Description of drying of jackfruit seed through diffusive models

Abstract

In the present work, drying of jackfruit seeds (with and without the endocarp) was carried out in an oven at temperatures of 60 and 70°C. The objective of this work is to apply two diffusive models to describe the drying of jackfruit seeds and use them to analyze the effects of temperature and endocarp presence on the thermo-physical parameters of the process. For this, two numerical solutions were developed considering shrinkage and diffusivity as a function of the local moisture content. The two models applied in this study were obtained as follows: considering shrinkage and diffusivity variation (model 1); considering constant diffusivity and disregarding shrinkage (model 2). According to the statistical indicators obtained, with values for the coefficient of determination that varied between 0.9896 and 0.9994 and chi-square that varied between 1.7764 × 10 −3 and 4.325 × 10 −2 , the two models proposed adequately fitted to the experimental data. Furthermore, these indicators showed a better adequacy of model 1 for this type of process when compared to results reported in the literature. Novelty impact statement:• This article proposes a study with jackfruit seed that is usually discarded by the food industry.• Two diffusive models are proposed to describe the drying of jackfruit seeds with and without endocarp. This proposal can contribute to a better understanding of the drying of this type of product, since there are few works in the literature that use more complex models for residues.• A strong influence of the presence of the endocarp on the total drying time and on the thermo-physical parameters of the process was observed. | INTRODUC TI ONJackfruit is a fruit of Asian origin of the jackfruit tree (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.) belonging to the Moraceae family. Its cultivation is expanded in tropical and subtropical countries, such as Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines and Brazil, with the largest production being concentrated in the northeast region (Souza et al., 2011;Ulloa et al., 2017).Jackfruit is formed by numerous yellowish and sweet bulbs with an accentuated aroma and seeds covered by a resistant endocarp