Drying kinetics of eggplant (Solanum melongena) in a fluidized bed dryer: experimental evaluation and modelling

Drying kinetics of eggplant (Solanum melongena) in a fluidized bed dryer: experimental evaluation and modelling

2015

E12651

The drying kinetics of eggplant were studied experimentally in a laboratory-scale fluidized bed dryer. Experiments were conducted at drying temperatures of 60, 70, and 80C and at constant air velocity of 3.10ms1. The drying rate and moisture ratio were determined as a function of time. At any given temperature, only the falling rate period was observed during the drying process. Effective moisture diffusivity was in the range 2.6674.311 × 108 m2/s while activation energy of 23.5 kJmol1 was obtained from the Arrhenius equation. The experimental moisture ratio data was fitted to ten mathematical models. Statistical analysis showed that the by Demir et al. has the best fit quality. In terms of product quality, the dried samples had low rehydration ratio of 4.889. In addition, compared to direct sunlight drying, the dried product from the fluidized bed dryer exhibited better color quality.

2015:Article ID 343945, JOURNAL OF FOOD PROCESSING

Research > Published Articles