Moisture Absorbent Packets

东莞市鼎兴实业有限公司

DONGGUAN DINGXING INDUSTRY CO.,LTD (CHINA)

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DESICCANTS ADSORBENT -- FIRST IMPRESSION

When I first wrote about desiccants, the context surrounding the use of

desiccants was a mystery to me. I knew that little pillows of gel were frequently

packaged with with electronic gizmos, new shoes, pill bottles and even clothing

purchased over the internet. I also knew that many articles, books and

websites with information about long term food storage also talked about

desiccants.

As far as my knowledge of desiccants went, I was clueless. What are they? How

are they used? And were they really necessary? It seemed that depending

upon who you consult, they were absolutely 100% necessary or a total waste of

time and money. Talk about being confused.

A lot of has changed since then. I am more educated as is the prepper

community as a whole. I now know that a desiccant is to moisture what an

oxygen absorber is to the oxygen in the air. Sounds simple enough, right?

Three years later, it is time to update what we now know about desiccants and

provide you with some easy peasy directions for making your own. But first,

what exactly is a desiccant?



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What is a Desiccant?

Starting with its most basic definition, a desiccant is a substance that absorbs

water. It is most commonly used to remove humidity that would normally

degrade or even destroy products sensitive to moisture.

As an oxygen absorber is to air, a desiccant is to moisture. That means items

that may be subject to mold and mildew if left unprotected in a damp area will

be safe from those nasties if stored with a little pillow or packet of desiccant on

board.

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There are many types of desiccants. Wikipedia gives us a lengthy list of

desiccants but instead of burdening myself with figuring them out on my own, I

asked my friend Mr Scott to share his knowledge of desiccants as well as the

results of his experiments using various types of this magical stuff.

Here is some of what he has shared with me.

Some Common and Not So Common Desiccants

Silica Gel: Silica gel is one of the more common desiccants. Crafty types use it

to dry flowers and in other projects. As with other desiccants, as water

evaporates from the flowers, it’s soaked up by the gel, thus drying them out for

posterity. Packets of silica gel are also found packaged with pills, over the

counter remedies and vitamins. What many people do not know is that these

can be reused if you dry them out using low heat in the oven.



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Rice: Rice is added to salt shakers to keep the salt flowing freely. So if salt is a

desiccant, maybe rice is an even stronger desiccant.

Calcium Chloride: Scott told me that he totally ruined a pair of leather shoes

once, spreading calcium chloride with a shovel off the back of a flat-bed truck

(to minimize the blowing dust) back in his college-student, summer-job,

road-construction days.

Mineral Clay Desiccant :

Mineral desiccant is eco-friendly products with pure natural mineral

materials,without any pollution manufacturing and using.Save and

reliable,avirulent and ham less to human body.100% biodegradable,can make

waste disposal after dismantling package.Superior Performance,good

hygroscopicity,hygroscopity amount to silica gel.(under humidity 80%)



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Bentonite/Montmorillonite Clay :

Montmorillonite Bentonite clay desiccant is an activated mineral material , the

eco-friendly desiccant is purely natural montmorillonite,made by dry and

activation.Do not contain any additives and chloride.It is the eco-friendly

product without corrosion,toxicity,public nuisance.The price of montmorillonite

is relatively low,and with good hygroscopicity.



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Fiber Desiccant :

Fiber natural desiccant, a newly-developed product, has strong capability of

adsorbing moisture in sealed environment. It is non-toxic and safe for

medicine and food use.

1 Natural plant fiber , safe , non-toxic , friendly to environment

2 Absolute adsorption rate is 3 times higher than silica gel(25°C,RH=100%)

3 Like thick sheet paper , covered by PET film , be free of space , compact

Appearance

White adsorption carrier with two sides covered PET film, the surface of which

printed with the name of product and Dont eat, in Chinese and English

respectively .



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Which Desiccant is Right For You?

Now here is where things get interesting. Scott ran some experiments testing

various types of desiccants and was kind enough to share the results and a tip

for making your own desiccant packets. Here, in his words, is what he had to

say.

So which desiccant is best?

To answer that question, I took one cup each of silica gel, rice,

calcium chloride, Mineral clay , Bentonite clay ,Fiber desiccant,

Quicklime,Biochemical desiccant,Container desiccant. Relative

humidity was in the 65-75% range. I weighed them in the

beginning, gross and tare, and at the end of 40 days.

And the winner is . . . Calcium chloride!

The net start weight of the calcium chloride – CaCl2 – was 224

grams. The net finished weight was 560 grams. So one cup of

calcium chloride picked up 336 grams of water in 40 days, a gain

of 150%. (It also doubled in volume.)

SIDE NOTE: At the time I conducted this test I was aware that

Cresson Kearny recommended against using calcium chloride as



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a drying agent in a Kearny Fallout Meter. He said, “Do not use

calcium chloride” (see page 215 of “Nuclear War Survival Skills”

by Cresson H. Kearny). Pretty straightforward. But he never said

WHY and that puzzled me because calcium chloride is a

top-drawer desiccant. Later on, I think I discovered why. After a

couple of months in a continuously moist atmosphere, calcium

chloride turns to a liquid. What part of “mess” don’t you

understand?

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None of the others (including the store-bought silica gel) picked

up enough moisture in 40 days to measure. The silica gel had a

net start weight of 225 grams and an end weight of 225 grams.

That’s for 40 days. No doubt a year would tell a different story.

Even so, calcium chloride was the clear winner. Please note that a

hard, half-inch thick crust had formed over the surface of the

calcium chloride. The crust was almost like concrete, really quite

difficult to chip away without breaking the dish.

So where can you buy calcium chloride? One place is in with the

canning supplies, sold by Dingxing Industry as “TOP ONE DRY”.

I put “packets” of desiccant in with my vegetable seeds, cutting,

folding, and stapling as necessary. Don’t forget that calcium

chloride can potentially double in volume from its original (dry)

size. So don’t stuff the packets. More is not better.

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Were I to use larger containers – 5-gallon buckets, say, or

30-gallon trash cans – for storing grains, flour, and the like, then

But whatever desiccant you choose and however you use it, it is

crucial to the success of your storage program. Crucial, critical,

important, essential, indispensable, all that stuff.

But Wait. There is More!

In the above comparison, I concluded that silica gel did not

absorb enough moisture to measure. Turns out I didn’t use it

correctly.

Silica gel contains “indicator” crystals. When blue, the gel is

ready to go. When pink, the silica gel is already saturated with

water vapor and won’t pick up anything further.And that’s what

I (mistakenly) did in my comparison. I used silica gel that had

been setting around for a long time and had pink indicator

crystals. After discovering my error, I dried the gel in the oven at

250 F for 45 minutes. The pink crystals turned back to blue and we

were ready for business.



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THEN I compared silica gel to calcium chloride. After four days,

they had both gained 14% of water weight. The silica gel topped

out shortly thereafter. At the end of eight days, the silica gel had

gained 18% and the calcium chloride, 50%.

Depending on your application, silica gel has a nice feature in that

it remains granular, pourable like sand, even when saturated.

Calcium chloride cakes into one solid lump.



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The Final Word

One really good use of a desiccant is to store one with the vegetable and herb

seeds we save at the end of each growing season. In addition, depending on

your climate and packaging techniques, it may not be a bad idea to include a

desiccant in with the grains and bulk foods we hope to store for months, years,

or even decades. Just know that a desiccant will moderate and maintain the

moisture content of stored food; it will not change or alter the moisture content

in the food itself.

In closing, I want to thank for industry educating relative to the use of

desiccants as well as experiments and methodology for desiccant

packets. Who would have guessed that coffee filters and a bit calcium chloride

or non-dairy coffee creamer would be so useful?

Further more products for you : Adsorbents & Dehumidifiers!!!



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Moisture Absorbent Packets

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