Method and apparatus for drying plant material

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and to an accompanying facility (1) for drying plant material (19), such as, for example, fruits, spices, plants, herbs and the like, by means of a stream of drying gas which is supplied to a drying installation. The method according to the invention is distinguished by the fact that the material to be dried is distributed to a plurality of trays (15-17) of the drying installation (1), which trays are arranged one above the other and through which gas can flow, where each tray is supplied with a portion (10, 11) of refreshed and conditioned drying gas so that an almost uniform drying rate of the material to be dried is obtained on the individual trays. The facility according to the invention is composed of a plurality of trays (13, 17) arranged one above the other in the process space (3) of the drying installation (1) so that a first portion (10) of the drying gas can flow through them, they are divided in each case into a plurality of segments (12) and they have assigned to them, underneath the segments (12) of the respective individual trays (16, 17), in each case a marginal channel (14), a central channel (13) and a transverse channel (18), for supplying a second portion (11) of a drying gas.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.