Journal of Food Engineering 80 (2007) 536544 www.elsevier.

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Mathematical modelling on thin layer microwave drying of apple pomace with and without hot air pre-drying
Zhengfu Wang, Junhong Sun, Fang Chen, Xiaojun Liao, Xiaosong Hu
College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, No. 17, Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China Received 7 April 2006; received in revised form 19 May 2006; accepted 10 June 2006 Available online 17 August 2006

Abstract Characteristics of thin layer microwave drying of apple pomace with and without hot air pre-drying were evaluated in a laboratory scale microwave dryer. The drying experiments were carried out at 150, 300, 450 and 600 W, and the hot air pre-drying experiment was performed at 105 C. Ten commonly used mathematical models were evaluated with the experimental data. The results indicated that the Page model was most adequate in predicting moisture transfer for fresh and pre-dried apple pomace; just a falling rate period was observed in the microwave drying processes; in comparison with the fresh apple pomace, the drying times, or the energy consumptions in the drying of pre-dried apple pomace to remove the same moisture (40%, wb) decreased by 25% on the average at the experimental power levels, and their values of eective diusivity were higher, which indicates that the pre-treatment with hot air drying can improve the microwave drying rate of apple pomace; four regression equations of drying rate against drying duration or moisture were found to describe very well the drying characteristics for fresh and pre-treated apple pomace respectively; it took nearly 70% of total drying time to remove the latter half of moisture (wb) in the microwave drying with or without pre-drying. The above ndings can facilitate the design and operation of microwave drying of apple pomace. 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Apple pomace; Microwave drying; Modelling; Eective diusivity; Drying rate

1. Introduction Apple pomace is a by-product of apple juice production, which represents a signicant source of carbohydrates, vitamin C, minerals and dietary bre. In China alone, there is more than one million tons of apple pomace produced every year. However, the pomace is quite perishable because it contains about 80.2 0.5% of moisture and a lot of saccharide and its pH values are from 3 to 4. Such a great amount of apple pomace would become a serious environmental problem and a waste of resource without proper disposal. A promising way is that the apple pomace is stored in the form of dried product to be used as animal feed or for further processing, such as nutrient recovery.
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Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 10 62737434. E-mail address: huxiaos@hotmail.com (X. Hu).

Drying of moist materials is a complicated process involving simultaneous heat and mass transfer (Yilbas, Hussain, & Dincer, 2003). Thin layer drying is the process of drying in one layer of sample particles or slices. In a microwave drying system, the microwave energy has an internal heat generative capacity and can easily penetrate the interior layers to directly absorb the moisture in the sample. The quick energy absorption causes rapid evaporation of water, creating an outward ux of rapidly escaping vapour, thus, both thermal gradient and moisture gradient are in the same direction. Theoretically, the microwave drying technique can reduce drying time and produce a highquality end-product so as to oer a promising alternative and signicant contribution to the apple pomace disposal. A two-stage drying process involving an initial forced-air convective drying followed by a microwave nal drying has been reported to give better product quality with con-

0260-8774/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2006.06.019

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Nomenclature a, b, c, k, n, L constants in models De eective diusivity, m2/s dp particle size, lm L0 half-thickness of the slab, m MR dimensionless moisture ratio M moisture content, % dry basis Me equilibrium moisture content, % dry basis M0 initial moisture content, % dry basis N number of observations R2 t z v2 coecient of determination drying time, min number of constants chi-square

Subscripts exp experimental pre predicted

siderable saving in energy and time (Maskan, 2000). It has also been suggested in drying of apple slices, mushroom (Funebo & Ohlsson, 1998) and raisin (Kostaropoulos & Saravacos, 1995), that microwave energy should be applied in the falling rate period or at a low moisture content to nish drying. Several mathematical modelling and experimental studies have been done about drying characteristics of apple products, such as apple slices (Funebo & Ohlsson, 1998; Nieto, Salvatori, Castro, & Alzamora, 1998; Ramaswamy & van Nieuwenhuijzen, 2002; Sacilik & Elicin, 2006; Wang s, Bilbao, & Fito, & Chao, 2002, 2003), apple cylinder (Andre 2004),and rectangular shaped apple (Velic, Planinic, Tomas, & Bilic, 2004). However, as reported by Fenton and Kennedy (1998), only apple pomace was used as a test material to compare two moisture determination methods, i.e., infrared drying technique and conventional oven technique. So far, there is no public information about modelling and eective diusivity of drying apple pomace. Therefore, the study on drying apple pomace is of great signicance for environmental protection and recycling resource. Our pre-experiment of hot air drying indicated that the moisture content at about 40% (wet basis, wb), i.e. about 0.67 g water per gram dry matter, was an obvious inexion point in the drying rate curves where a higher dehydration rate was transferred into a lower dehydration rate. From this point on, the bond water in apple pomace began to be removed. Therefore, comparison between the microwave drying alone and the hybrid microwave drying involving a hot air pre-drying followed by a nal microwave drying would be interesting. We dened the microwave drying of pre-dried sample as the drying of pre-treated apple pomace, and the microwave drying alone as the drying of fresh apple pomace. The moisture content at the end of the hot air pre-drying was about 40% (wb). Therefore, the overall purpose of this study was to analyze and model microwave drying characteristics of apple pomace with or without hot air pre-drying. The specic objectives of this study were to: (a) describe the inuence of microwave output power on drying kinetics; (b) select optimal thin layer drying models for the purpose of simulation and scaling up of the process; (c) calculate eective

diusivities in the microwave drying process of apple pomace; and (d) present the drying rate equations so as to give suggestion for optimal design of drying scheme. 2. Material and methods 2.1. Experimental apparatus Fig. 1 shows the diagram of the microwave drying system. A programmable experimental microwave oven (NJ07-3, Nanjing Jiequan Microwave Apparatus Co. Ltd., China) with maximum output of 700 W at 2455 MHz was used for the drying experiment. The oven is tted with a digital control facility to adjust the microwave output power and to control the time of processing. The powers are linear adjustable from 0 to 700 W by regulating the voltage/current. By adjusting the voltage/current, the control system can govern the application of voltage to a high-voltage transformer, thereby controlling the magnetic eld of the magnetron tube and therefore the output power of the microwave oven. The timing scope is alternative from 0 to 999 s or min. The dimension of the inner cavity is 350 350 240 mm. The oven has a fan for air ow in drying chamber and cooling of magnetron. The

Fig. 1. Diagram of microwave drying system.

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moisture from drying cavity was removed with this fan by passing it through the openings on the right side of the oven wall to the outer atmosphere. A digital analytical balance (JA5003, Shanghai Balance Instrument Factory, China) with accuracy of 0.01 g was positioned on a bracket on the top of the microwave oven for mass determination. And a sample tray in the microwave oven chamber was suspended on the balance with a nylon wire through a ventilation hole in the centre of the chamber ceiling. An electric thermal blast dryer (Type-101-3, Shanghai Ruda Experimental Apparatus Co., Ltd.) with 3 kW capacity and cavity dimension of 450 450 500 mm was used for pre-drying of apple pomace. 2.2. Experimental material Fresh apple pomace samples were obtained from Funong Beverage Company in Tongzhou district, Beijing, in September 2005. The samples were of macroscopic non-homogeneity due to the granular structure. Apple pomace had an initial moisture content of 80.2 0.5% (wb), which was determined by drying the fresh pomace in the thermal dryer at 105 C for 12 h. The determination was performed in triplicate. 2.3. Experimental procedure 2.3.1. Preparation of pre-treated apple pomace samples The fresh apple pomace with initial moisture content of 80.2 0.5% was pre-dried with the electric thermal blast dryer at the temperature of 105 C and the air ow rate of 1.2 0.03 m/s till the moisture content reached about 40 2%. Moisture loss in the samples with initial load of 25 0.02 g and thickness of about 10 mm was measured with the analytic balance and recorded at 4 min intervals. The pre-dried samples were sealed into a plastic bag for consequent use in microwave drying. The samples were mixed before microwave drying, so that the initial moisture of pre-treated apple pomace was uniform. 2.3.2. Microwave drying of fresh and pre-treated apple pomace samples The fresh apple pomace samples and the pre-dried apple pomace samples were dried in the microwave dryer at the
Table 1 Mathematical models given by various authors for drying curves No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Model name Lewis Page Modied Page Henderson and Pabis Logarithmic Two-term model Approximation of diusion Wang and Singh Simplied Ficks diusion Modied Page equation-II Model

output powers of 150, 300, 450 and 600 W, respectively. The thickness of samples was about 10 mm with initial load of 10 0.02 g. And relative humidity of the ambient air was 30%. Moisture loss of the sample in the microwave dryer was simultaneously measured with the analytic balance and recorded at 1 min intervals. The drying procedure was continued till the moisture content of the sample was reduced to about 5% (db) when the moisture content did not change any more. Each run was performed in triplicate. 2.4. Theoretical basis 2.4.1. Modelling of the thin-layer drying curves Eectively modelling the drying behaviour is important for investigation of drying characteristics of apple pomace. In this study, the microwave experimental drying data of apple pomace at dierent power levels were tted to the 10 commonly used thin layer drying models, listed in the Table 1. In these models, MR represents the dimensionless moisture ratio, namely, MR = (M Me)/ (M0 Me), where M is the moisture content of the product at each moment, M0 is the initial moisture content of the product and Me is the equilibrium moisture content. The values of Me are relatively small compared with M or M0 for long drying time. Thus, MR = (M Me)/ (M0 Me) can be simplied as MR = M/M0 (Akgun & Doymaz, 2005; Thakor, Sokhansanj, Sosulski, & Yannacopoulos, 1999). 2.4.2. Correlation coecients and error analyses The goodness of t of the tested mathematical models to the experimental data was evaluated with the correlation coecient (R2), the reduced (v2) and the root mean square error (RMSE). The higher the R2 values and the lower the v2 and RMSE values, the better is the goodness of t zdemir & Devres, 1999). The (Ertekin & Yaldiz, 2004; O 2 reduced v and RMSE can be calculated as follows: v2 MRpre;i 2 ; N z v u N u1 X RMSE t MRpre;i MRexp;i 2 ; N i1
i1 MRexp;i

PN

1 2

References Bruce (1985) Page (1949) White et al. (1981) Henderson and Pabis (1961) Togrul and Pehlivan (2002) Henderson (1974) Yaldiz et al. (2001) Wang and Singh (1978) Diamante and Munro (1991) Diamante and Munro (1991)

MR = exp(kt) MR = exp(ktn) MR = exp(kt)n MR = a exp(kt) MR = a exp(kt) + c MR = aastexp(k0t) + b*exp(k1t) MR = a exp (kt) + (1 a)*exp(k*a*t) MR = 1 + at + bt2 MR = a exp(c(t/L2)) MR = exp(c(t/L2)n)

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Moisture Ratio

where MRexp,i is the ith experimental moisture ratio, MRpre,i is the ith predicted moisture ratio, N is the number of observations and z is the number of constants. In this study, the nonlinear or linear regression analysis was performed with statistical software, OriginPro7.5 2.4.3. Calculation of eective diusivities It has been accepted that the drying characteristics of biological products in the falling rate period can be described by using Ficks diusion equation. The solution to this equation developed by Crank (1975) can be used for various regularly shaped bodies such as rectangular, cylindrical and spherical products, and the form of Eq. (3) can be applicable for particles with slab geometry by assuming uniform initial moisture distribution: ! 2 1 8 X 1 2n 1 p2 Deff t MR 2 exp ; 3 p n0 2n 12 4L 2 0 where De is the eective diusivity (m2/s); L0 is the half thickness of slab (m). For long drying period, Eq. (3) can be further simplied to only the rst term of the series (Tutuncu & Labuza, 1996). Then, Eq. (3) is written in a logarithmic form as follows: ln MR ln 8 p2 Deff t : p2 4L2 0 4

1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 0 10 20 30 40 50 Drying Time (min) 60 70 80

150W 300W 450W 600W

Fig. 2. Drying curves of fresh apple pomace at dierent microwave powers.

1.0

0.8

Moisture Ratio

0.6

150W 300W 450W 600W

0.4

0.2

Diusivities are typically determined by plotting experimental drying data in terms of ln MR versus drying time t in Eq. (4), because the plot gives a straight line with a slope as p2 Deff =4L2 0 . 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Microwave drying behaviour of fresh and pre-treated apple pomace The moisture ratios versus drying time for the fresh and pre-treated apple pomace at the selected powers are shown in Figs. 2 and 3, respectively. The total drying times to reach the nal moisture content for the fresh apple pomace sample were 77, 37, 29 and 21 min at 150, 300, 450, and 600 W, respectively. Similarly, the total drying times for the pretreated apple pomace samples were 23, 11.5, 8.5 and 6.5 min at 150, 300, 450, and 600 W, respectively. Obviously, within a certain microwave power range (150600 W in this study), increasing output power speeds up the drying process, thus shortening the drying time. This result is similar to the results of drying apple slices (Ramaswamy & van Nieuwenhuijzen, 2002; Wang & Chao, 2002). The drying time until the moisture ratio was up to 0.5 was 24.0, 12.97, 7.82 and 5.62 min for the fresh apple pomace at the output powers of 150, 300, 450 and 600 W, respectively (Fig. 2), accounting for 31.16%, 35.05%, 26.97% and 26.76% of the corresponding total drying time, that is, 29.99% on the average. Therefore, it took nearly 6573% (70.01% on the average) of the total drying time

0.0 0 5 10 15 20

Drying Time (min)

Fig. 3. Drying curves of pre-treated apple pomace at dierent microwave power.

to remove the latter half of moisture content (wb) in the fresh apple pomace at dierent output powers. Similarly, it took 6.40, 3.25, 2.36 and 2.02 min to reach 0.5 of moisture ratio for the pre-treated apple pomace at 150, 300, 450 and 600 W, respectively (Fig. 3), accounting for 27.82%, 28.26%, 27.76% and 33.53% of the corresponding total drying time, that is, 28.72% on the average. Therefore, it took nearly 6672%, that is, 70.65% on the average, of total drying time to remove the latter half of moisture content (wb) in the pre-treated apple pomace. In conclusion, it took nearly 70% of total drying time to remove the latter half of moisture (wb) in the microwave drying with or without pre-drying. Figs. 4 and 5 show the curves of drying rate against moisture content of fresh and pre-treated apple pomace. Figs. 6 and 7 show the curves of drying rate against drying duration. As can be seen, a constant rate period was not observed in microwave drying of the apple pomace samples; the curves of both drying processes presented a typical falling rate period with the exception of a very short accelerating period at the start. That is, the drying rate of apple pomace was faster at the previous phase than that at the following phase. This observation is in agreement with previous reports on thin-layer drying of biological products by

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Drying rate (g water/g dry matter min)

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Drying Rate (g water/g dry solid min)

0.5

0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 0 20 40 60

150W 300W 450W 600W

0.4

150W 300W 450W 600W

0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 0 1 2 3 4

Moisture content (g water/g dry matter)

Drying time (min)

Fig. 6. The relations of drying rate and time in drying of fresh samples.

Fig. 4. Drying rate of fresh apple pomace at dierent microwave powers.

Drying rate (g water/g dry matter min)

0.20

0.20

Drying Rate (g water/g dry matter. min)

0.15

150W 300W 450W 600W

0.18 0.16 0.14 0.12 0.10 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0.00 0 5 10 15 20

150W 300W 450W 600W

0.10

0.05

0.00 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7

Moisture content (g water/g dry matter)

Drying time (min)

Fig. 5. Drying rate of pre-treated apple pomace at dierent microwave powers.

Fig. 7. The relations of drying rate and time in drying of pre-dried samples.

Diamante and Munro (1991) and Doymaz and Pala (2003), etc. In our previous results about hot air drying of fresh apple pomace and in the report on microwave drying of carrot by Wang and Xi (2005), there was an obvious inexion point in the drying rate curves where a lower slope of drying rate curves is transformed into a higher slope of drying rate curves, but no obvious inexion point in the drying rate curves was observed in this study. 3.2. Comparison of drying characteristics between fresh and pre-treated apple pomace As can be seen from Fig. 2, it took 31.0, 15.03, 11.3 and 8.6 min at 150, 300, 450 and 600 W, respectively, to remove the last 40% of moisture content (wb, equivalent to 0.67 g water/g dry matter) in the microwave drying of fresh apple pomace, and their energy consumptions were 0.078, 0.075, 0.085 and 0.086 kW h, respectively; correspondingly, in the drying of pre-treated apple pomace it only took 23, 11.5, 8.5 and 6.5 min (Fig. 3), and their energy consumptions were 0.058, 0.058, 0.064 and 0.065 kW h. In comparison with the fresh apple pomace, the drying times, or the power consumptions in the drying of pre-dried apple pomace to remove the same moisture (40%, wb) decreased by 25.80, 23.48, 24.78 and 24.42%, respectively, that is, nearly 25%

on the average, which indicates that the hybrid drying mode involving a hot air convective drying followed by a microwave nal drying presents great energy eciency. This observation is in agreement with the previous report by Maskan (2000). The time saving in the drying of pre-treated apple pomace can also be veried with the drying rate. In Fig. 4, the drying rates corresponding to the moisture ratio of below 0.67 g water/g dry matter were all less than that in Fig. 5. The higher drying rate of the pre-treated apple pomace is ascribed to the microstructure dierence between the fresh apple pomace and the pre-treated apple pomace. It was s et al. (2004) that air dried apple cylinobserved by Andre der samples present a porous structure, and cell walls are greatly shrunk, which leaves wide spaces between neighbouring cells (Bilbao, Albors, Gras, Andres, & Fito, 2000). Microwave dried samples also reveal a porous structure but these pores are much smaller, and the tissues appeared unchanged as compared with the hot air drying. Therefore, it could be deduced that due to the eect of the high temperatures, cell membranes denaturized and phase transitions occurred so that the microstructure of apple pomace with hot air pre-drying was greatly damaged, bond water in damaged tissues is easier to be removed with the microwave as compared with that in less damaged tissues.

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3.3. Fitting of the microwave drying curves The moisture content data observed at the drying experiment of fresh and pre-treated apple pomace were converted into the moisture ratio (MR) and tted to the 10 models listed in Table 1. The statistical regression results of the dierent models, including the drying model coecients and the comparison criteria used to evaluate goodness of t, i.e. R2, v2 and RMSE, are listed in Tables 2 and 3. In all cases, R2 values were higher than 0.94, v2 and RMSE values were lower than 6.65 103 and 0.1334, respectively. For pre-treated apple pomace (Table 2), R2 values of Page, Modied Page, Logarithmic, Modied Page equation-II and Approximation of Diusion were greater than 0.992, and corresponding v2 and RMSE values were lower than 7.1 104 and 0.0141, respectively, indicating that the ve models are tted well to the experimental data. For pre-treated apple pomace (Table 2), amongst

the ve models, their average values of R2 at four microwave power levels were almost the same (0.997), and the average values of v2 for Page and Modied Page models were the lowest and almost the same (3.18 104 and 3.13 104, respectively), however, the average of RMSE (0.00245) of Page model was 0.2908 times as much as that (0.008425) of Modied Page model. Therefore, Page model was most adequate in describing the microwave drying processes of pre-treated apple pomace. Similarly, for fresh apple pomace (Table 3), Page model was the best one to predict the moisture transfer of fresh apple pomace owing to the lowest average values of RMSE (0.002275) and v2 (1.75 104) as well as the highest average value of R2 (0.998). Fig. 8 shows the comparison between predicted values from Page model and experimental data for pre-treated apple pomace at the output power of 450 W, and similar results could be also obtained at other output powers for

Table 2 Statistical results of dierent thin-layer drying models for pre-treated apple pomace Model No. 1 P (W) 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 Model constants k = 0.1214 k = 0.20554 k = 0.34135 k = 0.37243 k = 0.10454 k = 0.16271 k = 0.2292 k = 0.32211 k = 0.11991 k = 0.20124 k = 0.32822 k = 0.36416 k = 0.12105 k = 0.21303 k = 0.35671 k = 0.37893 k = 0.09545 k = 0.19706 k = 0.25635 k = 0.33496 k0 = 0.12105 k0 = 0.213 k0 = 0.35671 k0 = 0.37893 k = 0.14487 k = 0.26591 k = 0.49527 k = 0.46891 a = 0.08815 a = 0.14483 a = 0.24998 a = 0.26281 a = 0.99717 a = 1.03769 a = 1.04912 a = 1.01882 c = 0.29565 c = 0.35674 c = 0.45371 c = 0.53516 R2 0.9906 0.9925 0.9814 0.9960 0.9920 0.9966 0.9991 0.9990 0.9920 0.9966 0.9991 0.9990 0.9907 0.9941 0.9847 0.9965 0.9971 0.9953 0.9969 0.9990 0.9907 0.9941 0.9847 0.9965 0.9928 0.9966 0.9984 0.9991 0.9985 0.9804 0.9989 0.9886 0.9907 0.9941 0.9848 0.9965 0.9920 0.9966 0.9991 0.9990 v2 7.7 10 7.0 104 2.31 103 4.4 104 6.8 104 3.4 104 1.2 104 1.3 104 6.8 104 3.4 104 1.2 104 1.3 104 8.0 104 5.9 104 2.17 103 4.4 104 2.6 104 5.0 104 5.1 104 1.4 104 8.7 104 6.7 104 3.03 103 5.8 104 6.2 104 3.4 104 2.3 104 1.2 104 1.45 103 1.95 103 1.5 104 1.42 103 8.3 104 6.3 104 2.53 103 5.0 104 7.1 104 3.6 104 1.4 104 1.4 104
4

RMSE 0.0831 0.0511 0.1224 0.0425 0.0024 0.0032 0.0014 0.0028 0.0077 0.0162 0.0042 0.0056 0.0542 0.0321 0.0842 0.0368 0.0141 0.0058 0.0024 0.0035 0.0563 0.0482 0.0526 0.0321 0.0084 0.0056 0.0035 0.0087 0.0234 0.0325 0.0121 0.1235 0.0542 0.0324 0.0568 0.0171 0.0215 0.0057 0.0036 0.0024

10

n = 1.06485 n = 1.13252 n = 1.32241 n = 1.52152 n = 1.06633 n = 1.13208 n = 1.32266 n = 1.1217 a = 0.99708 a = 1.03769 a = 1.04899 a = 1.01876 a = 1.05969 a = 1.05434 a = 1.18191 a = 1.05347 k1 = 0.12105 k1 = 0.213 k1 = 0.35667 k1 = 0.37893 a = 1.51432 a = 1.6588 a = 1.87215 a = 1.61514 b = 0.00201 b = 0.00532 b = 0.01593 b = 0.01751 c = 28.25093 c = 3.77031 c = 0.64687 c = 1.06073 L = 1.62985 L = 1.67245 L = 1.29456 L = 1.254

c = 0.09478 c = 0.02793 c = 0.16096 c = 0.04728 a = 0.49854 a = 0.51881 a = 0.52449 a = 0.50938

b = 0.49854 b = 0.51881 b = 0.52449 b = 0.50938

L = 15.27524 L = 4.2069 L = 1.34639 L = 1.67296 n = 1.06534 n = 1.13189 n = 1.32229 n = 1.12153

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Table 3 Statistical results of dierent thin-layer drying models for fresh apple pomace Model No. 1 P (W) 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 150 300 450 600 Model constants k = 0.0341 k = 0.06419 k = 0.09554 k = 0.13651 k = 0.00837 k = 0.01153 k = 0.0403 k = 0.06392 k = 0.03291 k = 0.06182 k = 0.09211 k = 0.13157 k = 0.0379 k = 0.07349 k = 0.10562 k = 0.15017 k = 0.02348 k = 0.0392 k = 0.07785 k = 0.11633 k0 = 0.03791 k0 = 0.07354 k0 = 0.10561 k0 = 0.1502 k = 0.05113 k = 0.10339 k = 0.14242 k = 0.20627 a = 0.02481 a = 0.0452 a = 0.07003 a = 0.10038 a = 1.11387 a = 1.15041 a = 1.11 a = 1.10569 c = 0.13024 c = 0.20513 c = 0.28737 c = 0.38025 R2 0.9639 0.9400 0.9731 0.9740 0.9976 0.9984 0.9984 0.9989 0.9976 0.9942 0.9984 0.9989 0.9777 0.9635 0.9857 0.9858 0.9974 0.9936 0.9968 0.9946 0.9777 0.9635 0.9857 0.9858 0.9951 0.9929 0.9978 0.9991 0.9985 0.9916 0.9962 0.9943 0.9777 0.9635 0.9857 0.9858 0.9976 0.9984 0.9984 0.9989 v2 3.46 10 6.65 103 2.74 103 2.76 103 2.3 104 1.9 104 1.6 104 1.2 104 2.3 104 6.1 104 1.6 104 1.2 104 2.17 103 4.16 103 1.51 103 1.59 103 2.6 104 7.6 104 3.5 104 6.3 104 2.23 103 4.41 103 1.62 103 1.76 103 4.8 104 8.1 104 2.3 104 1.0 104 1.4 104 9.6 104 4.1 104 6.4 104 2.2 103 4.28 103 1.56 103 1.67 103 2.4 104 1.9 104 1.7 104 1.3 104
3

RMSE 0.0731 0.0611 0.1334 0.0435 0.0034 0.0022 0.0012 0.0023 0.0087 0.0152 0.0052 0.0054 0.0542 0.0421 0.0852 0.0378 0.0341 0.0078 0.0034 0.0036 0.0543 0.0462 0.0426 0.0421 0.0074 0.0066 0.0045 0.0087 0.0254 0.0335 0.0221 0.1255 0.0522 0.0354 0.0368 0.0271 0.0215 0.0127 0.0086 0.0054

10

n = 1.60096 n = 1.40342 n = 1.34664 n = 1.25592 n = 1.40237 n = 1.60508 n = 1.34704 n = 1.35573 a = 1.11369 a = 1.15018 a = 1.10983 a = 1.10553 a = 1.30166 a = 1.46348 a = 1.20662 a = 1.18437 k1 = 0.03791 k1 = 0.07354 k1 = 0.10561 k1 = 0.1502 a = 1.92306 a = 2.06262 a = 1.91581 a = 1.94136 b = 0.00015 b = 0.00046 b = 0.00125 b = 0.00257 c = 129.7863 c = 92.19047 c = 27.77884 c = 4.44332 L = 2.66238 L = 2.45424 L = 2.07416 L = 1.93

c = 0.25423 c = 0.38912 c = 0.1413 c = 0.11466 a = 0.55688 a = 0.57509 a = 0.5549 a = 0.55283

b = 0.55688 b = 0.57509 b = 0.5549 b = 0.55283

L = 58.5084 L = 35.4117 L = 16.2151 L = 5.43865 n = 1.40049 n = 1.60369 n = 1.34707 n = 1.35576

1.0

0.8

Experimental
0.6

Page

0.4

0.2

0.0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

drying process, but they are all very close to the experimental data. Therefore, the Page model was all very satisfactory in tting to the experimental data of fresh or pre-treated apple pomace. In order to take into account the eect of microwave power level on the constants of the Page model, namely, k, n (seen in Table 1), the regression analysis was used to set up the relations between these parameters and the microwave power level. Thus, the regression equations of these parameters against microwave power level, P, (W) and the accepted model are as follows: MRk ; t M expktn ; M0 5

Moisture ratio MR

Drying time (min)

Fig. 8. Drying curves of pre-treated apple pomace based on Page model and the experiment of microwave drying at 450 kW.

where, for fresh apple pomace, pre-treated or fresh apple pomace. It can be seen that the model presented a little over or under estimation in comparison with the experimental data at dierent stages of k 0:01783 0:0001303P ; n 1:6747 0:00728P ;
2

R2 0:9625;

6 7

R 0:9652

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and for pre-treated apple pomace, k 0:02484 0:000479P ; n 0:8704 0:00104P ;

2

R2 0:9939; R 0:9802;

8 9

Table 4 Eective diusivities of pre-treated and fresh apple pomace dried at dierent microwave output powers Powers (W) 150 300 450 600 Pre-treated (m2/s) 2.9920 10 5.3715 108 7.5145 108 9.1537 108
8

Fresh (m2/s) 1.0465 108 2.2130 108 2.7157 108 3.6854 108

The consistency of the model and the relations between the coecients and microwave power level were evident with correlation coecient R2 and the reduced v2. For fresh apple pomace, R2 = 0.9784 and v2 = 0.02541, and for pretreated apple pomace, R2 = 0.9853 and v2 = 0.00674. Thus, the moisture ratio of apple pomace at any time and any power level during thin-layer microwave drying process could be estimated more accurately by using these expressions. Based on the data in Figs. 47, the regression equations of drying rate against moisture (M) or drying duration (t) could be found in the falling rate period (excluding the accelerating period at the beginning) as follows: For fresh apple pomace,
dM =dt 0:02058 0:000037P 0:0273 0:00028P M ; R2 0:8645; v2 0:00856; 10 dM =dt 0:02155 0:000814P 0:00816 0:0000508P t; R2 0:8378; v2 0:00574: 11

two-stage drying process involving an initial hot-air convective drying followed by a microwave nal drying has better mass transfer eciency than single drying process. 4. Conclusions This study indicated that Page model gave excellent tting to the drying experimental data of fresh and pre-treated apple pomace; the drying time of apple pomace decreases and the eective diusivity increases as the microwave output power increases; there was just a falling rate period except a very short accelerating period at the beginning in microwave drying processes of fresh and pre-treated apple pomace; no constant rate period was observed; it took nearly 70% of total drying time to remove the latter half of moisture (wb) of fresh and pre-treated apple pomace in the microwave drying; the values of eective diusivity for drying of apple pomace with and without hot air pre-drying ranged from 2.9920 108 to 9.1537 108 m2/s and from 1.0465 108 to 3.6854 108 m2/s, respectively. In comparison with the fresh apple pomace, the drying times, or the energy consumptions in the drying of pre-dried apple pomace to remove the same moisture (40%, wb) decreased by 25% on the average. Therefore, the pre-treatment with hot air drying can improve the microwave drying rate of apple pomace. Four regression equations of drying times against drying duration or moisture were found to describe very well the drying characteristics of fresh and pre-treated apple pomace. The models and parameters found in this study can be applied to industrial design and operational guide for the microwave drying of apple pomace. Acknowledgment The study was funded by the Project No. 2005-Z33 of 948 supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, PR China. References
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For pre-treated apple pomace,

dM =dt 0:01169 0:0000868P 0:02414 0:000572P M ; R2 0:8712; v2 0:00558; R2 0:8547; v2 0:00726; 12 13 dM =dt 0:00743 0:000391P 0:01083 0:0000713P t;

where P is the microwave power levels (W); M is the moisture content (g water/g dry matter); t is the drying duration (min); and dM/dt is drying rate (g water/g dry matter/min). With the above equations the drying rate could be calculated at any microwave power level between 150 and 600 W, at any moisture level from 80% to the equilibrium moisture and at any drying duration. The four equations combined with Page model can facilitate the design and operation of microwave drying of apple pomace. 3.4. Eective diusivities of fresh and pre-treated apple pomace The results of previous researchers have shown that internal mass transfer resistance controls the drying time due to presence of a falling rate-drying period. Therefore, the values of eective diusivity (De) at dierent output powers could be obtained by using Eq. (4). The eective diusivities of apple pomace with and without pre-treatment of hot air drying in the microwave drying process at 150600 W ranged from 2.9920 108 to 9.1537 108 m2/s and from 1.0465 108 to 3.6854 108 m2/s (Table 4), respectively. As expected, the values of De increased with the increase of output power; and the eective diusivities in two-stage drying process are larger than that in the single microwave drying, which indicates again that the

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