Modelling of vacuum drying of cherry pepper

Abstract

Drying is a complex phenomenon and study of drying kinetics and modelling is very important for describing the moisture movement with respect to time and predicting the dryer performance. Considering this fact, vacuum drying characteristics of cherry pepper was studied at different drying temperatures (50, 60 and 70oC). Cherry pepper were dried from initial moisture content of about 400% (dry basis) to 13 – 14.5% (dry basis) at different temperatures at 630 mm Hg vacuum. Time required to dry cherry peppers at 50, 60 and 70p C plate temperatures were 19 h, 9.75 h and 8 h respectively. Moisture reduction of cherry pepper at various temperatures was modelled using thin-layer models viz. Lewis, Page, Modified Page and Henderson and Pabis model. Based on highest value of coefficient of determination, lowest values of reduced chi square and root mean square error, Modified Page model was found to be the best fit. Moisture diffusivity increased from 6.27 × 10-10 to 1.9× 10-9m2s-1 as plate temperature increased from 50 – 70oC. Activation energy was estimated to be 50.98 kJkgmol-1.

Microwave pre‐treatment for vacuum drying of orange slices: Drying characteristics, rehydration capacity and quality properties

“…Among the drying techniques utilized in the food industry, vacuum drying is an effective drying method especially for heat sensitive foods due to the major characteristics of the method such as high drying rate, low drying temperature and absence of oxygen in the drying chamber. Therefore, the nutritive values and sensory properties of the foods can be preserved by this drying technique and oxidation reactions can be eliminated due to absence of air during drying (Boris, Shrilekha, & Sujata, 2018). On the other hand, it has disadvantages of having long drying period.…”

Effect of Osmotic Dehydration Pretreatment on the Drying Characteristics and Quality Properties of Semi-Dried (Intermediate) Kumquat (Citrus japonica) Slices by Vacuum Dryer

“…Among the drying techniques, vacuum drying is a method that is applied for the drying process of several agricultural crops, maintaining their color and nutrients [ 31 ]. This method is effective particularly for delicate foods because of faster drying, lower process temperatures, less shrinkage of the food, lacking of oxygen in the drying chamber, and less energy utilization [ 32 , 33 ]. Vacuum upgrades the mass exchange because of an expanded pressure gradient between within and outside of the specimen to dry and keeps a low-temperature level fundamental for heat-sensitive foods [ 34 ].…”