DETERMINATION OF THE DRYING KINETICS AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY OF RED PEPPER (CAPSICUM ANNUUM L.) USING DIFFERENT DRYING METHODS AND MICROWAVE FINISH DRYING

摘要

The effects of different drying processes (microwave (MD), freeze (FD), convective (CD), and vacuum drying (VD) and combined drying methods (FD+MD and CD+MD)) on the drying characteristics, effective moisture diffusivity (D-eff), and activation energy of the red pepper powder and total energy consumption of dryers were investigated. All drying processes took place in the combined form of constant and falling rate periods for all drying experiments except for CD and CD+MD. In order to determine drying kinetics of red pepper pulp (RPP) seven thin layer drying models were fitted to experimental data and Page (MD, FD, CD, VD, CD+MD) and Logarithmic (FD+MD) models which had the highest R-2 and lowest chi(2) and RMSE were found to satisfactorily describe the drying behavior of RPP. Findings indicated that compared to FD and CD alone, microwave finish drying resulted in D-eff values (p < 0.05). Specific energy consumption values ranged between 3.13 and 270.87 kWh/kg H2O.