Drying Kinetics of Tomato Slices in Vacuum Assisted Solar and Open Sun Drying Methods |
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Authors: | P. Rajkumar S. Kulanthaisami Y. Gariépy V. Orsat |
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Affiliation: | 1. Tamil Nadu Agricultural University , Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India;2. Bioresource Engineering , McGill University , Canada |
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Abstract: | A lab model vacuum-assisted solar dryer was developed to study the drying kinetics of tomato slices (4, 6, and 8 mm thicknesses) compared with open sun drying under the weather conditions of Montreal, Canada. The drying study showed that the time taken for drying of tomato slices of 4, 6, and 8 mm thicknesses from the initial moisture content of 94.0% to the final moisture content of around 11.5 ± 0.5% (w.b.) was 360, 480, and 600 min in vacuum-assisted solar dryer and 450, 600, and 750 min in open sun drying, respectively. During drying, it was observed that the temperature inside the vacuum chamber was increased to 48°C when the maximum ambient temperature was only 30°C. The quality of tomato slices dried under vacuum-assisted solar dryer was of superior quality in terms of color retention and rehydration ratio. The drying kinetics using thin-layer drying models and the influence of weather parameters such as ambient air temperature, relative humidity, solar insolation, and wind velocity on drying of tomato slices were evaluated. |
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Keywords: | Drying kinetics Open sun drying Tomato slice Vacuum assisted solar dryer Weather parameters |
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