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Characteristics of Convective Drying of Pepino Fruit (Solanum muricatum Ait.): Application of Weibull Distribution

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Abstract

The aim of this research was to study the behaviour of the drying kinetics of pepino fruit (Solanum muricatum Ait.) at five temperatures (50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 °C). In addition, desorption isotherms were determined at 20, 40 and 60 °C over a water activity range from 0.10 to 0.90. The Guggenheim, Anderson and de Boer model was suitable to depict the desorption data. A monolayer moisture content from 0.10 to 0.14 g water g−1 d.m. was reported. The equations of Newton, Henderson–Pabis, Modified Page, Wang–Singh, Modified Henderson–Pabis, Logarithmic as well as standardised Weibull were tested for modelling drying kinetics. Besides, Fick’s second law model was used to calculate the water diffusion coefficient which increased with temperature from 2.55 to 7.29 × 10−10 m2 s−1, with estimated activation energy of 27.11 kJ mol−1. The goodness of fit of the models was evaluated using sum squared error and chi-square statistical tests. The comparison of the experimental moisture values with respect to the calculated values showed that the standardised Weibull model presented the best goodness of fit, showing that this equation is very accurate for simulating drying kinetics for further optimisation of drying times.

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Abbreviations

a w :

Water activity (dimensionless)

X we :

Equilibrium moisture content (g water g−1 d.m.)

X wt :

Moisture content (g water g−1 d.m.)

X wo :

Initial moisture content (g water g−1 d.m.)

X m :

Monolayer moisture content (g water g−1 d.m.)

C, K:

Parameters of GAB model

D we :

Water diffusion coefficient (m2 s−1)

L :

Half-thickness of the slab (m)

k i :

Kinetic parameters (min−1)

n i , c:

Empirical parameters (dimensionless)

α :

Shape parameter (dimensionless) of the Weibull model

β :

Scale parameter (min) of the Weibull model

t :

Drying time (s, min)

i :

Number of terms

R :

Universal gas constant (8.314 J mol−1 K−1)

T :

Absolute temperature (K)

E a :

Activation energy (kJ mol−1)

MRei :

Experimental moisture ratio (dimensionless)

MRci :

calculated moisture ratio (dimensionless)

z :

Number of constants of the model

N :

Number of data values

d.m.:

Dry matter

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Research Office of Universidad de La Serena, Chile, for the support provided through Project DIULS No. 220-2-06 as well as the Research Fund of the Department of Food Engineering of Universidad Católica de Valparaiso, Chile.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Engineering, Universidad de La Serena, Av. Raúl Bitrán s/n, Box 599, La Serena, Chile

    Elsa Uribe, Antonio Vega-Gálvez, Romina Oyanadel & Margarita Miranda

  2. Food Engineering Research Group, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Juan B. Justo 4302, Mar del Plata, 7600, Argentina

    Karina Di Scala

  3. CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Karina Di Scala

  4. Department of Food Engineering, P. Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Waddington 716, Valparaíso, Chile

    Jorge Saavedra Torrico

  5. Centro Regional de Estudios en Alimentos Saludables (CREAS), Valparaíso, Chile

    Jorge Saavedra Torrico

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  1. Elsa Uribe
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  2. Antonio Vega-Gálvez
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  3. Karina Di Scala
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Correspondence to Antonio Vega-Gálvez.

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Uribe, E., Vega-Gálvez, A., Di Scala, K. et al. Characteristics of Convective Drying of Pepino Fruit (Solanum muricatum Ait.): Application of Weibull Distribution. Food Bioprocess Technol 4, 1349–1356 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-009-0230-y

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