The Study of Parameters for the Analysis of Pineapple Glace Drying

Abstract

The objectives of this study are to determine experimentally some properties of pineapple glace such as equilibrium moisture content, moisture diffusion coefficient, density and specific heat. These parameters are useful and necessary for drying analysis. The equations describing these parameters were found out by curve fitting using least square technique. The equilibrium moisture content was determined by static method using saturated salt solution. It was found that equilibrium moisture content decreased with the temperature for relative humidity range from 0-35 percent, but increased with the temperature for relative humidity higher than 45 percent. The equation of Iglesias & Chirife, 1978 was found to be accurate to describe the experimental results. The results of the drying of pineapple glace showed that moisture diffusion coefficient increased exponentially with drying temperature and the effect of air velocity was not significant. The temperature range from 55-65^oC was suitable for drying pineapple glace regarding to good quality. For other parameters such as density and specific heat, it was found that the density increased linearly with moisture content in dry basis and specific heat increased linearly with moisture content in wet basis.