying room, and 2 is a hot air generator.
iru. This dryer is a tray conveyor type dryer as an example, and is basically the same as a conventional dryer of this type.

That is, the drying chamber 1 is provided with several tray conveyors 3, and furthermore, on the top surface of the drying chamber 1, there is a hopper 4 for charging rough tea.
When the rough tea is fed into the drying chamber from here, the rough tea is first loaded onto the tray conveyor 3 on the top stage.
Thereafter, as the I-ray conveyor rotates, the tea is sequentially transferred to the lower tray conveyor, and finally, it is taken out from the drying room as dried green tea.

The hot air generator 2 is a kind of heat exchanger, and numeral 8 is a furnace and 9 is a vent pipe. A burner 10 is attached to the furnace 8, which burns fuel such as city gas or propane gas, and blows the flame into the furnace 8.
On the other hand, the ventilation pipe 9 passes through the furnace 8 and air passes through it, and this heat is transferred to the burner 1 described above.
It is heated by zero combustion heat. A ventilation chamber 11 is connected to the ventilation pipe 9, and the ventilation chamber 11 is further connected to the ventilation pipe 9.
A hot air blower 12 is attached to the 1, and the moderately heated air that passes through the ventilation pipe 9 first enters the air collection chamber 11, where it is mixed throughout and becomes almost uniform in temperature. Thereafter, the hot air is sent into the drying chamber 1 via the hot air supply pipe 7 by the hot air delivery device 12.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a far-infrared generator, which irradiates far-infrared rays toward the rough tea on the tray conveyor 3 to heat it. There are no particular limitations on the type or shape of the far-infrared generator 5. In short, anything that can convert electrical energy or other energy into far infrared rays, emit it outside the vessel, and irradiate it roughly to heat it is sufficient.

The figure shows, as an example, a system in which high-temperature exhaust gas discharged from the hot air generator 2 is converted into far-infrared rays. That is,
The far-infrared generator 5 is formed into a tubular shape and serves as a kind of conduction pipe, and is connected to the combustion gas exhaust duct 6 of the hot air generator 2.
The pipe is connected to the pipe so that high-temperature exhaust gas is introduced into the pipe. Of course, in this case, the far-infrared generator 5 is a kind of thermal energy converter, and for example, the tube wall of a metal tube body is coated with ceramics mainly composed of metal oxides such as zirconium oxide, titanium oxide, aluminum oxide, etc. It is formed by

(Function) When drying rough tea, operate the dryer according to the prescribed procedure,
While rotating the tray conveyor 3, rough tea is quantitatively fed from the hopper 4. Then, air heated by the hot air generator 2 is supplied into the drying chamber 1 to heat the rough tea in the room, and at the same time, high-temperature exhaust gas discharged from the hot air generator 2 is introduced into the far-infrared generator 5.

Then, far-infrared rays are emitted from the far-infrared generator 5, which is irradiated onto the rough tea on the tray conveyor 3, thereby heating and drying the rough tea.

Of course, in this case, if the amount of far-infrared rays is sufficient to dry the rough tea, the amount of hot air is reduced accordingly; for example, as shown in the figure, the hot air supply pipe 7
is divided into limbs and connected to the far-infrared generator 5, and part or all of the hot air is introduced into the far-infrared generator 5.

(Effects of the Invention) As detailed above, the present invention includes a far-infrared generator installed in the drying chamber of a tray conveyor type hot-air dryer, which generates far-infrared rays and irradiates the far-infrared rays roughly. By doing so, the amount of hot air supplied to the drying chamber can be reduced by an amount equivalent to the amount of far infrared rays irradiated to the rough tea. Since the amount of heat generated is sufficient to keep the room at a predetermined temperature, the degree of heating of the rough tea on the surface layer on the tray conveyor is slowed down, and in addition, the far-infrared energy reaches even the rough tea inside. As a result, the rough tea is heated less unevenly, and the loss of aroma due to overheating and the defective aroma due to insufficient heating are further reduced, resulting in an excellent green tea with a high aroma overall. be.

Furthermore, as shown in the figure, by using the combustion gas discharged from the hot air generator as the thermal energy source for the far-infrared generator, the energy of the high-temperature gas that was conventionally released into the atmosphere as exhaust gas can be converted into thermal energy. As a result, the thermal efficiency of the hot air generator is significantly improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional front view showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional side view of the same, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the main parts. 1; Drying chamber 2; Hot air generator 3; Tray conveyor 4; Input hopper 5; Far-infrared generator 6; Discharge duct 7 = hot air supply pipe 8; Furnace 9; Ventilation pipe 10; Burner 11; Air collection chamber 12; Hot air blower machine patent applicant Masashi Fukuchi'), shown: F Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A far-infrared generator is attached to a drying chamber provided with a tray conveyor inside, and a hot air generator is further attached to the drying chamber to supply hot air to the drying chamber and to cool the waste loaded on the tray conveyor. A green tea dryer equipped with a far-infrared generator that irradiates tea with far-infrared rays. 2. A green tea dryer equipped with a far-infrared ray generator as set forth in claim 1, wherein the far-infrared ray generator is a tube connected to a discharge duct of a hot air generator. .