A New Hybrid System for Reuse of Agro-industrial Wastes of Acerola: Dehydration and Fluid Dynamic Analysis

摘要

Fruit processing generates a large amount of waste that is generally discarded or underused. However the wastes of some fruits, such as acerola, contain bioactive substances with health promoting properties and potential technological applications. This paper evaluates the performance of a hybrid system composed of a microwave assisted rotary drum for the dehydration of acerola wastes and considers the efficiency of this new system and the product quality (bioactive compounds content). The mixture and segregation processes in the rotary drum induced by differences in moisture content, rotation speed, and filling degree were also evaluated. Good operating conditions for mixture were identified and they were related to the regimes of solids motion in the rotating drum. This study also analyzed the effects of power density and rotation speed on dehydration performance. Conditions with high moisture removal that lead to a product with high bioactive compounds content were also identified.