Drying kinetics of white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus)

Drying kinetics of button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) was studied using three drying methods, solar, microwave and solar-cum-microwave. The solar drying was carried out in a natural circulation, integral type solar dryer. Microwave drying was carried out at five levels of exposure time (ET, 5-25s) and five microwave power levels (PL, 270–1350W) with 30s pause time. Solar-cum-microwave drying of mushroom was carried out at three different partial-moisture contents (MC, 25–45% weight basis) followed by microwave drying at five levels of exposure time (5-25s) and five levels of microwave power (270–810 W) with 30s pause time. The drying kinetics parameters mainly moisture content, moisture ratio, drying rate along with environmental parameters were analysed. The time taken for drying from 91.80 to 6.00 (%, db) was in the order of solar > solar-cummicrowave > microwave. The highest effective moisture diffusivity (D_eff) for solar and microwave was 1.46×10⁻⁰⁷ m²/s and 6.33×10⁻⁰⁶ m²/s (PL: 1350W and ET: 25 s), respectively. In solar-cum-microwave drying, the highest D_eff value of 1.16×10⁻⁰⁷ and 2.29210⁻⁰⁵ was recorded for initial and later stage of drying at PL: 1350W, ET: 25s, MC: 25%. Based on statistical results, logarithmic model gave best goodness of fit on the experimental data.