Energy Conversion and Management 56 (2012) 199–205

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Energy Conversion and Management

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Evaluation of some thin-layer drying models of persimmon slices (Diospyros kaki L.)
_
Ibrahim Doymaz ⇑
Department of Chemical Engineering, Yildiz Technical University, 34210 Esenler, Istanbul, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The effect of blanching and drying temperature (50, 60 and 70 °C) on drying kinetics and rehydration
Received 22 September 2010 ratio of persimmons under hot-air drying was investigated. It was observed that both the drying temper-
Received in revised form 28 November 2011 ature and blanching affected the drying time. The shortest drying times and highest rehydration ratios
Accepted 30 November 2011
were obtained from blanched samples. Six thin-layer drying models were evaluated in the kinetics
Available online 29 December 2011
research. The fit quality of the proposed models was evaluated by using the determination of coefficient
(R2), reduced chi-square (v2) and root means square error (RMSE). The Midilli et al., Page and Weibull
Keywords:
models showed a better fit to experimental drying data as compared to other models. Effective moisture
Persimmon
Air drying
diffusivity (Deff) ranged from 7.05  1011 to 2.34  1010 m2/s calculated using the Fick’s second law.
Rehydration ratio The activation energies of blanched and control samples determined from slope of the Arrhenius plot,
Effective moisture diffusivity ln(Deff) versus 1/(T + 273.15), was 30.64 and 43.26 kJ/mol, respectively.
Activation energy Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Persimmon (Diospyros kaki L.) grows in subtropical and warm
temperate climates. World-wide production of persimmon is 4.01
million tonnes in 2009 [1]. It is an important fruit in China, Japan
and Korea and is also gaining popularity in the Mediterranean
countries including Turkey [2]. Persimmon is relatively high con-
tent of dietary fibers, total and major phenolics, main minerals,
and trace elements make persimmon preferable for healthy [3]. It
is also a good source of fiber and vitamins, mainly A and C. It is
mainly eaten fresh, but can be frozen, canned or dried and can
be stored for up to 6 month in modified or controlled atmospheres
[4]. The dried persimmon portions could be used as ingredient in
products such as muesli, snacks and breakfast cereals [5].
Drying is probably the oldest and the most important method of
food preservation practiced by humans. This process improves the
food stability, since it reduces considerably the water and microbi-
ological activity of the material and minimizes physical and chem-
ical changes during its storage. Traditionally, fruits and vegetables
are dried in open sunlight. However, sun drying is depending on
weather, affecting the homogeneity and quality of the final prod-
uct. Moreover, the products are prone to microbial and other con-
taminations [5]. To overcome these problems, the use of industrial
dryers (solar or convective dryers) should be used [6,7].
Drying is a complex thermal process in which unsteady heat
and moisture transfer occur simultaneously [8]. From an engineer-
ing point of view, it is important to develop a better understanding
of the controlling parameters of this complex process. Mathemat-
ical models of the drying processes are used for designing new or
improving existing drying systems or even for the control of the
drying process. Many mathematical models have proposed to de-
scribe the drying process, of them, thin-layer drying models have
been widely in use. These models can be categorized as theoretical,
semi-theoretical, and empirical [9]. Many studies have emphasized
drying kinetics and thin-layer drying models for fruits and vegeta-
bles – peach [6], apricot [10], apple [11–14], yam [15], berberis
[16], mulberry [17], black grape [18] and carrot [19]. Some works
have been published concerning processing attributes of persim-
mons. Cárcel et al. [5] studied the effect of high-intensity
ultrasound on drying kinetics of persimmon slices. They reported
that the high-intensity ultrasound increased the drying rate at
the lowest air velocities. Nicoleti et al. [20] investigated the influ-
ence of drying conditions (temperature: 40–70 °C, air velocity:
0.8–1.2 m/s) on ascorbic acid during convective drying of whole
persimmons. They reported that degradation rates of ascorbic acid
were higher drying temperatures, independent of the necessary
time to attain the desired moisture content. However, study on
drying kinetics and activation energy of persimmon in thin-layer
drying has not been reported yet. The objectives of this study were:
(a) to study the effect of blanching on the drying time and rehydra-
tion ratio, (b) to fit the experimental data to six mathematical
models, and (c) to compute effective moisture diffusivity and
activation energy of persimmon slices.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Material

⇑ Tel.: +90 212 383 47 48; fax: +90 212 383 47 25. Fresh persimmons (Diospyros kaki L.) were obtained from Isk-
E-mail address: doymaz@yildiz.edu.tr enderun (Hatay, Turkey). The selected fruits showed uniform color

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2011.11.027
200 _ Doymaz / Energy Conversion and Management 56 (2012) 199–205
I.

and regular size. Samples were stored in a refrigerator at 4 °C until content of the samples were determined and used to calculate the
processing (2–3 days). The persimmons were washed with tap moisture ratio.
water, peeled and sliced manually by thickness of 5 mm and di- The drying rate (DR) of persimmon slices was calculated using
vided into two lots before use. One lot of samples was blanched Eq. (2):
in hot water at 70 °C for 2 min. The hot water treated slices were
M t  M tþDt
then immediately cooled down in tap water at room temperature DR ¼ ð2Þ
Dt
to remove excess heat, and placed on tissue paper to absorb the ex-
cess surface water prior to drying (BLANCH). The other lot was un- where Mt+Dt is moisture content at t + Dt (kg water/kg dm), t is the
blanched (CONTROL). Moreover, some persimmons were washed time (min) and Dt time difference (min).
with tap water, peeled and sliced manually by thickness of 3 and The drying data obtained were fitted to six thin-layer drying
8 mm. models that are detailed in Table 1 using the nonlinear least
squares regression analysis. Statistical analyses of the experimen-
2.2. Experimental apparatus tal data were performed by using the software package (Statistica
6.0, Statsoft Inc., Tulsa, OK). The determination of coefficient (R2) is
The drying apparatus was a pilot-scale cabinet dryer that is de- one of the primary criteria for selecting the best model to define
scribed previously by Doymaz [10]. Cabinet dryer basically consists the drying curves. In addition to R2, reduced chi-square (v2) and
of a centrifugal fan to supply the air-flow, an electric heater, an air root mean square error (RMSE) are used to determine the quality
filter and an electronic proportional controller. The air temperature of the fit. These parameters can be calculated by using the follow-
was controlled by means of a proportional controller. Air velocity ing equations:
was regulated by a centrifugal fan and fan speed control unit.
P
N
The velocity was measured with TESTO 440 Vane Probe Anemom- ðMRexp;i  MRpre;i Þ2
eter (AM-4201, Lutron, Taipei, Taiwan), and flowed horizontally 2
v ¼ i¼1
ð3Þ
through the samples. The air passed from heating unit and heated Nz
to the desired temperature and then channelled to the drying bas- " #1=2
ket. The samples were dried in the perforated square basket, which 1X N

had a flow cross-section of 30 cm  30 cm. Weight loss of samples RMSE ¼ ðMRpre;i  MRexp;i Þ2 ð4Þ
N i¼1
was recorded by using a digital balance (model BB3000, Mettler-
Toledo AG, Grefensee, Switzerland) with a sensitivity of 0.1 g. In these equations, MRexp and MRpre are the experimental and pre-
dicted dimensionless moisture ratios; N is the number of observa-
2.3. Experimental procedure tions; z is the number of constants. The best model was selected
to have the highest R2 and the lowest v2 and RMSE [11,14,17,32,33].
Drying experiments (slice thickness: 5 mm) were performed at
drying temperatures varying from 50 to 70 °C, with 10 °C incre- 2.5. Determination of effective moisture diffusivity
ment, and a constant air velocity of 2 ± 0.1 m/s for all circum-
stances. In addition to this experiments, the persimmon slices The effective moisture diffusivity is an important transport
(control; slice thickness: 3 and 8 mm) were dried at air tempera- property in food and other materials drying processes modeling,
ture of 60 °C. The dryer was started about 30 min before drying being a function of temperature and moisture content in material
experiments to achieve steady-state conditions. For each experi- [24]. Fick’s second law of diffusion equation, symbolized as a
ment, the 100 ± 2 g of persimmon slices was distributed uniformly mass-diffusion equation for drying agricultural products in a fall-
into the perforated basket as a thin-layer. Sample weight was re- ing rate period, is shown in the following equation:
corded at regular time intervals (15 min). Drying process was
stopped when the moisture content of the samples was about @M
¼ Deff r2 M ð5Þ
20 ± 0.5% (w.b.). The dried product was cooled and packed in @t
low-density polyethylene bags that were heat-sealed. All the dry- The solution of diffusion equation Eq. (5) for slab geometry is solved
ing experiments were conducted in triplicate and the average of by Crank [34], and supposed uniform initial moisture distribution,
the moisture content at each value was used for the drawing of negligible external resistance, constant diffusivity and negligible
the drying curves. shrinkage:
The average initial moisture content of persimmons was found 2
 2      3
p Deff t p2 Deff t p2 Deff t
to be 75.2 ± 0.2% (w.b.), as determined by using vacuum oven at exp  þ 1
exp 9 þ 1
exp 25 þ
8 6 4L 2 9 4L 2 25 4L 2
7
70 °C for 24 h following the Association of Official Analytical MR ¼ 2 4   5
Chemists [21].
p 1 p 2D t
exp 49 4L2   eff
49

ð6Þ
2.4. Mathematical modeling of drying curves
2
where Deff is the effective moisture diffusivity (m /s), t is the drying
The moisture content of drying sample at time t can be trans- time (s), L is the half-thickness of samples (m) and n is a positive
formed to be moisture ratio (MR):
Mt  Me Table 1
MR ¼ ð1Þ
M0  Me Thin-layer drying models applied to the persimmon slices drying curves.

where Mt, M0 and Me are the moisture content at any time of drying, Model Mathematical equation Refs.
initial moisture content and equilibrium moisture content Lewis MR = exp(kt) [22]
(kg water/kg dm), respectively. The equilibrium moisture contents Henderson and Pabis MR = a exp(kt) [23]
of samples at different temperatures used in the drying runs were Logarithmic MR ¼ a expðktÞ þ c [6,17,24]
Page MR = exp (ktn) [25–27]
obtained by the dynamic model. About three grams of samples were n
Midilli et al. MR ¼ a expðkt Þ þ bt [11,28–30]
exposed to 50, 60 and 70 °C air temperatures in the dryer until the Weibull MR ¼ expððbt Þa Þ [31]
weight loss of sample was ceased. Then, the equilibrium moisture
 _ Doymaz / Energy Conversion and Management 56 (2012) 199–205
I. 201

integer. For long drying time, the Eq. (6) can be simplified as Eq. (7) 3.2
by taking the first term of series solution and expressed in a CONTROL; 50°C
logarithmic form [35]: 2.8 BLANCH; 50°C
CONTROL; 60°C
   

Moisture content (kg water/kg dm)

8 p2 Deff t 2.4
BLANCH; 60°C
ln MR ¼ ln  ð7Þ CONTROL; 70°C
p2 4L2
BLANCH; 70°C
2.0
From Eq. (7), a plot of ln MR versus drying time gave a straight line
with a slope (K) of:
1.6
p2 Deff
K¼ ð8Þ
4L2 1.2

0.8
2.6. Computation of activation energy
0.4
The dependence of the effective diffusivity on temperature is
generally described by the Arrhenius equation Eq. (9) [26,36]: 0.0
  0 100 200 300 400 500
Ea Drying time (kg water/kg dm)
Deff ¼ D0 exp  ð9Þ
RðT þ 273:15Þ
Fig. 1. Drying curves of persimmon slices at different temperatures.
Here D0 is the pre-exponential factor of Arrhenius equation in m2/s,
Ea is the activation energy in kJ/mol, R is the universal gas constant 0.032
CONTROL; 50°C
in kJ/mol K, and T is the drying air temperature in °C.
BLANCH; 50°C
0.028 CONTROL; 60°C

Drying rate (kg water/(kg dm*min)

2.7. Rehydration ratio BLANCH; 60°C
0.024 CONTROL; 70°C
BLANCH; 70°C
Rehydration of dried persimmon slices was performed in dis-
tilled water at 20 °C (±1 °C). About three grams of the dried product 0.020
was added to 300 ml distilled water, in a 400 ml beaker. Weights of
the samples were measured after 4 h. Subsequently, the samples 0.016

were drained, blotted with tissue paper, and weighed. The rehydra-
tion ratio (RR) was calculated as follows: 0.012

Wr 0.008
RR ¼ ð10Þ
Wd
0.004
where Wr is the weight rehydrated sample (kg), and Wd is the
weight of dried sample (kg). 0.000
0.0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2.0 2.4 2.8 3.2

3. Results and discussions Moisture content (kg water/kg dm)

Fig. 2. Variation of drying rate as a function of moisture content at various

3.1. Drying characteristics temperatures.

The characteristics of drying curves for control and blanched
persimmon sliced to 5 mm thickness at 50, 60 and 70 °C are shown
in Fig. 1. Fig. 2 shows the changes in drying rate as a function of
moisture content at the same temperatures. It is clear that the
moisture content and drying rate decrease continuously with dry-
ing time. The drying rate was rapid during the initial period but it
became very slow at the last stages during the drying process. As
shown in Fig. 2, there was no constant drying rate period, and
the entire drying process occurred in the falling-rate period. This
shows diffusion in dominant physical mechanism governing mois-
ture movement in the samples. The results were generally in
agreement with some of the literature on the drying of various
food products [15,25,26,37,38].
According to the results in Fig. 1, the drying air temperature and
blanching had a significant effect on the moisture content of the
persimmon slices as expected. The results showed that drying time
decreased greatly when drying temperature increased. The drying
time required to reach the final moisture content of control sam-
ples were 450, 345 and 240 min at the drying air temperatures of
50, 60 and 70 °C, respectively. The decrease in drying time with
an increase in the drying air temperature has been reported for
many agricultural products such as orange slices [26], apple [35],
strawberry [39], and carrot [40].
The blanching is very important parameter that affects the dry-
ing time. The blanched samples were found to have a shorter dry-
ing time compared to the control samples. The drying time
required to reach final water content 20 ± 0.5% (w.b.) for blanched
samples was 315, 285 and 180 min at 50, 60 and 70 °C, respec-
tively. Corresponding values for control samples were 450, 345
and 240 min at the same respective temperatures. The drying time
was reduced by about 21–42.8% for persimmon slices, as drying
temperature was raised from 50 to 80 °C. Similar findings were re-
ported in drying of various agricultural products [12,36,41].
Fig. 3 shows the effect of slice thickness on the moisture content
variations at 60 °C. As expected, the total drying time increased
with increasing slice thickness. For 60 °C, decreasing the slice
thickness from 8 mm to 3 mm decreased the total drying time
about 123.5%. Thinly products dried faster due to the reduced dis-
tance the moisture travels. The similar observation was found by
Kaya et al. [19] for carrot slices and Lee and Hsieh [39] for straw-
berry leathers.
3.2. Fitting of drying curves
The moisture content data obtained at different air tempera-
tures were converted to dimensionless moisture ratio Eq. (1) and
202 _ Doymaz / Energy Conversion and Management 56 (2012) 199–205
I.

3.5 Table 3
Result of statistical analysis on the mathematical models for blanched samples.
d: 3 mm
3 d: 5 mm T (°C) Model R2 v2 RMSE
Moisture content (kg water/kg dm)

d: 8 mm 50 Lewis 0.9973 0.00021 0.04894

Henderson and Pabis 0.9986 0.00011 0.03535
2.5
Logarithmic 0.9988 0.00010 0.03443
Page 0.9993 0.00006 0.02716
2 Midilli et al. 0.9997 0.00005 0.01908
Weibull 0.9993 0.00006 0.02716
60 Lewis 0.9947 0.00045 0.07805
1.5
Henderson and Pabis 0.9971 0.00025 0.05369
Logarithmic 0.9991 0.00007 0.02717
1 Page 0.9991 0.00001 0.01004
Midilli et al. 0.9992 0.00001 0.01007
Weibull 0.9991 0.00001 0.01004
0.5
70 Lewis 0.9858 0.00142 0.11471
Henderson and Pabis 0.9902 0.00106 0.09673
0 Logarithmic 0.9958 0.00050 0.06267
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 Page 0.9993 0.00007 0.02267
Drying time (min) Midilli et al. 0.9995 0.00006 0.02265
Weibull 0.9994 0.00007 0.02270
Fig. 3. Effect of slice thickness on moisture content of control samples during air
drying at 60 °C.

3.3. Effective moisture diffusivity

then fitted to six thin-layer drying models (Table 1). Non-linear
regression analysis was used to estimate the parameters of those
six models. The statistical results from models are summarized
in Tables 2 and 3. The best model describing the thin-layer drying
characteristics of persimmon slices was chosen as the one with the
highest R2 values and the lowest v2 and RMSE values. The R2 values
of Lewis, Henderson and Pabis, Logarithmic, Page, Midilli et al., and
Weibull models were all above 0.98. The statistical parameter esti-
mations showed that R2, v2 and RMSE values were ranged from
0.9823 to 0.9998, 0.00001 to 0.00158 and 0.01004 to 0.14242,
respectively. Of all the models tested, the Midilli et al., Page and
Weibull models give the highest values of R2 and the lowest values
of v2 and RMSE. Generally R2, v2 and RMSE values of the selected
models in all experiments were varied between 0.9983–0.9998,
0.00001–0.00013 and 0.01004–0.05519, respectively. Accordingly,
the Midilli et al., Page and Weibull models were selected as the
suitable models to represent the thin layer drying characteristics
of persimmon slices. Figs. 4–6 compare experimental data with
those predicted with the Midilli et al., Page and Weibull models
for persimmon slices at 50, 60 and 70 °C. The prediction using
the models showed MR values banded along a straight line, which
showed the suitability of these models in describing the drying
characteristics of persimmon slices.
Table 2
Result of statistical analysis on the mathematical models for control samples.
T (°C) Model R2
50 Lewis 0.9965
Henderson and Pabis 0.9972
Logarithmic 0.9978
The values of the effective moisture diffusivity were calculated
using Eq. (8) and are shown in Fig. 7. The Deff values were varied in
the range of 7.05  1011 m2/s to 2.34  1010 m2/s. It was noted
that Deff values increased greatly with increasing drying tempera-
ture. When samples were dried at higher temperature, increased
heating energy would increase the activity of water molecules
leading to higher moisture diffusivity [36]. Furthermore, the values
of effective moisture diffusivity of blanched samples were higher
than those of control samples at all drying temperatures. This
may be due to the fact that the blanching pretreatment considered
in this study aids water movement to the persimmon surface for
subsequent evaporation thus increasing the value of the effective
moisture coefficients. The values of Deff obtained from this study
lie within in general range 1012–108 m2/s for drying of food
materials [42]. The values of Deff are comparable with the reported
values of 2.27–4.97  1010 m2/s for the drying of apples in the
temperature range of 40–60 °C [12], 3.32 to 90.0  1010 m2/s for
berberis fruits at 50–70 °C [16], 6.27 to 35.0  1010 m2/s for or-
ange slices at 40–80 °C [26], 2.40 to 12.1  109 m2/s for straw-
berry leathers at 50–80 °C [39], 1.19 to 4.27  109 m2/s for
1.0
50°C; CONTROL
50°C; BLANCH
60°C; CONTROL
v2 RMSE 0.8 60°C; BLANCH
0.00027 0.07643 70°C; CONTROL
0.00022 0.06856 70°C; BLANCH
0.00018 0.06180
Predicted MR

0.6
Page 0.9983 0.00013 0.05519
Midilli et al. 0.9984 0.00013 0.05446
Weibull 0.9983 0.00013 0.05519
0.4
60 Lewis 0.9986 0.00010 0.03461
Henderson and Pabis 0.9993 0.00005 0.02160
Logarithmic 0.9996 0.00003 0.01927
Page 0.9997 0.00002 0.01829 0.2
Midilli et al. 0.9998 0.00002 0.01831
Weibull 0.9997 0.00002 0.01829
70 Lewis 0.9823 0.00158 0.14242
Henderson and Pabis 0.9890 0.00110 0.11317 0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Logarithmic 0.9960 0.00040 0.06615
Page 0.9993 0.00006 0.02641 Experimental MR
Midilli et al. 0.9994 0.00006 0.02593
Weibull 0.9993 0.00006 0.02641 Fig. 4. Comparison of experimental and predicted moisture ratio by the Midilli
et al. model.
 _ Doymaz / Energy Conversion and Management 56 (2012) 199–205
I. 203

1.0 3.4. Activation energy

50°C; CONTROL
50°C; BLANCH The activation energy can be determined from the slope of
0.8
60°C; CONTROL Arrhenius plot, ln Deff versus 1/(T + 273.15) Eq. (9). The ln Deff as a
60°C; BLANCH
function of the reciprocal of absolute temperature was plotted in
70°C; CONTROL
70°C; BLANCH
Fig. 8. The slope of the line is (Ea/R) and the intercept equals to
ln (D0). The results show a linear relationship due to Arrhenius type
Predicted MR

0.6
dependence. Eqs. (11) and (12) show the effect of temperature on
Deff of samples with the following coefficients:
For control samples:
0.4
 
5203:5
Deff ¼ 6:764  104 exp  ðR2 : 0:9904Þ ð11Þ
ðT þ 273:15Þ
0.2
For blanched samples:
 
3685:9
Deff ¼ 1:042  105 exp  ðR2 : 0:9624Þ ð12Þ
0.0 ðT þ 273:15Þ
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Experimental MR The values of Deff for blanched and control samples found as 30.64
and 43.26 kJ/mol, respectively. These values are similar to those
Fig. 5. Comparison of experimental and predicted moisture ratio by the Page
proposed in the literature by several authors for different fruits
model.
and vegetables such as 22.66–30.92 kJ/mol in apples [14], 25.26–
72.47 kJ/mol in yams [15], 67.29 kJ/mol in seedless grapes [36]
1.0 and 30.46–35.57 kJ/mol in strawberry [39]. The values of activation
50°C; CONTROL energy were within the general range of 12.7 to 110 kJ/mol for
50°C; BLANCH various food materials [42].
60°C; CONTROL
0.8 60°C; BLANCH
70°C; CONTROL
3.5. Effect of blanching on rehydration ratio
70°C; BLANCH
Rehydration is widely used as a parameter for dried sample
Predicted MR

0.6
quality. It indicates the physical and chemical changes during dry-
ing as influenced by processing conditions, sample pretreatment
and composition [45]. Rehydration ratio values of persimmon
0.4
slices at a constant rehydration temperature of 20 °C, calculated
from Eq. (10), are shown in Fig. 9. Rehydration ratios of the
blanched samples were higher than those of control samples at
0.2 all drying temperatures, which means that structural damage
and cell shrinkage occurred less during drying process. This factor
adversely influenced the rehydration of blanched persimmons.
0.0 The rehydration tests show that the rehydration ratios of dried
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
blanched and control samples at 60 °C are higher than those of
Experimental MR
dried ones at other temperatures. An increase in temperature
Fig. 6. Comparison of experimental and predicted moisture ratio by the Weibull
model.
-22
CONTROL
BLANCH
2.5E-10

2E-10 -22.4
D eff (m2 /s)

1.5E-10 2
R = 0.9624
ln (Deff )

1E-10
-22.8
5E-11
BLANCH
0
50 CONTROL 2
60 -23.2 R = 0.9904
70
Air temperature (°C)

Fig. 7. Variation of effective moisture diffusivity with air drying temperature.

-23.6
0.0029 0.0030 0.0031
pumpkin at 40–80 °C [43], and 2.60–5.40  1010 m2/s for persim- 1/(T+273.15) (1/K)
mon slices at 50–80 °C [44]. These values are consistent with the
Fig. 8. Arrhenius-type relationship between effective moisture diffusivity and
present estimated Deff values for persimmon slices. reciprocal absolute temperature.
204 _ Doymaz / Energy Conversion and Management 56 (2012) 199–205
I.
4 [8] Sahin AZ, Dincer I. Prediction of drying times for irregular shaped multi-
CONTROL
BLANCH
3 [10] Doymaz I. Effect of pre-treatments using potassium metabisulphide and
Rehydration ratio
2 [12] Sacilik K, Elicin AK. The thin layer drying characteristics of organic apple slices.
1 Golab) and effect on moisture diffusivity and activation energy. Plant Omics J
0 [16] Aghbashlo M, Kianmehr MH, Samimi-Akhijahani H. Influence of drying
50 60 70
Drying temperature (°C)
Fig. 9. Rehydration curves for persimmon slices dried at 50, 60 and 70 °C.
above 60 °C had an adverse effect on the final rehydration ratio va-
lue, which decreased with increasing temperature. This may be
indicative of a change in the product induced by temperature
and perhaps a loss of solids during rehydration process. Similar re-
sults have been reported by Cunningham et al. [46].
4. Conclusions
Based on the experimental results reported herein, following
conclusions can be made:
a) Blanched samples had shorter drying times than the control
samples. The drying time shortened with increasing drying
temperature.
b) Generally, the rehydration ratio of the blanched samples was
higher than the control samples.
c) Constant drying rate period was not observed, the drying
process took place in the falling-rate period.
d) The Midilli et al., Page and Weibull models gave the best rep-
resentation of drying data under all experimental
conditions.
e) The effective moisture diffusivity was computed from Fick’s
second law, the values of which varied between 7.05  1011
and 2.34  1010 m2/s, over the temperature range.
f) The values of activation energy of blanched and control sam-
ples were found to be 30.64 kJ/mol and 43.26 kJ/mol,
respectively.
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