Using Humidity to Prevent Evaporative Losses

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Benefits

Managing humidity to prevent evaporation has many benefits

Improved yields

Products retain their mass providing greater sales value when sold by weight.

Enhanced quality

Materials that retain their original moisture content maintain integrity and quality.

Improved profits

Less waste, better quality and increased yield all result in more profits.

Using humidity to prevent evaporative losses

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Using humidifiers to create a moisture balance

Organic materials have an internal moisture content and will lose moisture to the atmosphere when exposed to air with a low humidity. Humidifiers are used to create an environment with perfect balance between the material’s internal moisture content and the air’s relative humidity. At this ideal level, moisture movement from the material is inhibited.

This ideal air humidity level for a material is called the equilibrium relative humidity (ERH). Different materials will have different ERHs and even the same material can have varying ERH needs, depending on its own internal moisture content. To determine a material's ERH, sorption isotherm charts are used. These charts plot material-specific ERHs at varying levels of internal moisture content for the product in question.

Temperature’s impact on ERH and moisture movement

A material’s temperature in relation to its environment has a significant impact on ERH and moisture movement. When a product’s temperature is greater than its environment, the potential for evaporation is increased. This is due to the heating effect the product has on the air adjacent to its surface and the resultant drop in relative humidity inside this micro-climate. The greater the temperature difference between material and the air, the greater this effect.

Conversely, if a product is colder than its environment, the potential for condensation and absorption of moisture by the material is increased. This can be seen most obviously when condensation forms on a cold glass on a hot day. But the effect is the same on chilled materials such as powders, paper or food stuffs. A low temperature and higher relative humidity by cold surfaces increases the risk of moisture movement into the material from the air.

If there is an unavoidable temperature difference between the air and materials sensitive to moisture, it's important to closely control the humidity levels. This might mean increasing humidity to keep cooked foods or freshly harvested warm products from drying out or lowering humidity to prevent chilled items from reaching dew point and developing condensation.

Improving profitability by maintaining humidity

Investing in humidification to prevent evaporative losses can offer significant financial rewards. By maintaining the ideal humidity level, moisture is retained in the materials being processed or stored. This has an immediate impact on profits for any product sold by weight, as there is simply more product to sell. A decrease in evaporative losses of 2% can represent an immediate 2% increase in profit.

For manufacturers who deliver orders by weight, preventing evaporative loss will mean less raw materials are needed for a specific quantity of end product. This can also result in faster production and therefore lower energy bills.

Quality is often improved by preventing evaporative losses. Food produce will stay fresher with a longer shelf life. Materials such as paper or textiles retain their integrity and elasticity, so behave better during manufacturing and result in better quality product. Processes may also be enhanced with materials that have higher moisture content, leading to improved reactions or flavours, and a higher market value.

Preventing evaporative loss is beneficial in many industries

Optimal humidity in the pharmaceutical industry

Discover Condair in action

Projects and references

Harrier Group, UK

Harrier Group, a leading UK digital printing firm, has invested in four Condair RS restive steam humidifiers to maintain the perfect production environment in its newly-designed, high-tech print room.

Harrier Group, UK

Bajrang Tea, India

JetSpray humidifiers from Condair are maintaining an optimum 95% relative humidity (%RH) above the continuous fermentation machines at Bajrang Tea factory in West Bengal, maximising the quality of the tea produced there. The improved humidity control has resulted in enhanced fermentation of the tea with better infusion and liquor, and ultimately a higher market value.

Bajrang Tea, India

Fogra Forschungsinstitut für Medientechnologien e.V., Aschheim (Germany)

"Fogra “ researches, tests, certifies": Under this motto, the Research Institute for Media Technologies develops application-oriented solutions for quality assurance in the printing industry. "We are the TÃœV of the printing industry worldwide and provide answers to the question of how print results can look consistent for different machines, materials and processes," says Managing Director and Institute Director Dr. Eduard Neufeld, summarizing Fogra's tasks.

Fogra Research Institute Aschheim, Germany

BluePrint AG, München (Germany)

BluePrint AG is the first German commercial printing company to use a Landa Nanographic printing press. To protect against electrostatic charges, the company uses an energy-saving high-pressure nozzle air humidification system from Condair Systems.

RDP_en-GB

V-ZUG, Switzerland

As a manufacturing company for household appliances for kitchens and laundry rooms, V-ZUG has a dual impact on the environment: they design appliances to be as efficient in use as possible, and they produce these appliances with maximum resource efficiency and minimal emissions.

The new Zephyr Hangarœ building at the Zug site houses a new sawtooth-roof structure that includes the pressing facility, where manufactured parts are also enameled. These production processes generate large amounts of waste heat, resulting in extremely dry indoor air, which in winter can drop to just 10 percent relative humidity. This presents a major challenge for the comfort of employees and the wood-intensive building, as the wooden structure requires a minimum humidity level of 30 percent relative humidity. Additionally, this situation poses a significant challenge for sustainable cooling.

This is where Condair comes into play! The solution involves Condair˜s high-pressure nozzle system,
ML-FLEX, with 152 nozzles providing a nethumidification capacity of approximately 280 liters per hour and a simultaneous, calculated evaporative cooling effect of 16 Kelvin, meaning the room air is sustainably cooled from around 38 degree centigrade to approximately 22 degree centigrade during the humidification process.

V-Zug, Switzerland

Sabuj Agro Tea Factory, Bangladesh

The Sabuj Agro tea factory in Bangladesh has installed a Condair JetSpray humidification system to maintain the perfect humidity in its production facility and ensure the highest quality black tea.

By maintaining 95%RH in the factory, moisture loss from the cut leaves is significantly reduced. This improves the fermentation process, resulting in a more flavoursome tea with greater market value.

Sabuj Agro Industries, Bangladesh India

Hewlett Packard

HP Inc. (often known now as just "HP") is an American technology company. It develops and provides hardware, such as personal computers and printers.

Hewlett Packard, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona - Spain

Fujifilm Imaging and Innovation Centre

A Condair JetSpray humidification system is maintaining an ideal 40-60%RH (relative humidity) in the Fujifilm Imaging and Innovation Centre in Bradford to provide the optimum atmospheric conditions for their paper storage and printing areas.

Fujifilm, UK

Quotes from our customers

Fujifilm

Steve Freeman

Jet Press Solutions Manager

Humidity control is important for paper handling consistency when running lighter weight stock on the Jet Press 720S in both the feeder and jetting area. We aim to maintain an RH of between 40% and 60%. Below this could potentially cause an increase in paper handling issues on light weight paper.

Once the humidifier was up and running correctly, it has performed well. It now easily and quickly gets the room up to the required RH and maintains this after start-up.

GM Steel

Robert Ten Cate

Consultant

By maintaining a high humidity in the chill store with a JetSpray humidifier during the initial cooling, moisture loss from the carcass is inhibited and can be reduced to less than 1%.

ICS Cool Energy

Malcolm Edwards

Group Technical Manager

The JetSpray has been in operation now for a number of months keeping the humidity well over the required 90%RH and maintaining a very low 0.67% weight loss. The energy and water savings are a bonus, and economies will also be achieved through its easy maintenance programme. All in all, our client could not be happier, and neither could we.

Darshananand Holdings Pvt Ltd (Bajrang Tea Factory)

Aditya Agarwal

Director

“Before we had the JetSpray humidifier, we were unable to achieve the high humidity levels we needed. Our previous humidification system also tended to cause wet patches on the floor nearby. However, since we had the JetSpray humidifier installed, the area is consistently at 95%RH and we’ve managed to virtually eliminate weight loss from the tea during fermentation. This means the moisture stays in the leaf, improving the tea’s fermentation and enhancing the quality of our finished product. We’ve found the JetSpray humidifier very easy to operate and the use of compressed air in the aerosol ensures we never get any drips from the nozzles or wetting on the floor."

Auro Weaving Mills - Vardhman Group

Mukesh Saxena

Chief General Manager of Fabric Operations

"The Condair JetSpray is maintaining the ideal humidity of 60%RH in Auro Weaving’s warping section. This significantly reduces the generation of fly and yarn breakages, helping us to deliver the highest efficiency and quality in the department. Since we installed the JetSpray humidification system, the ambience of the area is very comfortable and clean. We would highly recommend the JetSpray for humidification in warping and yarn storage, where reliable and accurate humidity control is essential."

Akubra Hats

Ron Palin

General Manager Operations

"The Condair JetSpray is maintaining the ideal humidity of 70%RH in Akubra’s forming room. This significantly reduces imperfections in the felt, helping to deliver the highest efficiency and quality throughout the hat making process."

BluePrint AG, München (Germany)

Gerhard Meier

CEO

"In-room humidification and process water from Condair guarantee us additional process reliability and quality assurance."

Fogra Forschungsinstitut für Medientechnologien e.V., Aschheim (Germany)

Dr. Eduard Neufeld

CEO

"The in-room humidification system ensures homogeneous humidification and reliable compliance with the required standard climate in all rooms thanks to the individual units."

Frequently asked questions

What else influences evaporative loss?

What additional measures can be taken, alongside humidification, to mitigate evaporative losses?

Reducing the surface area of a material that is in contact with the air will reduce or stop evaporation. This could mean covering tanks or not unwrapping ingredients prior to processing, thus physically preventing evaporation. When there is a difference in termpature between a material and the production environment, it can help to aclimatise the material to the area prior to unwrapping.

Will humidification cause materials to absorb moisture?

How can the potential return on investment of a humidifier be determined?

It is important to consider all relevant costs and financial benefits when reducing evaporative losses with humidity control. These can include increased product weight, better quality products with higher market value, machine uptime due to improved material behaviour, less raw ingredient being required, decreased production time and subsequent energy savings. Costs will include the investment in the humidifier, installation costs, ongoing maintenance and associated energy or water costs for the system.

Get free expert advice

If you want to explore your options for humidity control, Condair's expert sales engineers will visit your site, review your project and talk you through their recommendations.

Alternatively, if you would prefer a call or online meeting, our team are always happy to discuss possible solutions and offer free technical advice.

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