Osmotic dehydration and convective drying of coconut slices: Experimental determination and description using one-dimensional diffusion model

• Main Authors: Wilton Pereira da Silva, Cleide Maria Diniz Pereira da Silva e Silva, Juarez Everton de Farias Aires, Aluizio Freire da Silva Junior
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2014-06-01
• Series: Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences
• Subjects: Analytical solution; Convective boundary condition; Osmotic dehydration kinetics; Drying kinetics; Optimization
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1658077X13000209
• ISSN: 1658-077X

Mass migrations in coconut slices during osmotic dehydration and drying are described using a diffusion model with boundary condition of the third kind. The osmotic dehydration experiment was performed at 35°Brix (water and sucrose) and 40 °C. The convective drying experiments were performed at 50, 60 and 70 °C. The one-dimensional solution of the diffusion equation for an infinite slab was coupled with an optimizer to determine the effective mass diffusivities D and convective mass transfer coefficients h of the five processes studied. The analyses of the obtained results indicate that there is a good agreement between each experimental dataset and the corresponding simulation using D and h determined by optimization.