Modeling of Thin Layer Hot Air-Infrared Drying of Green Pea

Abstract

The drying characteristics of green peas during combined hot air-infrared drying were examined. The experiments were carried out for combination of four infrared power intensities (0, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 W.cm^-2) and three levels of drying air flow rate (0.5, 1 and 1.5 m.s^-1) and three levels of drying air temperatures (30, 40 and 50° C). Among several models which were fitted to the experimental data, the Three Term model was introduced to be the most appropriate model to predict moisture ratio as a function of air flow rate, drying air temperature and infrared power density. The statistics indexes of 99.7%, 0.000121, 0.0000 and 0.000121 for R², X², MBE and RMSE were obtained for the Three Term model, respectively. Application of infrared radiation in conjunction with hot air drying led to higher drying rate in comparison with the conventional hot air drying. The effective moisture diffusivity for several drying conditions were calculated in the range from 1.39×10^-10 m².s^-1 to 5.72×10^-10 m².s^-1.