Modeling of hot-air drying of pretreated cassava chips

Abstract

Tunde-Akintunde T. Y, A. A Afon
(Department of Food Science and Engineering, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology,
PMB 4000, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria)

Abstract: Effects of pretreatment (soaking and boiling) on cassava chips dried in a hot air drier at temperature of 60℃ and constant air velocity of 1.5 m/s were investigated.  Mass transfer during air-drying of pretreated cassava chips was described using the Fick’s diffusion model.  Drying took place entirely in the falling rate period.  The form of pretreatment was observed to have an effect on drying rate of the samples.  In order to select a suitable drying model for prediction of the drying kinetics of dried cassava chips, four thin-layer drying models were fitted to the experimental data.  The Page model best described the drying behaviour of pretreated cassava chips with high correlation coefficient values.  The effective moisture diffusivities of the pretreated samples varied from 7.31×10–7 – 8.06×10–7 m2/s.

Keywords: modeling, cassava chips, pretreatment, batch drying

Citation: Tunde-Akintunde T. Y, and A. A. Afon. Modeling of hot-air drying of pretreated cassava chips.  Agric Eng Int: CIGR Journal, 2010, 12(2): 34-41.