CONVECTIVE DRYING CHARACTERISTICS OF EGGPLANT SLICES

摘要

The effects of air temperature and sample thickness on the drying kineticsnof blanched/unblanched eggplant slices were investigated. Eggplant slicesnwere dried as single layers with thicknesses of 0.5 and 1 cm in the range ofn50–80C of drying air temperature in a cabinet dryer. Moisture transfer fromneggplant slices was described by applying Fick’s diffusion model. The valuesnof effective diffusivity varied from 0.93 ¥ 10-10 to 8.84 ¥ 10-10 m2/s, dependingnon drying conditions. Effective diffusivity values increased with increasingntemperature. The temperature dependence of the effective diffusivity was foundnto follow the Arrhenius relationship. The values of activation energy (Ea)nvaried from 20.12 to 30.83 kJ/mol for blanched/unblanched eggplant slices. Annonlinear regression procedure was used to fit two semi-theoretical modelsnavailable in the literature to the experimental moisture loss data. The modelsnwere compared based on the coefficient of determination, the reduced chisquarenand the root mean square error between the observed and predictednmoisture ratios. The Page model was found to be most suitable in describingnthe drying characteristics of eggplant slices.