Hybrid infrared with hot air drying of Pisang‐Awak banana: Kinetics and shrinkage quality

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop the prototype drying system for drying the Pisang-Awak (PA) banana. It was designed and implemented to study the drying kinetics in each drying mode: hot air drying (HA), infrared drying (IR), and hybrid drying (Hy). The experimental results were fit with simulation results from the finite element method (FEM). Two statistical parameters, the coefficient of determination R 2 and the root mean square error RMSE ð Þ, were used to assess the fit between experimental results and simulation results, and their respective ranges were 0.960-0.997 and 0.014-0.050. For PA banana drying the most suitable drying mode is hybrid, combining 1.5 m/s flow of hot air and IR heating at 60 C drying temperature. The axial and radial shrinkages of PA banana were the largest in Hy mode at 60 C, namely 18.2 and 27.3%, respectively, and this choice gave the best/lowest specific energy consumption (SEC) for drying performance and the best final dried PA banana. Practical ApplicationsThe understanding of the drying kinetics and shrinkage properties of the dried PA banana is important for the choice of drying process because these reflect the quality of the dried product and help an engineer to design the drying system. Therefore, the empirical mathematical modeling of the drying process serves a crucial role in the food industry sector. These results can be used to quantify temperature and moisture content as functions of drying time to monitor the drying process of PA banana, saving energy and time. | INTRODUCTIONIn the years 2017-2019, the top three produced bananas in Thailand were Pisang-Awak (PA) banana, Banana, and Pisang-Mas banana, at respectively 3,993, 903, and 670 ktons (Department of Agricultural Extension, n.d.). The PA banana is an economic plant widely used in Thai dessert recipes. Consuming two such bananas can give enough energy for up to 90 min of exercise, with also large doses of dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Benefits of bananas to the human body include reducing bad breath, providing anti-oxidants, and relief to constipation, morning sickness, hemorrhoids, obesity, high blood pressure, broken capillaries, and so on (Robinson & Galan Sauco, 2011).Growing bananas gives year-round production in Thailand, but in some seasons the production can exceed the demand, while the shelf life of bananas is only 5 to 7 days before spoilage by the enzymes in them (Naknaen, Charoenthaikij, & Kerdsup, 2016;Sankat & Castaigne, 2004). Processing banana is an alternative way to address this problem.Drying is one way to preserve food products for prolonged storage. It removes water or moisture under controlled conditions by the use of heat. The low moisture level then inhibits the growth of harmful microbes, inactivates enzymes, and helps avoid toxins, parasites, and various insects (Bala, Mondol, Biswas, Das Chowdury, & Janjai, 2003). The design of a drying system requires the use of

Determination and comparison of effective moisture diffusivity of carrot (core and cortex) during hot air drying

“…Finite element method (FEM) is a powerful numerical technique that was used to simulate phenomena in food processing such as heat and/or mass transfer, internal stress distribution, as well as chemical and biological processes (Ashtiani et al, 2019; Chiang et al, 2017; Hao et al, 2017; Vishwakarma et al, 2022). FEM also used to simulate the drying process to explore the drying mechanisms for optimizing the design of the drying devices as well as the drying conditions (Kamali et al, 2021; Nachaisin et al, 2016; Puangsuwan et al, 2021; Yazicioglu et al, 2021). The more accurate the simulation parameters are, the more realistic the drying results are obtained by the FEM (Chen et al, 2020).…”

Finite element modeling in heat and mass transfer of potato slice dehydration, nonisotropic shrinkage kinetics using arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian algorithm and artificial neural network

“…The previous study reported jackfruit drying, where they have considered all the above‐mentioned considerations for the modeling purposes (Tuly et al, 2023). Studies available on the FEM‐based HMT modeling of drying considered material properties as constant (Hashemi & Ranjbar Nedamani, 2022; Puangsuwan et al, 2021). Hence, HMT modeling with the incorporation of variable material properties along with shrinkage studied in the current work will add novelty.…”

Determination of shrinkage characteristics of pumpkin discs during convection, microwave, and combined drying using computer‐aided technique: Image processing application

“…Different physical methods are used to determine the degree of shrinkage in meals. These approaches include taking repeated measurements of the food before and after drying with a ruler or digital caliper and estimating the shrinkage ratio using an average computation (Puangsuwan et al, 2021). Furthermore, one of the most widely used approaches is to calculate the food's shrinkage rate using the principle of displacing the food with water by placing it into metered containers holding water or organic solvent.…”