Blueberry means blue berry fruit, belonging to Rhododendron family and Ericaceae Vaccinium. Originated in North America, perennial shrub small berry fruit tree. Cause the fruit is blue, so it's called blueberry. Blueberry fruit is rich in nutrients, which can prevent brain aging, protect eyesight, strengthen heart, fight cancer, soften blood vessels, enhance human body immunity  with its high nutritional content.

Because blueberry is rich in anthocyanin, it can activate retina, can strengthen vision and prevent eye fatigue. It is also one of the five healthy fruits recommended by the world food and agriculture organization. Medical clinical reports also show that anthocyanins in blueberries can promote the regeneration of rhodopsin in retinal cells, prevent myopia and improve eyesight.

The size and color of blueberry fruit are vary with its species. When most varieties are mature, the fruit is dark blue or violet, such as rabbit eye blueberry, high bush blueberry and low bush blueberry, and a few varieties are red. The fruit is spherical, elliptical, oblate or pear shaped, with an average fruit weight of 0.5-2.5g and a diameter of 0.8-1.5cm. The maximum fruit weight of blueberry in rabbit eye can reach 25g. Blueberry fruit generally ripens 70-90 days after flowering. The pulp is soft and juicy. The seeds are small and can be eaten with fruit and without affecting the taste.

Blueberry drying process

The drying process of blueberry takes up to 20 hours, and the skin needs to be treated, otherwise the water in the middle is not suitable for evaporation, the sugar content of blueberry is high, and it is easy to lock the water. The drying process needs to be completed through 3-4 steps. The middle process needs to be stopped by standby mode, without moving out of the drying room, but the drying system is no longer heated, just let the air circuit circulate, so that the water in the blueberry is drying Natural infiltration in the dry room.

Next, take a Phnix dryer to dry 250kgs of fresh blueberries as an example to analyze the energy consumption and drying cost of blueberry drying.

First, put the picked fresh blueberries into a tray and put them into the material cart. The second step is to push the loaded blueberry material truck into the drying room for drying. Step 3: drying blueberries will be devided into 3 steps.

1^st step: set the drying temperature to 45℃, relative humidity to 12%, drying+strong dehumidification mode, drying for 8 hours

2^nd step: set the drying temperature to 55℃, relative humidity to 12%, drying+dehumidification mode, drying for 6 hours

3^rd step: set the drying temperature to 65℃, relative humidity to 12%, drying+dehumidification mode, drying for 4 hours

4^th step: The drying time of a batch of blueberries is about 18 to 20 hours. Check the quality and sort after dried the blueberry, then pack.

Note: the water content of blueberry is quite high, at the first step can extent the drying time to 1-2 hours according to the actual condition.Suppose drying 250kgs blueberry costs 20 hours, then Phnix dryer consume 4kW/h electricity, then drying 250kgs blueberry consumed 80kW electricity in total, the specific electricity price should based on the local condition. In this case, the price of electricity is calculated as 1 yuan / degree, and the cost of drying 0.5kg of blueberry is about 15 cents.