Case studies on the effect of the air drying conditions on the convective drying of quinces

Abstract

The objective of the current study is to examine experimentally the thin-layer drying behaviour of quince slices as a function of drying conditions. In a laboratory thermal convective dryer experiments were conducted at air temperatures of 40, 50 and 60 oC and average air velocities of 1, 2 and 3 ms-1. Increasing temperature and velocity resulted to a decrease of the total time of drying. The experimental data in terms of moisture ratio were fitted with three state-of-the-art thin-layer drying models. In the ranges measured, the values of the effective moisture diffusivity (Deff) were obtained between 2.67 x 10-10 and 8.17 x 10-10 m2s-1. The activation energy (Eα) varied between 36.99 and 42.59 kJmol-1.