Dry basis is an expression of a calculation in chemistry, chemical engineering and related subjects, in which the presence of water (H2O) (and/or other solvents) is neglected for the purposes of the calculation. Water (and/or other solvents) is neglected because addition and removal of water (and/or other solvents) are common processing steps, and also happen naturally through evaporation and condensation; it is frequently useful to express compositions on a dry basis to remove these effects.
In food science and pharmacy, dry basis also refers to a ratio of the weight of water to the weight of a completely dry material, as opposed to the wet basis ratio of water to a material under normal conditions that contains a measurable amount of moisture.
Example
An aqueous solution containing 2 g of glucose and 2 g of fructose per 100 g of solution contains 2/100=2% glucose on a wet basis, but 2/4=50% glucose on a dry basis. If the solution had contained 2 g of glucose and 3 g of fructose, it would still have contained 2% glucose on a wet basis, but only 2/5=40% glucose on a dry basis.
Frequently concentrations are calculated to a dry basis using the moisture (water) content :
In the example above the glucose concentration is 2% as is and the moisture content is 96%.
References
- Jarvey, Nathan. "Wet and Dry Basis: Summary". LearnChemE. Retrieved February 5, 2024.
- "Measuring moisture content: It's more complicated than you think". Aqualab. 23 August 2023. Retrieved February 5, 2024.
- Neoh, Tze Loon; Adachi, Shuji; Furuta, Takeshi (2016-09-01). Introduction to Food Manufacturing Engineering. Springer. p. 53. ISBN 978-981-10-0442-1.
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