Professional Documents
Culture Documents
EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE, RELATIVE HUMIDITY AND AIR VELOCITY ONDRYING KINETICS AND DRYING RATE OF BASIL LEAVES
Amin Taheri-Garavand*, Shahin Rafiee, Alireza Keyhani Department of Agricultural Machinery Engineering University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran. amin.taheri49@gmail.com,
ABSTRACT Thin-layer drying kinetics of basil leaves was experimentally investigated in a pilot scale convective dryer. The effects of temperature, relative humidity (RH) and air velocity on the drying kinetics were investigated to identify the optimal drying conditions for basil leaves. Experiments were performed at air temperatures of 40, 60, and 80C and at three relative humidity of 20%, 40% and 60% and air velocity of 1.5, 2 and 2.5 m/s. In order to select a suitable form of the drying curve, 9 different thin layer drying models were fitted to experimental data. The high values of coefficient of determination and the low values of reduced sum square errors and root mean square error indicated that the Midilli et al. model could satisfactorily illustrate the drying curve of basil leaves. The Midilli et al. model had the highest value of R2, the lowest SSE and RMSE for different air drying donditions. The Midilli et al. model was found to satisfactorily describe the drying behavior of basil leaves.
KEYWORDS
INTRODUCTION Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.), belonging to the hamiaceae species, is an annual, herbaceous, 2060 cm length and white-purple owering plant which comes from India and Iran. It is cultivated in Mediterranean countries and in various regions with temperate and hot climates. Fresh basil is widely used in the Mediterranean kitchen such as tomato products, vegetables, salads, pizza, meat, soups and marine foods. It is commonly known that the presence of essential oils and their composition determine the specic aroma of plants and the avour of the condiment. As a spice dried and ground basil leaves are used in bakery products, confectionary, ice creams, vinegars, meat and avor products (Ozcan et al., 2005). Basil is an aromatic herb that is used extensively to add a distinctive aroma and flavor to food. The leaves can be used fresh or dried for use as a spice. Essential oils are also extracted from the fresh leaves and flowers for use as an aroma additive in food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and household products. (Loughrin And Kasperbauer, 2003). The reduction of moisture is one of the oldest techniques for food preservation. Mechanical and thermal methods are two basic methods to remove the moisture in a solid material (Karimi, 2010). Raw foods have high amount of moisture and thus perishable. Many applications of drying have been successfully applied to decrease physical, biochemical and microbiological deterioration of food products due to the reduction of the moisture content to the level, which allows safe storage over a long period and brings substantial reduction in weight and volume, minimizing packaging, storage and transportation costs (Zielinska and Markowski, 2010). The principle of modelling is based on having a set of mathematical equations which can satisfactorily explain the system. The solution of these equations must allow calculation of the process parameters as a function of time at any point in the dryer based only on the primary condition (Kaleta and Grnicki, 2010). Hence, the use of a simulation model is an important tool for prediction of performance of drying systems. The objective of this research was the evaluation and the modeling of the drying kinetics of mass transfer during the hot-air drying process of basil leaves, and the analysis of the influence of temperature, relative humidity and air velocity on drying rate and the kinetic constants of the proposed models. MATERIALS AND METHODS Samples Preparation and drying unit Drying experiment was performed using pilot scale dryer which was designed and fabricated by Amin Taheri-Garavand in the Department of Agricultural Machinery at University of Tehran. A schematic diagram of this dryer is shown in Figure 1. A portable, 0-10 m/s range digital anemometer (TESTO, 405-V1) was used to measure passing air flow velocity through the system. The airflow was adjusted by a variable speed blower. The heating structure was consisted of ten heating elements placed inside the canal. Moreover, a simple control algorithm was used to control and adjust the drying tunnel temperature and relative humidity of air used to drying. The opening side on the right was used to load or unload the tunnel and to measure drying air velocity. The trays were supported by lightweight steel rods placed under the digital balance. The used measuring instruments with their specifications are given in (Table 1). The airflow control unit was regulated the velocity of the drying air flowing through the 30 cm diameter drying chamber. The dryer is capable of providing any desired drying air temperature in the range of 20 to 120 C and air relative humidity in the range of 5 to 95% and air velocity in the range of 0.1 to 5.0 m/s with high accuracy. After turning on the computer, fan, scale, elements and data acquisition system, the essential velocity for the fan was set.
2076
A manual sensor (TESTO 405-V1) was used to measure the velocity. The control software was implemented and the required temperature and relative humidity of air for the experiment were adjusted. Experiments were carried out 20 minutes after the system was turned on to reach to its steady state condition. After that, the tray holding the samples is carefully put in the dryer. About 50 g of basil leaves were weighed and uniformly spread in a tray and kept inside the dryer. Three replications of each experiment were performed according to a pre-set air temperature and time schedule. The reproducibility of the experiments was within the range of 5%. The hot air drying was applied until the weight of the sample reduced to a level corresponding to moisture content of about 0.5% d.b. The drying experiment was conducted at three air temperatures of 40, 60 and 80C and at three relative humidity 20%, 40% and 60% and constant air velocity of 2.0 m/s. The moisture content of the dried materials at the end of the drying cycles was found by the oven method at 105 0C for 1 h (Ozcan et al., 2005).
Fig. 2 Experimental and predicted moisture ratio by the Midilli et al. model versus drying time for air velocity of 2m/s and relative humidity 20%.
2077
Mathematical modeling of drying curves The moisture ratio (MR) of basil leaves during drying experiments was calculated using the following Equation: M Me MR = d (1) M0 Me Where M, Mo, and Me are moisture content at any drying time, initial and equilibrium moisture content (kg water/kg dry matter), respectively. The values of Me are relatively little compared to those of M or Mo, the error involved in the simplification is negligible (Aghbashlo et al., 2008), thus moisture ratio was calculated as: M MR = d M0 (2) The drying rate of the products during drying experiments was calculated using the following equations: (3) For drying model selection, drying curves were fitted to 12 well known thin layer drying models which are given in (Table 2). The best of fit was determined using three parameters: higher values for coefficient of determination (R2), reduced chi-square ( ) and root mean square error (RMSE) using Equations (4-6), respectively. The statistical analyses were carried out using MATALB 7.6 software. 2 N i=1 MRper,i MRexp,i (4) R2 = 1 2 N i=1 MRper MRexp,i
( (
) )
SSE =
n i=1
(MRexp,i MRpre,i ) 2 N
1 2
(5) (6)
In the above Equations MRpre,i is the ith predicted moisture ratio, MRexp,i is the ith experimental moisture ratio, N is number of observations and m is number of constants.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The drying process was stopped after no further change in weights was observed. At this point moisture content decreased from 87.8 % to 10 % (w.b.). Moisture content data were converted to moisture ratio and then fitted to the 9 thin layer drying models in Tables 3-11 showed that the results of fitting the experimental data to the thin layer drying models listed in Table 2 (R2, RMSE and SSE). The best-fitting model for all air dryer conditions was bolded in Tables 3-11. criterion for selection of the best model describing the thin layer drying kinetics was according to the highest R2 average values, and the lowest RMSE and SSE average values. Therefore, the best model for this quantity of air velocity are the Midilli et al. model had the highest value of R2, the lowest SSE and RMSE for all air dryer conditions.
2078
The constants of Midilli et al. model are presented in Table 12 for different drying conditions. Figures 2-4 present the variation of experimental and predicted moisture ratio using the best models with drying time for dried basil. the Midilli et al. Model gives a good estimation for the drying process. As can be seen from Figures 2-4, by increasing air temperature, a decrease in drying time was observed. Also in these Figures exhibit the variation of moisture ratio as a function of time. The moisture ratio of the samples decreased continually with drying time. As expected, increase in the temperature of drying air reduces the time required to reach any given level of moisture ratio since the heat transfer Increases. In other words, at high temperatures the transfer of heat and mass is high and water loss is excessive this can be explained by increasing temperature difference between the drying air and the product and the resultant water migration. These figures showed that the experimental and calculated moisture ratio of the best model, where a good fit can be graphically observed when using these equations. In addition, other authors have obtained good results when applying this model in drying kinetics of food (Arumuganathan et al., 2009; Simal et al., 2005; Meisami-asl et al., 2010). In order to gain a deeper insight into the drying behavior of the basil leaves, the variations of the drying rate DR (Eq. (3)) with the drying time t are shown in Figs. 57 for varying velocity, temperature and relative humidity of the drying air. Due to the moisture diffusion process, the drying rate DR decreases with time. From Fig. 5, initially, it is very clear that the higher the air temperature is, the higher the drying rate is. For higher values of the moisture content, increasing drying temperature resulted in increasing drying rate and, in follows, decreasing drying time. This can be explained by the increasing temperature difference between the drying air and the product and, in follows, accelerating water migration. . Fig. 6 shows there the relative humidity has a considerable inuence on the variation of the drying rate with the drying time. As expected, on decreasing the relative humidity intensies drying rate change by the drying time. In other words, at low relative humidity of air the transfer of heat and mass is high and water loss is excessive. Figure 7 shows drying ratio versus drying time at constant air temperature and air relative humidity for air velocity 1.5, 2 and 2.5 m/s. This fig exhibit there the air velocity has a considerable inuence on the variation of the drying rate with the drying time. As expected, on increasing the air velocity intensies drying rate change by the drying time. Thus, at high air velocity of air the transfer of heat and mass is high and water loss is excessive.
CONCLUSION The drying behavior of basil leaves in a pilot dryer was investigated at three different drying air temperatures and three different drying air relative humidifies. The times to reach equilibrium moisture (10%) from the initial moisture content. In order to explain the drying behavior of basil leaves cultivated in Iran, 9 models in the literature were applied and fitted to the experimental data. According to the statistical analysis applied to all models, it can be concluded that among these models, Midilli et al. gave the best results. In addition to, these results showed good agreement with the experiment data. It can be concluded that the influence of air temperature on drying time cause to with increase in air temperature a decrease in drying time during falling rate period is observed. According to the results, it can be stated that Midilli et al model could describe the drying characteristics of basi in the drying process at a temperature range 40-80 C, air relative humidity 2060% and air velocity of 1.5-2.5 2 m/s the effect of air temperature on drying rate and drying time, For higher values of the moisture content, increasing drying temperature resulted in increasing drying rate and, in follows, decreasing drying time. This can be explained by the increasing temperature difference between the drying air and the product and, in follows, accelerating water migration. The
2079
effect of air relative humidity on drying rate and drying time, decreasing the relative humidity, intensies drying rate change by the drying time. In other words, at low relative humidity of air the transfer of heat and mass is high and water loss is excessive. Also the effect of air velocity on drying time, by increasing air velocity, increasing drying rate and, in follows, decreasing drying time were observed. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to acknowledge the University of Tehran for supporting this project financially. The authors are also grateful to Mr. Babak Nowdust for his helps. REFERENCES
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Aghbashlo M, Kianmehr M H, Khani, Ghasemi S M (2009). Mathematical modelling of thin-layer drying of carrot. International Agrophysics, 23: 313-317. Aghbashlo M, Kianmehr M H, Samimi-Akhljahani H (2008). Influence of drying conditions on the effective Effective moisture diffusivity, energy of activation and energy consumption during the thin-layer drying of barberries fruit (Berberidaceae). Energy Conversion and Management, 49: 28652871. Arumuganathan T, Manikantan M R, Rai R D, Anandakumar S, Khare V(2009). Mathematical modeling of drying kinetics of milky mushroom in a fluidized bed dryer. International Agrophysics. 23: 1-7. Guarte R C (1996). Modelling the drying behaviour of copra and development of a natural convection dryer for production of high quality copra in the Philippines. Ph.D. dissertation, 287. Hohenheim University, Stuttgart, Germany Henderson S M (1974). Progress in developing the thin layer drying equation. Transactions of the ASAE, 17: 11671172. Kaleta A, Grnicki K (2010). Some remarks on evaluation of drying models of red beet particles. Energy Conversion and Management, 51: 29672978. Karathanos V T (1999). Determination of water content of dried fruits by drying kinetics. Journal of Food Engineering, 39:337344. Karimi F (2010). Applications of superheated steam for the drying of food products. International Agrophysics, 24: 195-204. Loughrin J H, Kasperbauer M J (2003). aroma content of fresh basil (ocimum basilicum l.) leaves is affected by light reflected from colored mulches. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 51:22722276. Ozcan M, Arslan D, Unver A (2005). Eect of drying methods on the mineral content of basil (Ocimum basilicum L.). Journal of Food Engineering, 69:375379. Meisami-asl E, Rafiee S, Keyhani A, Tabatabaeefar A(2010). Determination of suitable thin layer drying curve model for apple slices (variety-Golab). Plant Omics, 3(3): 103-108 Midilli A, Kucuk H, Yapar Z(2002). A new model for single layer drying. Drying Technology, l20(7): 15031513. Simal S, Femenia A, Garau M C, Rosello C (2005). Use of exponential, Pages and diffusional models to simulate the drying kinetics of kiwi fruit. Journal of Food Engineering, 66:323328. Wang C Y, Singh R P (1978). A single layer drying equation for rough rice. ASAE, paper no. 3001. Yaldiz O, Ertekin C (2001). Thin layer solar drying of some vegetables. Drying Technology, 19:583596. Zhang Q, Litchfleld J B (1991). An optimization of intermittent corn drying in a laboratory scale thin layer dryer. Drying Technology, 9:383395. Zielinska M Markowski M (2010). Air drying characteristics and Effective moisture diffusivity of carrots. Chemical Engineering and Processing, 49:212218.
2080