Abstract

Kinetic Drying and Mathematical Modeling of Apple Slices on Dehydration Process

Mohammad Zarein, Seyed Hashem Samadi and Barat Ghobadian

The hot air convective drying characteristics of thin layer apple slices were evaluated in a laboratory scale dryer. In this study, the required energy for dehydration of apple slices was supplied of the hot air drying. Drying behavior of apple slices was studied at 4 temperature levels (50, 65, 80, and 95°C), and at three levels of drying material thickness (3, 5, and 7mm) with the constant airflow velocity of 1m/s. Empirical data of experiments with variants of semi-theoretical and empirical models were evaluated. Finally, the results indicated that the Midilli et al. model was most adequate in predicting moisture transfer and root mean square error (RMSE), chi-square (χ2) and coefficient of determination (R2) were used for the determination of the best suitable model. The values of R2, χ2 and RMSE at 95°C of hot air temperature for 3mm of apple slices are obtained as 0.9979, 0.000092 and 0.01044 respectively.