Determination on of volumetric contraction and drying kinetics of the dryed banana

Abstract

Banana (Musa spp.) is one of the most nutritious and consumed fruits, especially in tropical countries. The drying of the fruit is an alternative against the injuries suffered, mainly during the post-harvest process. Thus, the knowledge of the physical properties of the product that is intended to be processed has a big importance for the dimensioning of equipment. Therefore, the objective of this work was to study the drying kinetics of the banana, transforming it into dried banana, besides evaluating the volumetric contraction suffered during drying. The bananas were dried in an oven at temperatures of 70, 60 and 50 ºC. The volumetric measurements were carried out before and after drying to determine the volumetric contraction during the process. After drying, the experimental data were modeled by nonlinear regression analysis by the Quase-Newton method, to adjust 4 mathematical models of moisture ratio and 5 mathematical models of volumetric contraction. Among the models tested, the best fit for the prediction of the Moisture Ratio was the exponential model, and for the Volumetric Contraction was the modified BALA and WOOD model.