Thin-layer drying characteristics of banana slices in a force convection indirect solar drying

Abstract

An experimental study was performed to determine the thin layer drying characteristics of banana slices in a force convection indirect solar drying. The system consists of two main parts: heat collector and the food drying cabinet. Heat collector absorbing maximum solar radiation by and provides heated air flow to the cabinet via two fans at the air inlet/outlet. The air temperature at the inlet of the cabinet under both natural and forced air velocities was about 62.8˚c. During the experiments, the cabinet was loaded with 426g of banana slices having an initial moisture content of 80%. Eight different thin layer drying models were compared with respect to their coefficient of determination (r²), reduced chi-square (x²) and root mean square error (RMSE) was selected to better estimate the drying curves. The performance of these models was investigated by non-linear regression analysis using statistica computer program. The entire models were showed a good fit to the drying data. However, the (wang and singh) drying model was showed a better fit to the experiment data among other models.