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Vacuum drying of apples (cv. Golden Delicious): drying characteristics, thermodynamic properties, and mass transfer parameters

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Abstract

In this work, apples of cv. Golden Delicious were cut into slices that were 5 and 7 mm thick and then vacuum dried at 50, 60 and 70 °C and pressure of 0.02 bar. The thin layer model drying kinetics was studied, and mass transfer properties, specifically effective moisture diffusivity and convective mass transfer coefficient, were evaluated using the Fick’s equation of diffusion. Also, thermodynamic parameters of the process, i.e. enthalpy (ΔH), entropy (ΔS) and Gibbs free energy (ΔG), were determined. Colour properties were evaluated as one of the important indicators of food quality and marketability. Determination of mass transfer parameters and thermodynamic properties of vacuum dried apple slices has not been discussed much in the literature. In conclusion, the Nadi’s model fitted best the observed data that represent the drying process. Thermodynamic properties were determined based on the dependence of the drying constant of the Henderson and Pabis model on temperature, and it was concluded that the variation in drying kinetics depends on the energy contribution of the surrounding environment. The enthalpy and entropy diminished, while the Gibbs free energy increased with the increase of the temperature of drying; therefore, it was possible to verify that variation in the diffusion process in the apple during drying depends on energetic contributions of the environment. The obtained results showed that diffusivity increased for 69%, while the mass transfer coefficient increase was even higher, 75%, at the variation of temperature of 20 °C. The increase in the dimensionless Biot number was 20%.

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Abbreviations

a 1, b 2, k, k 0, k 1, k 2, h, g :

Drying constants (s−1)

a, b, c, n :

Coefficients

b 1 :

Drying constant (s−2)

B i :

Biot number

Di :

Dincer number

D eff :

Effective moisture diffusivity (m2 s−1)

E a :

Activation energy (J kg−1)

h m :

Convective mass transfer coefficient (ms−1)

h p :

Planck’s constant (Js−1)

k b :

Boltzmann constant (JK−1)

L 0, a 0, b 0 :

Colour values of fresh samples

L i, a i , b i :

Colour values of dried samples

L :

Thickness of species (m)

l :

Half thickness of the slab (m)

MR :

Moisture ratio

M :

Moisture content at any time (kgw kgdm−1)

M e :

Equilibrium moisture content (kgw kgdm−1)

M i :

Initial moisture content (kgw kgdm−1)

MR pre,i :

ith predicted moisture ratio

MR exp,i :

ith experimental moisture ratio

\( {\overline{MR}}_{pre,i} \) :

Averaged value of the predicted moisture ratio

N :

Number of observations

R :

Universal gas constant (J mol−1 K−1)

R 2 :

Coefficient of determination

RMSE :

Root mean square error

T :

Temperature (K)

T abs :

Absolute temperature (K)

t :

Drying time (s)

u :

Drying air velocity (ms−1)

x :

Length coordinate (m)

z :

Number of constants in the model

∆G :

Gibbs free energy (Jmol−1)

ΔΕ :

Colour change

ΔH :

Enthalpy (Jmol−1)

∆S :

Entropy (Jmol−1 K−1)

χ 2 :

Reduced chi-square

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Machinery Mechanics, Azadshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Azadshahr, Iran

    Fatemeh Nadi

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics, University of Patras, University Campus, 26504, Rio, Greece

    Dimitrios Tzempelikos

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Nadi, F., Tzempelikos, D. Vacuum drying of apples (cv. Golden Delicious): drying characteristics, thermodynamic properties, and mass transfer parameters. Heat Mass Transfer 54, 1853–1866 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-018-2279-5

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