Semi-Empirical Mathematical Modeling, Energy and Exergy Analysis, and Textural Characteristics of Convectively Dried Plantain Banana Slices

Abstract

Thin-layer convective drying of plantain banana was performed at four different temperatures from 50 to 80 °C, with slice thicknesses from 2 to 8 mm. The drying curves, fitted to seven different semi-empirical mathematical models, were successfully used to fit experimental data (R2 0.72–0.99). The diffusion approach had better applicability in envisaging the moisture ratio at any time during the drying process, with the maximum correlation value (R2 0.99) and minimum value of x2 (2.5×10−5 to 1.5×10−4) and RMSE (5.0 ×10−3 to 1.2×10−2). The Deff, hm, and Ea values were calculated on the basis of the experimental data, and overall ranged from 1.11×10−10 to 1.79×10−9 m2 s−1, 3.17×10−8 to 2.20 ×10−7 m s−1 and 13.70 to 18.23 kJ mol−1, respectively. The process energy consumption varied from 23.3 to 121.4 kWh kg−1. The correlation study showed that the drying temperature had a close correlation with hm value and sample hardness. A significant (p < 0.05) increase in hardness of dried plantain banana was observed at 80 °C compared to the other temperatures. Additionally, the sample hardness and process energy consumption were more positively correlated with the thickness of the samples.

Drying kinetic, thermodynamic and quality analyses of infrared drying of truffle slices

“…). Several researchers, such asZhang et al (2020),Kamble et al (2022),Kaveh et al (2023b), andLin et al (2023), have found similar results regarding the impact of drying temperature and thickness on the SEC of the drying process of different products. The value of specific energy consumption has been reported by other researchers for berberis fruit from 20.93 to 1110.07 kWh/kg(Aghbashlo et al, 2008), orange from 186.87 to 337.81 kWh/kg(Çetin, 2022), pumpkin from 88.78 to 669.70 kWh/kg(Taşova & Öcalan, 2023), bitter melon from 160 to 309 kWh/kg (AkhoundzadehYamchi et al, 2024), corn from 129.95 to 227.63 kWh/kg(Ononogbo et al, 2021), and onion from 41.28 to 82.94 kWh (…”

Comparison of Drying Systems in Terms of Energy Consumption, Effective Mass Diffusion, Exergy Efficiency and Improvement-Sustainability Index in the Valorizations of Waste Tomatoes by Thermal Processes

“…2, drying methods and carrier agent rates affected the effective diffusion values of the drying processes. It has been observed that the effective diffusion values of convective drying methods are higher than microwave drying methods [21]. The reason for this is that microwave drying methods carry out the drying process by creating a pressure difference in the product, causing the moisture moving away from the product to move forward.…”