1Ph. D. Research Scholar, Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal
2Principal Scientist, ICAR-Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology, Abohar, Punjab
Online published on 12 March, 2020.
Drying kinetics of fruit has importance in estimating optimum nutritional retainability, preservation requisites and process economy while processing into useful products. Drying kinetics of pulp of local variety of Indian blackberry was studied in a cabinet dryer. The drying experiment was conducted at 50°C, 60°C and 70°C, and moisture losses were recorded at 30-min intervals. Drying took place in two falling rate periods. Shift of first to second falling rate period was found to be irrespective of temperature, and started from 1.08 g water.g−1 dry matter. The drying data of Indian blackberry pulp was fitted into five commonly used Newton, Page, Peleg, Henderson and Pabis, and Logarithmic thin layer drying models. The logarithmic model adequately described the drying of Indian blackberry pulp. The activation energy values in first and second falling rate periods were 42.20 kJ.mol−1 and 61.62 kJ.mol−1, respectively.
Drying kinetics, Indian blackberry pulp, drying models, drying rate, activation energy
