Characteristic Drying Curves of Cocoa Beans

ABSTRACT

The characteristic drying curves of cocoa beans are determined by using a tunnel drier where conditioned air passes a single cocoa berm suspended from an electronic balance in the test section. Weight loss, and temperatures of air, testa and nib of the cocoa bean is monitored on personal computers. The nornmalised drying rate versus the normalised moisture content is regressed by least square method to fit a new polynomial model for the penetration falling rate period and a linear model for the regular regime falling rate period. It can be concluded that there are three drying periods for cocoa beans namely the constant drying rate period, the penetration falling rate period and the regular regime falling rate period. The polynomial model estimates the penetration period quite well whereas the linear model estimates the regular regime quite well as well. There is no observable influence of relative humidity and air temperature on the characteristic drying curve of cocoa beans. However, the air velocity seems to have some influence on the curve.     

An Experimental Test of the Concept of the Characteristic Drying Curve Using the Thin-Layer Method

The drying behaviour of paticles ( purolit and silica gel) was studied using the thin-layer method described by Langrish et al ( 1). The experiments covered inlet air temperatures between 100 and 150°C, inlet air humidities from 0.02 to 0.052 kgkg¹ superficial air velocities between 3.8 and 10.8 ms^-1, with layer thicknem of 2 - 10mm. No constant mle period war observed. Characteristic drying curves were found to fall within a narrow band fur these ranges of process variables, for material of uniform size and shape and with relative moisture content defined in terms of the end of the induction period. Small changes in panicle shape, particle size distribution and uniformity of particle layers had negligible infuence on the drying kinetics. However, reduction in particle size from 5.2mm diameter to 0.86mm had a marked effect: the normalised drying rate at a given relative moisture content became larger as the particle size became smaller. This phenomenon is attributed to an increase in available contact area per unit volume with diminishing particle size. The thin-layer technique thus appears to be a useful and robust way of obtaining a general characteristic drying curve for a given particulate material. A review of various works ( Keey, 2) has shown that the concept ofa characteristic drying curve may be used to describe the drying kinetics of paniculate materials below 20mm in size for modest changes in process variables ( air temperature, humidity and velocity). This concept has found to be very useful to help model drying processes of a wide variety of particulates, cross-circulated slabs, heaped loaw fabric fibres, hygroscopic ceramic cylinders and discrete vermiculite particles. The drying of a single particle has been related lo the drying kinetics of a fluidized bed by the use of this ida. ( Tsotsas, 7). A grater understanding of the properties of the characteristic drying curve will provide a greater confidence in applying thir concept more generally to process design and the analysis of industrial drying equipment. The goal of this study was to examine further the experimental and theoretical foundations of the characteristic drying curve, using thin-layer methods.     

An Experimental Test of the Concept of the Characteristic Drying Curve Using the Thin-Layer Method

ABSTRACT

The drying behaviour of paticles ( purolit and silica gel) was studied using the thin-layer method described by Langrish et al ( 1). The experiments covered inlet air temperatures between 100 and 150°C, inlet air humidities from 0.02 to 0.052 kgkg¹ superficial air velocities between 3.8 and 10.8 ms^-1, with layer thicknem of 2 – 10mm. No constant mle period war observed. Characteristic drying curves were found to fall within a narrow band fur these ranges of process variables, for material of uniform size and shape and with relative moisture content defined in terms of the end of the induction period. Small changes in panicle shape, particle size distribution and uniformity of particle layers had negligible infuence on the drying kinetics. However, reduction in particle size from 5.2mm diameter to 0.86mm had a marked effect: the normalised drying rate at a given relative moisture content became larger as the particle size became smaller. This phenomenon is attributed to an increase in available contact area per unit volume with diminishing particle size. The thin-layer technique thus appears to be a useful and robust way of obtaining a general characteristic drying curve for a given particulate material. A review of various works ( Keey, 2) has shown that the concept ofa characteristic drying curve may be used to describe the drying kinetics of paniculate materials below 20mm in size for modest changes in process variables ( air temperature, humidity and velocity). This concept has found to be very useful to help model drying processes of a wide variety of particulates, cross-circulated slabs, heaped loaw fabric fibres, hygroscopic ceramic cylinders and discrete vermiculite particles. The drying of a single particle has been related lo the drying kinetics of a fluidized bed by the use of this ida. ( Tsotsas, 7). A grater understanding of the properties of the characteristic drying curve will provide a greater confidence in applying thir concept more generally to process design and the analysis of industrial drying equipment. The goal of this study was to examine further the experimental and theoretical foundations of the characteristic drying curve, using thin-layer methods.     

热泵干燥可可豆品质的研究

本文主要针对热泵干燥在恒温和分段变温情况下对马来西亚可可豆品质的提高进行了研究。可可豆品质与热风干燥条件下的可可豆以及加纳可可豆和市售可可豆样本（马来西亚和印度尼西亚）进行比较。总体而雷,品质评估表明热泵干燥的可可豆品质比市售样品有明显的改善。就酸性程度和较高的褐变程度而雷,由逐步升温干燥所得的可可豆品质较高。热泵干燥样品的风味与加纳样品相当,优于市售样品。经逐步升温干燥制得的可可豆样品香味最浓,而且酸度、苦味和涩味适中。研究表明,使用热泵干燥对提高可可加工中可可豆的品质是可行的。     

Drying with Chemical Reaction in Cocoa Beans

Desirable flavor qualities of cocoa are dependent on how the cocoa beans are fermented, dried, and roasted. During fermentation and drying, polyphenols such as leucocyanidin and apecatechin are oxidized by polyphenols oxidase to form o-quinone, which later react nonenzymatically with a hydroquinone in a condensation reaction to form browning products and moisture. The objective of this article is to model the cocoa beans drying together with the browning reaction. A Luikov drying model for the moisture and a simple Fick's law diffusion model combined with first-order reactions for both the enzymatic oxidation and nonenzymatic condensation reactions were constructed. Both models were used to identify moisture diffusivity coefficient and total polyphenols diffusivity in cocoa beans from experimental drying and polyphenols degradation data and published kinetic data of the reactions. The theoretical drying model fitted the experimental cocoa bean drying curves with low mean square of residuals. The polyphenols diffusion and reaction model also fitted the experimental polyphenols degradation curves with minimum mean residual squares. The rate of polyphenols degradation in the cocoa beans increases at higher temperature and higher relative humidity. This is because the increasing reaction rate of polyphenols oxidation reaction as well as higher moisture diffusion at higher relative humidity and temperature. The effective moisture diffusivity in cocoa beans is estimated to be between 8.194 × 10^?9 and 8.542 × 10^?9 m²·s^?1, which is of the same order of magnitude as published data. The effective total polyphenols diffusivity is estimated to be between 8.333 × 10^?12 to 1.000 × 10^?11 m²·s^?1 with minimum mean residual squares. It is three orders of magnitude less than the estimated moisture diffusivity because of the larger polyphenols molecules. The estimated polyphenols diffusivity is very close to those published in the literature for sorption and ultrafiltration processes.     

Drying with Chemical Reaction in Cocoa Beans

Desirable flavor qualities of cocoa are dependent on how the cocoa beans are fermented, dried, and roasted. During fermentation and drying, polyphenols such as leucocyanidin and apecatechin are oxidized by polyphenols oxidase to form o-quinone, which later react nonenzymatically with a hydroquinone in a condensation reaction to form browning products and moisture. The objective of this article is to model the cocoa beans drying together with the browning reaction. A Luikov drying model for the moisture and a simple Fick's law diffusion model combined with first-order reactions for both the enzymatic oxidation and nonenzymatic condensation reactions were constructed. Both models were used to identify moisture diffusivity coefficient and total polyphenols diffusivity in cocoa beans from experimental drying and polyphenols degradation data and published kinetic data of the reactions. The theoretical drying model fitted the experimental cocoa bean drying curves with low mean square of residuals. The polyphenols diffusion and reaction model also fitted the experimental polyphenols degradation curves with minimum mean residual squares. The rate of polyphenols degradation in the cocoa beans increases at higher temperature and higher relative humidity. This is because the increasing reaction rate of polyphenols oxidation reaction as well as higher moisture diffusion at higher relative humidity and temperature. The effective moisture diffusivity in cocoa beans is estimated to be between 8.194 × 10^-9 and 8.542 × 10^-9 m²·s^-1, which is of the same order of magnitude as published data. The effective total polyphenols diffusivity is estimated to be between 8.333 × 10^-12 to 1.000 × 10^-11 m²·s^-1 with minimum mean residual squares. It is three orders of magnitude less than the estimated moisture diffusivity because of the larger polyphenols molecules. The estimated polyphenols diffusivity is very close to those published in the literature for sorption and ultrafiltration processes.     

Crystallization of Cocoa Butter in Cocoa Powder

Cocoa powder quality is determined by its color, flavor, dispersion, and flow properties, which can be controlled via tempering. Design of a cocoa powder tempering profile, however, requires that the mechanism of cocoa butter crystallization in cocoa powder be fully understood. Low-fat (8–12%) and high-fat (20–24%) cocoas were sourced from two commercial manufacturers at varying degrees of alkalization and compared with two commercial cocoa butters. Unrefined paired cocoa powders and cocoa butters sampled from the hydraulic press were also evaluated. Isothermal crystallization kinetics and polymorphism of cocoa powders and cocoa butters were compared at 18, 21, and 24 °C using a direct time-domain nuclear magnetic resonance method, differential scanning calorimetry, and x-ray diffraction. Crystallization was also studied under dynamic tumbling conditions. It was found that cocoa butter in cocoa powder was nucleated by the cocoa powder matrix and transitioned to higher-stability polymorphs more rapidly than bulk cocoa butters. High-fat cocoas also exhibited enhanced crystallization kinetics relative to low-fat cocoas, showing that differences in the cocoa microstructure may influence crystallization behavior. Notably, alkalization did not significantly affect the crystallization behavior of most cocoa powders. Finally, it was found that tumbling conditions led to crystallization of βV and that caking, especially of high-fat cocoas, could be reduced by a static low-temperature hold step prior to tumbling. Overall, these results demonstrated that crystallization of cocoa butter in cocoa powder is influenced both by the intrinsic attributes of the cocoa powder as well as the conditions of the tempering process.     

Modeling of Banana Convective Drying by the Drying Characteristic Curve (DCC) Method

Experimental convective drying tests of banana have been carried out for different air conditions to show the influence of air temperature, absolute humidity and speed on the drying rate. The analysis of the drying rate evolution as a function of product water content enables the identification of fourth drying phases: temperature rising (phase 1), exponentially decreasing drying rate (phase 2), linearly decreasing drying rate (phase 3) and very low drying rate (phase 4). The temperature rising phase 1 being very short and the last phase 4 being not reached during typical drying, the drying characteristic curve (DCC) has been represented by two different mathematical functions fitting phases 2 and 3. Their parameters have been determined by minimization of the quadratic errors between experimental and theoretical curves. It leads to a unique curve (the DCC) representing all air drying conditions the integration of which enables the calculation of the product water content with a maximum error of 0.09 between experimental and simulated values.     

Modeling of Drying Curves of Silica Nanofluid Droplets Dried in an Acoustic Levitator Using the Reaction Engineering Approach (REA) Model

The use of nanoparticles has become of great interest in different industrial applications. The spray drying of nanofluids forms nanostructured grains, preserving the nanoparticle properties. In this work, individual droplets of silica nanofluids were dried in an acoustic levitator. Tests were carried out under different experimental conditions to study the influence of the variables on the drying process. The drying curves were experimentally obtained and an REA model was used to obtain the theoretical curves and the correlations for the activation energy. The critical moisture content theoretically obtained was used to predict the grain diameter.     

Novel Cocoa Butter Equivalent from Microalgal Butters

An acetone solvent fractionation procedure was used to obtain two algal butter fractions, an algal stearin containing high amounts of 1,3-stearoyl-2-oleoyl-glycerol (SOS), and an algal mid-fraction containing high amounts of 1,3-dipalmitoyl-2-oleoyl-glycerol (POP), and 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl, 3-stearoyl-glycerol (POS). Algal stearin and algal mid-fraction were blended (1:9 w/w) to yield a potential cocoa butter equivalent (CBE). The amount of POP, POS, and SOS, in algal CBE was 15.8%, 32.0%, and 24.6%, respectively, compared to 15.4%, 38.8%, and 27.7% in Cocoa butter (CB). However, a higher amount of POO and SOO in the algal CBE caused a lower solid fat content at all temperatures compared to CB. This study demonstrates the potential for producing a new algal CBE using solvent fractionation and blending techniques that can be used in chocolate and other confectionery products.     

Microwave-Vacuum Drying Kinetics of Pharmaceutical Powders

Abstract

The drying kinetics (maximum drying rate, drying constants) and center temperature of selected powder (aspirin, paracetamol, lactose, and maize starch)–solvent (water, ethanol, methanol, and acetone) systems were monitored during microwave-vacuum drying. An experimental microwave-vacuum system (650 W and 2.45 GHz) operated at 61–81 kPa was used. The drying rate profile did not vary with the powder–solvent system; an initial warming-up period was followed by a constant-rate stage and two falling-rate periods. However, the drying kinetics were found to be both powder and solvent dependent, with the drying times for acetone-, ethanol-, and methanol-wetted materials being considerably shorter (up to 89.8%) than those of samples containing water. Although the general form of the temperature profile (short warming-up period, constant-rate stage, and decreasing temperature phase) was similar for all systems, the maximum temperatures varied quite significantly with solvent type, ranging from highest to lowest in the order water-ethanol-methanol-acetone. For most powder–solvent systems, reduced operating pressure facilitated increased drying rates and thus shorter drying times.     

氢氧化镁纳米棒的干燥动力学特性研究

以碱式氯化镁纳米棒为前驱物,经沉淀转化法合成出直径约100～150nm,长约3—5μm的氢氧化镁纳米棒,通过等温干燥动力学实验得到80—160℃下氢氧化镁纳米棒的干燥曲线和干燥速率曲线。采用薄层干燥模型对实验数据进行模拟得出氢氧化镁纳米棒的干燥方程和干燥速率方程;应用热分析动力学方法对实验数据进行数学处理分析,得到了干燥积分机理函数、干燥方程、干燥速率方程、表观活化能和指前因子。     

A Test of Lumped-Parameter Methods for the Drying Rate in Fluidized Bed Driers for Bioproducts

ABSTRACT

For batch fluidized bed drying of bioproducts the distributed parameter model is presented, in which the internal diffusion equation is coupled to the air balance equations. In practice a large part of the process takes place at high relative humidity of the drying air, equivalent to low driving forces. The results of a number of lumped-parameter methods for the estimation of drying times are compared with those of the full model for the case of constant external conditions around a particle. For low relative humidity of the drying air predictions of drying times with the Regular Regime Power Law method correspond well with the full solution, for higher ambient RH large deviations occur. The other methods are shown to give large deviations in all cases.     

Drying Kinetics in a Vertical Gas‐Solid System

A one‐dimensional steady‐state two‐fluid model has been developed to demonstrate the drying kinetics in the vertical up‐flow gas‐solid system. The model takes into account mass, momentum, and heat transfer between the continuous and dispersed phases. A set of non‐linear differential equations have been solved numerically for the velocity, moisture content, and temperature of both the continuous and dispersed phases along the dryer length. The effect of operating parameters on drying kinetics has been critically examined and the model simulations are compared with the data reported in the literature.     

Application of Response Surface Methodology to Optimize Roasting Conditions in Cocoa Beans Subjected to Superheated Steam Treatments in Relevance to Antioxidant Compounds and Activities

Roasting is an essential technological process used to produce high-quality cocoa-based products. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimize the roasting conditions in cocoa beans based on antioxidant compounds (total phenolic, total flavonoids) and their activity (percentage inhibition of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl [DPPH] radical and ferric-reducing antioxidant power assay) using two variables: temperature and time. Cocoa beans were roasted at temperature ranging between 150 and 250°C for 10–50 min using superheated steam. The effects of the roasting conditions on the antioxidant properties of cocoa beans were investigated using a second-order central composite design. Results showed that roasting temperature and time significantly affect antioxidants in cocoa beans. Numerical optimization and superimposed contour plots suggested the optimal roasting conditions to be 192°C for temperature with 10 min of roasting time (R ² = 0.99). These conditions can be used for roasting of cocoa beans to produce high-quality cocoa products in terms of antioxidant properties.     

Influence of Atmospheric Sublimation and Evaporation on the Heat Pump Fluid Bed Drying of Bovine Intestines

Experiments on atmospheric two-stage fluidized bed drying of bovine intestines with heat pump were carried out. The investigation covers innovative fluidized bed heat pump drying of bovine intestines. The two-stage drying consists of atmospheric moisture sublimation immediately followed by evaporation. Studies were done to establish the influence of the drying condition on the drying characteristics and product quality of bovine intestines and properties focusing on kinetics, diffusion, and color. The investigation of the drying characteristics has been conducted during moisture removal by evaporation and combined sublimation and evaporation. The effect of drying temperature on the drying constants was determined by fitting the experimental data using regression analysis techniques. The investigation revealed that the drying kinetics is most significantly affected by temperature. Correlations expressing the drying constants and effective moisture diffusivity dependence on the drying conditions are reported.     

Drying Characteristic of Porous Ceramic Microspheres in a Microwave Heated Fluidised Bed

This paper presents drying characteristics of both water and nitrate salt solution (simulated waste) impregnated ceramic microspheres in a pilot‐scale (10 kg), batch fluidised bed drier heated with microwave energy, under isothermal bed conditions. For comparison, some constant microwave power experiments with water saturated microspheres were also conducted. The effects of bed temperature, fluidising gas flow rates and initial moisture content on drying kinetics were examined. For a given initial moisture and gas flow rate, the total microwave energy consumption for both isothermal bed and constant power level experiments was found to be approximately the same. The decline in drying rates in the presence of nitrate salts was attributed to a decrease in the effective diffusivity resulting from changes in structural properties of salt solution impregnated powders. The use of fluidised bed coupled with microwave heating produced controlled drying of 10 kg batches of simulated waste loaded ceramic powders without any significant agglomeration or coating.     

用计算机建立标准曲线

标准曲线法是仪器分析中最常用的一种定量方法。对于不联机的仪器则要在坐标纸上作图，手工绘制曲线，因而误差较大。为此，介绍了一种利用计算机进行数据处理的方法。     

Effect of Osmotic Treatment on Drying Kinetics and Antioxidant Properties of Dried Mulberry

Air drying is widely used in fruit preservation. However, this causes a reduction in the nutritive value of the product. Osmotic treatment has been used as prior to drying. The objectives of this research were to study osmotic treatment in combination with air drying of mulberries and to evaluate the influence of different osmotic solutions on drying kinetics, reaction kinetics, and antioxidant capacity, with a focus on anthocyanins and phenolics. Mulberries, either untreated or osmotically treated with sucrose, sorbitol, and maltose, were dried in a tray dryer at 60°C with a velocity of 1 m/s. The drying kinetics of mulberries were explained using the Page model based on the R ² values, which ranged from 0.985 to 0.993, and E _s , which ranged from 0.031 to 0.091. Air drying caused degradation of anthoyanins and phenolics, which followed a zero-order reaction with R ² values ranged from 0.866 to 0.996. Osmotic treatment with maltose was found to be a good treatment for mulberry drying and preserved the phenolic and anthocyanin contents and provide high antioxidant capacity.