Journal of Researches in Mechanics of Agricultural Machinery

Journal of Researches in Mechanics of Agricultural Machinery

Evaluation of Mass and Energy Transfer Indices of Orange Slices During Drying by the Refractance Window

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Behzad Bakhshi 1
Mohammadreza Bayati 2
Abbas Rouhani 2
Elham Azarpajouh 3
1 Department of Biosystem, Agricultural Faculty, Mashhad University
2 Department of Biosystem, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Mashhad
3 Department of Technical and Engineering, Khorasan Razavi Research and Education Center
10.22034/jrmam.2026.14986.761
Abstract
There are several alternatives for drying with superior quality and food preservation, one of which has attracted the attention of researchers is refractivity window drying. The simultaneous exchange of mass and heat in the drying process has made this phenomenon a complex process in terms of mass transfer and moisture removal. In this study, a refractivity window system was used to dry orange slices with three thicknesses of 4, 6 and 8 mm at three temperatures of 60, 75 and 90 degrees Celsius, and the mass and energy transfer parameters including activation energy, convective mass coefficient, specific energy, drying efficiency and specific moisture evaporation rate were calculated using the two models of Denser and Dost and the Crank model. The results showed that the drying rate constant and the effective moisture diffusion coefficient (internal mass transfer coefficient) increased with increasing temperature and sheet thickness. The highest activation energy was obtained by the Denser and Dost method at 13.20 kJ/mol and at 90 degrees Celsius, respectively. The highest convective mass coefficient was calculated to be 7.95×10-7 at 75°C and 6 mm thickness. The lowest and highest specific energy requirements were 2.5 and 17.2 kWh/kg, respectively. Also, the highest drying efficiency and specific moisture evaporation rate (SMER) were 11.8% and 0.167% at 90°C and 8 mm thickness, respectively.
Keywords
Refractance window
Mass transfer coefficient
Effective diffusion coefficient
Activation energy
Subjects
 
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